MLC Daily Current Affairs – 17 Feb 2024

Today in History (February 17^th, 1510)

In 1510, Portuguese admiral Afonso de Albuquerque conquered the city of Goa in India without much resistance.

Summary of Today’s News

The last Day Revision

• Which scheme, recently, has been declared as unconstitutional by the supreme court of India?

1. Election campaigning during election hours
2. Electoral bond scheme
3. Election symbols which instigate hatred in society
4. None of the above

Ans. Electoral Bond Scheme

• The bench of the Supreme Court which declared the electoral bond scheme as unconstitutional, was headed by which judge?

1. Justice Kaul
2. Justice D Y Chandrachud
3. Justice B R Krishnan
4. None of the above

Ans. Justice D Y Chandrachud

• Which Article of the Indian Constitution provides voters’ right to information about political funding?

1. Article 20
2. Article 51
3. Article 19
4. Article 21

Ans. Article 19 (1) (a)

• Recently which country has released 8 former Indian Navy veterans which were in jail on the charges of espionage?

1. Saudi Arabia
2. United Arab Emirates
3. Qatar
4. Bahrain

Ans.  Qatar

• Recently a parliamentary committee has recommended to set up a special body to reform the legal education in India. What is the name of this body?

1. National Council for Legal Education and Research (NCLER)
2. National Bar Council for Legal Education and Research (NBCLER)
3. Council for Legal Reforms in India
4. National Legal Education Commission

Ans. National Council for Legal Education and Research (NCLER)

• Which of the following institutes (in India) figure in the QS rankings of the top 250 law schools worldwide?

1. Jindal Global Law School and National Law School of India University
2. Faculty of Law, Delhi University
3. Amity University
4. None of the above

Ans. Jindal Global Law School and National Law School of India University

Farmers again back on road

In recent incidents, farmers primarily from Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, initiated their ‘Chalo Delhi‘ march following an inconclusive meeting with the Union government.

What are the demands of Farmers?

• The legal guarantee ofMinimum Support Price (MSP)
• The implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations (2006)
  • Swaminathan is called as the father of Green Revolution
• Farm debt waiver.

What is the Minimum Support Price?

• About:
  • MSP is the guaranteed amount paid to farmerswhen the government buys their produce.
  • The aims of MSP are to ensureremunerative prices to farmers/growers for their produce and
• • Encouraging Crop Diversification.
• MSP is based on the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP),
• • MSP is based on various factors such as cost of production, demand and supply, market price trends, inter-crop price parity, etc.
• CACP is an attached office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.It was established in January 1965.

Crops Under MSP:

• The CACP recommends MSPs for22 mandated crops and fair and remunerative price (FRP) for sugarcane.
• The mandated crops include 14 crops of the kharif season, 6 rabi cropsand 2 other commercial crops.

RBI lets Paytm Payments Bank users deposit, pay via wallets till March 15

• RBI has extended earlier stipulated deadline of February 29 to 15 march.
• RBI also directs the Paytm unit to facilitate withdrawals of available balance from all accounts and wallets,
• The accounts which have been frozen by law enforcement agencies will not be allowed to withdraw money.

The reasons for Legal Action of RBI against Paytm payment Bank

1. Non-KYC accounts-Existence of Lakhs of non-KYC (Know Your Customer) compliant accounts.
   2. Use of Single PAN Card- A single PAN was used to open multiple accounts in thousand of cases.
   3. Money Laundering concerns- The total value of transactions in some accounts ran into crores of rupees, which was beyond the regulatory limits in minimum KYC pre-paid instruments.
   4. High number of Dormant Accounts- Out of the 35 crore Paytm wallet Accounts, 31 crore accounts were found to be dormant. These dormant accounts were used as mule accounts and for committing digital frauds.
   5. Data Privacy Concerns- Paytm bank’s dependence on its parent entity one97 communications limited (OCL) for IT infrastructure raised data privacy concerns.
   6. False Compliance Submissions- The compliances submitted by Paytm to the RBI were found to be incomplete and false on many occasions.

Under 19 Cricket World Cup 2024

• It was India vs Australia
• Australia beat India by 79 runsto win their fourth ICC U19 World Cup.
• Uday Saharan, who captained the Indian cricket team in the ICC U19 World Cup 2024.
• It was held in final match at Willowmoore Park, Benoni, South Africa
• The fifteenth edition of the Under-19 World Cup.
• This was Australia’s fourth ICC Under-19 World Cup victory.
• India has the highest winning record (five times) in U-19 World Cup victory