10 PM Current Affairs Quiz #65 January 18, 2020

Explanation: Prime Minister of Pakistan will be invited to participate in the Heads of Government Council meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) that will be hosted in India in 2020
About Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)
•The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation
•It was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
•The Secretariat of SCO is based in Beijing, China.
Members:
•The members of the SCO are China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan were admitted to the SCO as permanent members in 2017.
•The SCO has four observer states, Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia.
•It has six dialogue partners, namely Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka.
Goals:
•strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states;
•promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology, culture, education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection,
•making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region;
•Moving towards the establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order.

Explanation: The Government of India, the Government of Assam and the World Bank signed a loan agreement of $88 million for the implementation of Assam Inland Water Transport Project.
Significance of Assam Inland Water Transport Project
•Will help Assam improve the passenger ferry infrastructure and its services
•Strengthen the capacity of the institutions running the inland water transport

Explanation: National Crime Records Bureau released data on environmental crimes in Annual Crime in India report 2018.
Key takeaways
•Environmental crimes dropped 17% in 2018
•Tamil Nadu topped the list, followed by Rajasthan and Kerala
•almost two-thirds of such violations were that of the cigarette and tobacco-related law
Environmental Crimes:
The offences related to eight acts:
•The Forest Act, 1927: It consolidates the law related to forest, the transit of forest produce, and the duty liable on timber and other forest produce
•The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: It provides for protection of plants and animal species.
•The Environmental (Protection) Act, 1986: It relates to the protection and improvement of the human environment and the prevention of hazards to human beings, other living creatures, plants and property.
•The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981: It provides for the prevention, control and abatement of air pollution.
•The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974: It is a comprehensive legislation that regulates agencies responsible for checking on water pollution
•The Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003: It prohibits advertisement of cigarettes and other tobacco products in India. Smoking in public places (including indoor workplaces) is prohibited
•The National Green Tribunal (NGT) Act, 2010: It established NGT to handle the expeditious disposal of the cases pertaining to environmental issues
•Central and state noise pollution acts

Explanation: Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) has recommended Green Credit Scheme
About Green Credit Scheme: It will allow private agencies to create tree plantations on private / non-forest land, to be used as Compensatory Afforestation for projects involving forest diversion.
Significance:
•It will encourage plantation by individuals outside the traditional forest area
•It will help in contributing towards meeting the international commitments of the country such as Sustainable Development Goals and Nationally Determined Contributions
Forest Advisory Committee (FAC): The FAC is a body under the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and is responsible for regulating forest diversion.

Explanation: Recently,former Economic Affairs secretary has claimed that the actual fiscal deficit for the last financial year and the current one is more than a full percentage point higher than the official data.
What is Fiscal Deficit?
•Fiscal Deficit is the difference between the Revenue Receipts plus Non-debt Capital Receipts (NDCR) and the total expenditure.
•In other words, fiscal deficit is reflective of the total borrowing requirements of Government.
Significance of fiscal deficit:
•The significance of fiscal deficit is that if the deficit is too high,it implies that there is a lesser amount of money left in the market for private entrepreneurs and businesses to borrow.
•The lesser amount of this money will in turn leads to higher rates of interest charged on such lending.Hence,a higher fiscal deficit means higher borrowing by the government which in turn mean higher interest rates in the economy.
•Currently,the high fiscal deficit and higher interest rates in India means that the efforts of the Reserve Bank of India to reduce interest rates are undone.
Acceptable level of fiscal deficit:
•There is no set universal level of fiscal deficit that is considered good.In a developing economy,where private enterprises may be weak and governments may be in a better state to invest, fiscal deficit could be higher than in a developed economy.
•In India,the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management(FRBM) Act requires the central government to reduce its fiscal deficit to 3 percent of GDP.
•In Union Budget 2019,India has set a fiscal deficit target of 3.3% of the Gross domestic product(GDP) for 2019-20.