Today Current Affairs: 31st August 2022 for UPSC IAS exams, State PSC exams, SSC CGL, State SSC, RRB, Railways, Banking Exam & IBPS, etc
Table of Contents
Scheme For Economic Empowerment Of Denotified, Nomadic, Semi-nomadic (SEED) Tribes:
The Union Social Justice Ministry received 402 applications online from across the country for benefits under the Scheme for Economic Empowerment of Denotified, Nomadic, Semi-nomadic (SEED) Tribes.
- More than 10 crore Indians from 1,400 communities belong to these groups, show the latest estimates available with the government.
- The scheme aims to provide free competitive exam coaching to students, health insurance and financial assistance for housing and uplift clusters of these communities through livelihood initiatives.
- The Ministry has been allocated ₹200 crore for this scheme to be spent over five financial years from 2021-22 to 2025-26.
- At the time of the launch, the Ministry announced that the scheme would be implemented through an online portal that would issue a unique ID to each applicant to apply and track the status of the application online.
UN High Seas treaty:
Negotiations involving 168 countries, including the European Union, to agree on a UN treaty for protecting oceans failed on August 27.
- Also referred to as the ‘Paris Agreement for the Ocean’, the treaty to deal with Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction has been under discussion for several years.
- The proposed treaty concerns the ocean existing beyond the Exclusive Economic Zones that lie from the coast of a country to about 200 nautical miles or 370 km into the sea, till where it has special rights for exploration. Waters beyond that are known as open seas or high seas.
- The treaty was to be negotiated under the United Nations Convention on Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982 which governs the rights of countries regarding marine resources.
- As there is no treaty for conserving the health of vast swathes of the earth’s oceans, a UN resolution in 2017 had decided to rectify this while setting 2022 as the deadline.
Accidental Deaths & Suicides In India Report 2021:
Violent crimes such as rape, kidnapping, atrocities against children, and robberies registered across India increased in 2021, after the pandemic-related restrictions led to a decline in these severe offences in 2020.
- Murders, which did not come down even in 2020, continued to increase in 2021 too, according to data from National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)’s 2021 report.
- The number of registered rape cases increased from 28,046 in 2020 to 31,677 in 2021, closer to the 2019 figure of 32,032.
- Cases related to kidnapping and abduction fell to 84,805 in 2020 from 1,05,036 cases in 2019, but again rose to 1,01,707 in 2021.
- On the other hand, murder cases continued their consistent increase with 29,272 cases in 2021, up from 29,193 in 2020 and 28,915 in 2019.
- However, the number of overall registered cognisable crimes decreased from 66 lakh in 2020 to 60.9 lakh in 2021, a 7.6% fall.
- The crime rate (crimes per 1 lakh people) also decreased from 487.8 in 2020 to 445.9 in 2021.
- The decline in overall crimes in 2021 can be attributed to a sharp decrease in cases registered under ‘disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant (Section 188 of the IPC).
Registry To Check Bank Fraud:
The Reserve Bank is considering setting up a fraud registry to create a database of fraudulent websites, phones and various modus operandi used for digital fraud.
- Such a database would help prevent fraudsters from repeating the offence as the websites or phone numbers would be blacklisted, RBI executive director Anil Kumar Sharma said on Monday.
- There is no definite timeline for setting up of the fraud registry.
- Payment system participants would be provided access to this registry for near-real time fraud monitoring.
- The aggregated fraud data would be published to educate customers on emerging risks.
- Sharma also said that the customers of the Credit Investment Company (CIC) would come under the Reserve Bank — Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS), 2021.
Falkland Islands:
India extended support to Argentina’s campaign to restart international negotiation on the Falklands Territorial Issue.
- Falkland Islands, also called Malvinas Islands or Spanish Islas Malvinas, internally self-governing overseas territory of the United Kingdom in the South Atlantic Ocean.
- It lies about 300 miles northeast of the southern tip of South America and a similar distance east of the Strait of Magellan.
- The capital and major town is Stanley, on East Falkland, there are also several scattered small settlements as well as a Royal Air Force base that is located at Mount Pleasant.
- The two main islands, East Falkland and West Falkland, and about 200 smaller islands.
- The government of the Falkland Islands also administers the British overseas territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, including the Shag and Clerke rocks.
- Argentina based its claim to the Falklands based on an official document of 1493 modified by the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), by which Spain and Portugal had divided the New World between themselves, on succession from Spain, on the islands’ proximity to South America, and on the need to end a colonial situation.
- Britain based its claim on its “open, continuous, effective possession, occupation, and administration” of the islands since 1833 and its determination to apply to the Falklanders the principle of self-determination as recognized in the United Nations Charter.
- Britain asserted that, far from ending a colonial situation, Argentine rule and control of the lives of the Falklanders against their wishes would in fact create one.
Atal Bridge:
This bridge is built on the banks of the Sabarmati Riverfront, Sabarmati River which flows through the city of Ahmedabad.
- This bridge is about 300 meters long and 14 meters wide.
- Sabarmati River is a monsoon-fed river originating in Aravalli hills (Udaipur) and draining in the Gulf of Cambay in the Arabian Sea.
- Major Tributaries: Sei, Harnav, Wakal, Hathmati and Watrak
