Goaltide Daily Current Affairs 2020
Current Affair 1:
Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance Rules' Notified
Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Rules, 2020, have been notified.
These Rules have been framed invoking powers conferred by Section 53(1) and 53(2) (aa) Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services Act, 2016 which empowers the Central Government to frame Rules regarding the purpose for which a requesting entity may be allowed by the Authority to perform authentication under Section 4(b)(ii).
Section (4) provides that an entity may be allowed to perform authentication, if the Authority is satisfied that the requesting entity is—
- compliant with such standards of privacy and security as may be specified by regulations.
- (i) permitted to offer authentication services under the provisions of any other law made by Parliament; or (ii) seeking authentication for such purpose, as the Central Government in consultation with the Authority, and in the interest of State, may prescribe.
Authentication is a process by which the Aadhaar number along with demographic information or biometric information of an individual is submitted to the Central Identities Data Repository for its verification and such Repository verifies the correctness, or the lack thereof, on the basis of information available with it.
Requesting entity" means an agency or person that submits the Aadhaar number, and demographic information or biometric information, of an individual to the Central Identities Data Repository for authentication.
As per these Rules notified now, the Central Government may allow Aadhaar authentication by requesting entities in the interest of good governance, preventing leakage of public funds, promoting ease of living of residents and enabling better access to services for them, for the following purposes:
- usage of digital platforms to ensure good governance.
- prevention of dissipation of social welfare benefits; and
- enablement of innovation and the spread of knowledge.
The Rules further provides that a Ministry or the Department of the Government of India or the State Government, as the case may be, desirous of utilizing Aadhaar authentication for a purpose specified (all three points above) shall prepare a proposal with justification in regard to such purpose for which Aadhaar authentication is sought and submit the same to the Central Government for making a reference to the Authority.
Link: https://www.livelaw.in/pdf_upload/pdf_upload-379514.pdf
Current Affair 2:
GST collection of different states during and post lockdown.
This article will give you an idea about GST collections of different states during and post lockdown. Nothing to memorize, just a rough idea.
As per the release of data (PIB) dated 01 August 2020, the gross GST revenue collected for July 2020 was ? 87.4 thousand crores. This is 86% of the GST revenue collected during the same month last year. As we all know, Unlock 2.0, was effective from 01 July 2020. Unlock 2.0 opened up more economic and business activities. However, the gross GST collection for July’2020 was less than that of June’2020, where in it was Rs 90.9 thousand crores.
Here, we will do a detailed comparison of GST revenues collected during and in the aftermath of Lockdown, with the same period last year, along with analyzing how different States fared in terms of GST revenue collection during this period, compared to the last year.
Gross GST Collection during 1st Quarter FY 2020-21 is 58% of the collection in 2019-20
Lack of Economic activity during the ensuing months had a severe impact of the GST collection. Overall, during the first quarter of FY 2020-21, the gross GST collected was ? 1.83 lakh crores. This is nearly 41% less than the collection of Q1 of 2019-20, during which the Gross GST collection was ? 3.11 lakh crores.
Gross GST Collection of 27 States/UTs fell by more than a quarter during March-June 2020, compared to 2019
While the numbers at the national levels indicate a major fall in GST collection during the first quarter of 2019-20, it is not even across the states, with few states performing better while others recording a major dent in their GST collection compared to that of last year.
We take a look at the Gross GST collection for each of the States for the four-month period March-June’2020.
No major fall in GST collection of few of the smaller States /UTs
Gross GST collection of Lakshadweep and Tripura for period March-June’2020 was higher than the collection during same period in 2019. Sikkim has comparatively higher GST collection among the smaller states and it managed an on-par GST Collection between March-June’2020 compared to the same period in 2019. Most of the North-Eastern states performed well.
Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Karnataka and Odisha are among such states that have managed to keep the fall in GST collections during March-June 2020 to less than 30% of the collection during 2019. A common feature of these states is the comparatively a smaller number of COVID-19 cases during March-June’2020 period
Karnataka, which is among the largest GST collecting states also experienced a major shortfall in April’2020 with just over ? 2 thousand crores collected compared to more than ? 8 thousand crores in April’2019.
Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Odisha are among the states which have managed to cover up for the shortfall of GST collection during April’2020 with an increased collection in June’2020.
Maharashtra has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with its key cities among the larger COVID-19 positive clusters. Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan & Delhi are among the early states to have recorded a higher number of COVID-19 cases. This is also reflected in their GST collection during March-June 2020. Gujarat, UP & West Bengal also display a similar trend with GST collections improving in June’2020 but not enough to coverup for the shortfall of previous months.
GST collection of Jharkhand was severely affected during lockdown, with the GST collection for April’2020 being less than 9% of the collection during the same month last year. Although there is an increase in the GST collection in May & June’2020, it is still lower than that of same months in 2019.
Uttarakhand also presents a similar case, with shortfall of GST collection even in May & June’2020. Being a tourism reliant state could be one of the reasons for this shortfall even post lockdown. Himachal Pradesh and J&K are among the lower GST collecting states with the impact of April’20 continuing even in subsequent months.
Increasing number of COVID-19 cases could severely impact future GST collections in many States
Data from multiple states indicates a strong correlation between the lockdown and GST collection, with nearly all the states recording a slump in the GST collection during April’2020.
GST collection in May 2020 has seen a slight improvement compared to April, though the collections were way below the 2019 levels. Post the easing of lockdown regulations and the extension of timeline to pay the arrears, an increase in GST collection is seen in most of the states in June 2020. Some of the states have been more proactive in lifting the lockdown measures while few others like Maharashtra continue to have a large number of containment zones affecting the regular economic activity.
Though the national level GST numbers for June 2020 indicated some semblance of recovery, the collection for July 2020 fell by close to 15% compared to 2019. This fall coincided with the huge increase in COVID-19 cases in July 2020. Currently, more than 50 thousand new cases are being reported daily.
All this means a tough choice for the Centre as well as the States between containment of COVID-19 infection and resumption of normal economic activity. Strategies at micro-level appear to be a better way forward which identify and differentiate risk-free zones for business activity and infection-prone areas for containment.
Current Affair 3:
New Guinea has the most plant species of any island
New Guinea is the planet’s most floristically diverse island, reports a comprehensive assessment of vascular plant species published in the journal Nature.
The species list, which was compiled by 99 botanists from 56 institutions across 19 countries, verified the identity of over 23,000 plant names from over 704,000 specimens collected from New Guinea since the 1750s.
The research concludes New Guinea has 13,634 species of plants from 1742 genera and 264 families. That gives New Guinea, the world’s second largest island, the highest plant diversity of any island on Earth, surpassing Madagascar (11,832 species), Borneo (11,165 species), and Sumatra (8,391 species). New Guinea’s diversity of plants is greater than that of the entire archipelago of the Philippines (9,432 species).
Current Affair 4:
Discovery could lead to new malaria treatments
A study led by researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) could lead to new treatments for combating drug-resistant malaria, as well as boost existing drugs. Malaria is caused by?Plasmodium?parasites, which are spread to people through the bites of infected mosquitoes. Just read what scientists have to say:
Current Affair 5:
New Species Found/discovered.
The Large-antlered muntjac
12 species of muntjac, the so-called barking deer because of its unique auditory calls, are found only in Asia. The Large-antlered muntjac is Critically Endangered with members of its scant, rarely seen population inhabiting areas bordering the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Vietnam and Cambodia.
New land snail species discovered in Hawaii offers ‘gem of hope’
Scientists recently announced a new species of land snail, Auriculella gagneorum, which was found living in the Waianae Mountains in Hawaii. Hawaii once had 752 species of land snails, but more than half of them are believed to have gone extinct due to habitat loss and invasive species
Current Affair 6:
Nagara Architecture of Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir:
News: The grand temple at Rama Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya will follow the Nagara style of temple architecture.
What is Nagara style of temple architecture? The basic form of a Hindu temple contains the following architectural elements:
- Garbhagriha - the small room where the principle deity/deities of the temple reside
- Mandapa - the portico or hall at the entrance of the temple generally designed to house a large number of people
- Shikhara - the mountain like spire which can have different shapes from pyramidal to curvilinear
- Vahana - the mount of the main deity placed generally in line of sight from Garbhagriha
Now, we want you to read the Temple Architecture of NCERT. Please read. It has lot of examples of Temples of different region of various styles. Important for Prelims. Click here to read. It is bit long, so select your time.
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