Daily Current Capsules - 6^th JUNE 2019

Education Policies
Mandatory Hindi goes out of draft education policy
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the proposed national education policy and its controversial sections + power of state in this ) + Mains ( GS II centre state relation + issues relating to development and management of social sector like education)
What's the NEWS

• The clause recommending mandatory teaching of Hindi in all schools was dropped from the draft National Education Policy after the Union government faced an intense backlash from Tamil Nadu and protests from other States.

Know! what was there in the original draft

• Since the original draft was released, all Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu have severely criticised the recommendations.
• The controversial sentence appeared in Section 4.5.9, titled ‘Flexibility in the choice of languages'.
• It said: "...students who wish to change one of the three languages they are studying may do so in Grade 6, so long as the study of three languages by students in the Hindi-speaking States would continue to include Hindi and English and one of the modern Indian languages from other parts of India, while the study of languages by students in the non-Hindi-speaking States would include the regional language, Hindi and English."
• It has now been replaced by the following: " ...students who wish to change one or more of the three languages they are studying may do so in Grade 6 or Grade 7, so long as they are able to still demonstrate proficiency in three languages (one language at the literature level) in their modular Board Examinations some time during secondary school."
  

Economic Developments
Nilekani panel suggests 24x7 RTGS, NEFT, elimination of all charges
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the recommendations of Nilekani panel ) + Mains ( GS III economic developments)
What's the NEWS

• To encourage digital payments, the Nandan Nilekani committee has suggested a host of measures, including elimination of charges, round-the-clock RTGS and NEFT facility, and duty-free import of point-of-sales machines.
• The committee, which was appointed by the RBI, had submitted its suggestions on promoting digital payments to Governor Shaktikanta Das last month.
• The panel has suggested that there should be no convenience fee on payments made to government agencies by customers.
• Nilekani panel suggested that RTGS and NEFT facility should be available 24x7. Also, it recommends duty free import of point of sales machines. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was appointed this committee last month and it had submitted its recommendations to Governor Shaktikanta Das.

Know! the major recommendations

• The panel has suggested that there should be no convenience fee on payments made to government agencies by customers.
• It has also recommended that payment systems should use machine-driven, online dispute resolution systems to handle complaints.
• Panel felt customers must be allowed to initiate and accept a reasonable number of digital payment transactions with no charges.
• RBI and the government should put in place an appropriate mechanism to monitor the digital payment systems and make aggregated information based on blocks, and PIN code, available to all players on a monthly basis, so that they can make the necessary adjustments," said the report released by the RBI.

Recommendations for Industry

• The committee has noted the number of suggestions received from the industry related to the KYC and customer on boarding process.
• To ease the difficulties faced by the industry the committee recommends a multi-pronged strategy to meet legal and regulatory requirements.
• This includes encouraging innovation in the process, creating industry wide mechanisms to share data with customer consent, and using a KYC compliant account to open another.

Know! about RTGS and NEFT

• RTGS (real time gross settlement) and NEFT (national electronic funds transfer) are electronic payment methods that allow individuals to transfer funds between banks. Both these systems are maintained by the Reserve Bank of India. It is applicable only for money transfer within the country.
• In RTGS, funds transfer takes place on a real time basis. For example at the time the request is received, payment transfer takes place.
• RTGS is one of the fastest interbank money transfer facility available through banking channels in India.
• NEFT operates on a deferred settlement basis. Fund transfer under NEFT is settled in batches as opposed to the real-time settlement process in RTGS. The batches are settled in hourly time slots.

Economic Developments
Central govt forms two cabinet committees to bolster employment, economic growth
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the role of this newly constituted committee and about PLFS report highlights)
What's the NEWS

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered the formation of two new Cabinet committees that will focus on employment and economic growth, respectively, The committees are constituted under PM Modi's chairmanship.

Know! more about the newly constituted committees

• The Cabinet Committee on Employment and Skill Development constitutes of 10 members including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Ramesh Pokhriyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Santosh Kumar Gangwar, and Hardeep Singh Puri.
• The latest development comes close on the heels of a report by the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) that showed India's unemployment rate at a 45-year high of 6.1 per cent in 2017-18.
• The report was released on the day Modi took charge as the Prime Minister for the second consecutive term.
• Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth comprises of five members including Amit Shah, Nirmala Sitharaman, Nitin Gadkari, and Piyush Goyal.
• Economy has become a major issue for the government with the GDP rate dropping to 5.8 per cent in the last quarter of 2018-19, as per an NSSO report.
• The GDP growth was slowest since 2014-15 as the previous low was 6.4 per cent in 2013-14.
• As per the PLFS, which covered 4.3 lakh people across 1.02 lakh households, the unemployment rate among urban workforce was 7.8 per cent, while the unemployment rate for the rural workforce was 5.3 per cent.
• The unemployment rate of males on all-India basis was 6.2 per cent, while it was 5.7 per cent in case of females.

Defence
BrahMos supersonic cruise missile with 450-km range to soon join Indian armed forces
Relevance IN - Prelims ( all about BrahMos missile and its upgradation)
Focus Point
The 450-km range BrahMos is equipped with an upgraded guidance system and a Russian-designed seeker which give the missile greater accuracy, making it more lethal.

What's the NEWS

• Indian armed forces will have the extended range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile in their arsenal in the near future.
• The newer version of BrahMos, which was test-fired on Tuesday (June 4), is capable of hitting targets 450 kilometres away and also has a higher flight speed than the 290-km range missile.

Know! more about the upgraded range of BrahMos

• The 450-km range BrahMos is equipped with an upgraded guidance system and a Russian-designed seeker which give the missile greater accuracy, making it more lethal.
• Although the 450-km range BrahMos will carry the same amount of fuel as the 290-km version, it will be able to travel a much greater distance due to better fuel efficiency which has been achieved by the new computer-controlled injector system that has been programmed to regulate the fuel's flow into the engine's combustor.
• The newer version of Brahmos will be able to fly at more than 4.5 Mach. The BrahMos missiles in service with the armed forces have a top speed of Mach 2.8.
• Work is already on to extend the range of Brahmos to 500 km and then to increase it to 800 km.
• According to officials involved in extending the range of the world's fasted cruise missile, the version capable to hitting targets 800 kms away would carry extra fuel as a result of which the missile's weight will have to be reduced by using composite materials.

Know! about BrahMos

• BrahMos is a "Fire and Forget" missile and can navigate on its own towards a pre-determined and programmed target.
• The missile is capable of flying as high as 15 km and as low as 10 metres.
• The missile has identical configuration for land, sea and sub-sea platforms and uses a Transport Launch Canister (TLC) for transportation, storage and launch.

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