Read Daily Current Affairs of 25th February 2020 for UPSC Civil Services (IAS) Prelims and Mains Exam 2020.
Read Current Affairs Notes of 25th February 2020 for UPSC Civil Services Prelims and Mains Examination 2020. Highlighting all National and International contemporary issues important from the exam point of view.
GS-2, GS-3, Prelims
Topic: Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc/ Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Collectors asked to increase fund use for children with special
- District Collectors in Odisha have been asked to spend the outstanding amount of funds allotted for development of Children With Special Needs (CWSNs)→ 70% of the fund allotted is lying unspent.
- Under an inclusive education intervention known as Samagra Sikshya scheme, Rs. 36.61 crore was allotted to all districts, out of which only Rs. 11.40 crore had been spent yet.
- State Project Director of Odisha School Education Programme Authority said that the physical and financial progress made under the scheme is not encouraging.
- He added that some activities like those mentioned below have not been taken up in most districts:
- Escort and transport allowance
- Stipend for girl CWSN
- Assessment camps, assistive device, equipment
- Corrective surgeries
- Learning assessment study
- The District Collectors have been asked to improve expenditure in the scheme so that 100% expenditure could be achieved for 2019-20.
GS-3, Prelims
Topic: Current events of national and international importance.
Shun negativism, don’t encourage violence
- Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, while addressing a gathering at the 32nd annual convocation ceremony of Goa University said, he was happy that in recent times people are talking about the importance of Constitution.
- He added that it is a positive sign and every citizen must follow the Constitution in letter and spirit.
- But he urged the youth to shun negativism and not to encourage violence. The youth should “academically study” all issues before forming their opinion.
- According to him, everyone should follow constitutional methods to achieve their goals and citizens should not only be concerned about the fundamental rights but also about duties. Rights and responsibilities must go together.
- In his address, he also said that we need to be constructive and not obstructive or disruptive.
- He called climate change and global warming as two of the biggest challenges faced by the world and that all nations have to step up their efforts to protect the environment and reduce carbon footprint.
- Another thing which he said was that we should always elect our leaders on the basis of “four Cs” of good:
- Conduct
- Character
- Capacity
- Calibre
- And avoid electing leader on the basis of other four Cs of:
- Caste
- Community
- Cash
- Criminality
GS-2, Prelims
Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Income scheme to cover fewer farmers
- Centre has revised the farmer income support scheme, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, by reducing beneficiary target from 14 crore to 12 crores.
- The scheme was launched last year.
- Empirical evidence shows that around 8.5 crore farmers have been benefitted and saturation level will reach around 10 crore families.
- Bihar and West Bengal has been tagged as the major culprits for the lag→ West Bengal government refused to join the scheme and Bihar government’s approach of waiting for applications means more than 60% of potential beneficiaries are yet to register.
- The scheme gives an annual sum of Rs. 6,000 to land-owning farmer families.
- The Centre’s beneficiary estimate of 14 crore was initially based on the number of landholdings recorded in the agricultural land census.
- The revised estimate of 11.97 crore is based on the 9.84 crore who have registered themselves on the portal so far plus an estimated 2.13 crore beneficiaries left out (mostly form West Bengal and Bihar).
GS-2, Prelims
Topic: Parliament and State legislatures—structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.
‘M.P., Rajasthan letting loose cattle in U.P.’
- Ministers in U.P. claimed that there is a stray cattle problem in Uttar Pradesh because people from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are letting loose their cows and buffaloes in the State.
- The question on whether stray cattle were damaging crops was raised during the question hour of Uttar Pradesh Assembly to which the Animal Husbandry Minister replied that such data is not compiled by his department→opposition termed it as an “irresponsible reply” as several farmers are killing themselves as their crops are being damaged by stray cattle.
- One Minister suggested that the government should construct “Gauashray Sthal”.
GS-3, Prelims
Topic: Current events of national and international importance/ Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.
Energy to dominate India-U.S. relations, say experts
- Energy deals are expected to be a key part of discussions between Indian Prime Minister and U.S. President, with talks on India’s increasing import of American oil and gas.
- A clean energy deal will take place including MoU on building pipeline infrastructure for Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) between American oil company ExxonMobil, gas transportation technology company Chart Industries and PSU Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL).
- Increasing import of American oil and gas is due to the fact that India had to slash imports from Iran and Venezuela under threat from the U.S.