TNPSC Current Affairs January 11, 2020

www.tnpsc.academy – TNPSC Current Affairs January 11, 2020 (11/01/2020)

 

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Topic: Reports and Events, Latest Diary of Events

Top Risks 2020

Eurasia Group has released its report titled “Top Risks 2020”. The Eurasia Group is one of US’ most influential risk assessment companies.

Observations made on India:

India is one of the world’s top geopolitical risks for 2020. It is the 5th highest geopolitical risk.

PM Narendra Modi has spent much of his second term promoting controversial social policies at the expense of an economic agenda.

The impacts will be felt in 2020, with intensified communal and sectarian instability, as well as foreign policy and economic setbacks.

Modi has less room to manoeuvre on structural reforms, just as the economy is starting to sputter, with quarterly growth falling to a six-year low of 4.5% and forward-looking indicators looking softer still.

A weakened economy will in turn feed further economic nationalism and protectionism, weighing on India’s troubled course in 2020.

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Topic: General Administration, Latest Diary of Events

State Energy Efficiency Index 2019

State Energy Efficiency Index 2019 has been released. The first such Index, the “State Energy Efficiency Preparedness Index 2018”, was launched on August 1, 2018.

About the index:

It tracks the progress of Energy Efficiency (EE) initiatives in 36 states and union territories based on 97 significant indicators.

For a rational comparison, the States or Union Territories are grouped into four groups based on the aggregated Total Primary Energy Supply (TPES) required to meet the state’s actual energy demand (electricity, coal, oil, gas, among others) across sectors.

The Index categorises states as ‘Front Runner’, ‘Achiever’, ‘Contender’ and ‘Aspirant’ based on their efforts and achievements towards energy efficiency implementation.

There isn’t any ‘front runner’ state this year.

The index has developed by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in association with the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE).

Performance of various states:

Karnataka, HP, Haryana and Puducherry were the best performers.

Manipur, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir were the least performers.

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Topic: International Events

Chinese paddlefish

It is one of the largest freshwater fish has been declared extinct. Chinese researchers made this conclusion based on the Red List criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Extinct in the wild means a species survives only in a captive environment.

Locally extinct means a species has ceased to exist in a particular area but may exist in other areas.

Functionally extinct means the species continues to exist but it has too few members to enable to reproduce meaningfully enough to ensure survival.

Globally extinct means a species has no surviving member anywhere. Such a conclusion is reached when there is no reasonable doubt left that its last member has died.

Key facts:

The Chinese paddlefish (Psephurus gladius) was an iconic species, measuring up to 7 m in length, dating back from 200 million years ago. Its ancestral home was the Yangtze River.

It was once common in the Yangtze, before overfishing and habitat fragmentation — including dam building — caused its population to dwindle from the 1970s onwards.

Between 1981 and 2003, there were just around 210 sightings of the fish.

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Topic: India and its Neighbouring Countries, India’s Foreign Policies

India’s borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh

India is planning to erect non-cut steel fence in the sensitive areas of Pakistan and Bangladesh borders. India shares 4,096.7 km border with Bangladesh and 3,323 km with Pakistan.

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Topic: Latest Diary of Events

Corona Virus: A new stain of virus found in China

China reported the first death in the country due to pneumonia caused by a new virus that is of outbreak in the city of Wuhan. The Chinese scientists discovered that the new strain of virus is that of the corona virus.

According to the WHO, the outbreak in Wuhan in less virulent. However, China is responding swiftly to control the outbreak.