CURRENT AFFAIRS OCTOBER 15TH TO 22ND 1. Economics Nobel for Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, popularly called the Nobel Prize in Economics, to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”. The research conducted by this year’s laureates has considerably improved our ability to fight global poverty. In just two decades, their new experiment-based Development economics is a branch of approach has transformed development economics that focuses on improving economics, which is now a flourishing fiscal, economic, and social conditions in field of research. developing countries. Development They sought to introduce a new economics considers factors such as health, approach to obtaining reliable answers education, working conditions, domestic about the most effective ways to and international policies, and market combat global poverty. Rather than condition with a focus on improving focusing on big-picture questions, they conditions in the world's poorest countries. divided the issue into smaller, more manageable and measurable questions. They then showed that these smaller questions could be best answered through carefully designed experiments among the people who are most affected. This thought process has resulted in what are called Randomized Control Trials, previously used in the pure sciences and in clinical drug trials, to be deployed in the social sciences. Large number of concrete results on specific mechanisms is outcome of these trials. Nobel Prize in Economics – The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (Nobel Prize in Economics), is an award for outstanding contributions to the field of economics, and generally regarded as the most prestigious award for that field. The award's official name is The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. As it is not one of the prizes that Alfred Nobel established in his will in 1895, it is not technically a Nobel Prize. However, it is administered and referred to along with the Nobel Prizes by the Nobel Foundation Amartya Sen, an Indian economist was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members. DEVELOPING SUCCESS INSTITUTE 9643350984, 011-47021344 Page 1 CURRENT AFFAIRS OCTOBER 15TH TO 22ND . On schooling, strong evidence now shows that the employment of contract teachers is generally a cost-effective way to improve student learning, while the impact of reduced class size is mixed, at best. On health, poor people’s investment in preventive care has been shown to be very sensitive to the prices of health products or services, giving a strong argument for generous subsidies to such investments. On credit, growing evidence indicates that micro-finance programmes do not have the development effects that many had thought when these programmes were introduced on a large scale. 2. FASTags will work as Aadhaar to track vehicles Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday called FASTags — a device to make automatic payments at toll booths — the equivalent of Aadhaar for vehicles, which will allow the government to track their movement across the country. The government has already announced that FASTags will be mandatory for all vehicles at all National Highways from December 1. What is ‘FASTag’? A FASTag uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to make cashless payments through a prepaid account linked to it. The tag is fixed to the windscreen of a vehicle and an RFID antenna in the canopy of the toll gate scans the QR code and the tag identification number, following which the boom barrier lifts to allow a vehicle to pass through it without the need for a vehicle to stop. A FASTag is valid for five years and needs to be recharged only as per requirement. The payment method is a part of the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) programme. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) collects the payments. FASTags are likely to reduce the nation’s GDP loss by bringing down loss of fuel while waiting at toll plazas. How FASTag will help track vehicles? A FASTag is linked to a bank account. When a vehicle passes through a toll, an SMS with date, time and place of transaction will be sent to the owner of the vehicle. The master data of all transactions will be with the concessionaire of the toll booth concerned, along with the bank with which the owner has registered the FASTag and the National Payments Corporation of India. ‘One Nation One FASTag’ scheme At the One Nation One FASTag conference, Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) were signed between state departments and other agencies for bringing in a unified electronic tolling solution across the country. DEVELOPING SUCCESS INSTITUTE 9643350984, 011-47021344 Page 2 CURRENT AFFAIRS OCTOBER 15TH TO 22ND The existing FASTags under various jurisdictions of states and agencies would be enabled under this scheme, thus integrating the collection of toll digitally so that seamless services can be provided to consumers all over India. The 'One Nation One FASTag' scheme will be implemented from December 1 and can be availed upon activation by new cars having Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags on national and state highways throughout the country. 3. High quality fake notes back: NIA The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has said “high quality” fake currency notes have “resurfaced”, with Pakistan being the “main source”. The circulation of high quality FICN (Fake Indian National Investigation Agency Currency Notes) was one of the six major emerging The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is a challenges cited by the central agency established by the Indian NIA. The others listed by Government to combat terror in India. the agency are increase in It acts as the Central Counter Terrorism Law Khalistani activities, Enforcement Agency. collection of evidence The agency is empowered to deal with terror from cyber space and related crimes across states without special capacity enhancement of permission from the states. cyber forensic labs. The Agency came into existence with the The NIA is the nodal enactment of the National Investigation Agency agency for FICN related Act 2008 by the Parliament of India. cases and has so far investigated 48 such cases, Headquartered in New Delhi, the NIA has branches of which 13 ended in in Hyderabad, Guwahati, Kochi, Lucknow, Mumbai, conviction. Kolkata, Raipur and Jammu. It maintains NIA Most High quality notes were Wanted list. being pushed through the NIA has concurrent jurisdiction which empowers “western border and the Central Agency to probe terror attacks in any Nepal.”Bangladesh had part of the country, covering offences, including emerged as the source of challenge to the country's sovereignty and low quality FICNs. integrity, bomb blasts, hijacking of aircraft and Counterfeiting of the ships, attacks on nuclear installations. The newly-designed ₹500 amendments to the NIA Act has brought the notes shot up by 121 per offences relating to the smuggling in High-Quality cent and of the ₹2,000 Counterfeit Indian Currency under the definition of notes by 21.9 per cent in a terrorist Act aimed at damaging the monetary 2018-19 in comparison to stability of the country and therefore can be the previous year, the RBI investigated by the NIA. said DEVELOPING SUCCESS INSTITUTE 9643350984, 011-47021344 Page 3 CURRENT AFFAIRS OCTOBER 15TH TO 22ND Fake Indian currency notes worth Rs 28.1 crore were seized in 2017, almost doubling from the previous year’s mark of Rs 15.9 crore, according to the Crime in India-2017 report put together by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). A state/union territory-wise analysis showed that Gujarat topped the list with fake currency worth over Rs 9 crore seized. This was followed by Delhi (Rs 6.7 crore), Uttar Pradesh (Rs 2.8 crore) and West Bengal (Rs 1.9 crore). 4. SC gives Centre, States a month to respond to writ petition seeking RTI portals The Supreme Court on Monday gave the Centre and 25 States a month’s time to respond to a writ petition seeking a direction to establish Right to Information (RTI) web portals across all States to enable citizens, especially those living abroad, to file RTI applications online. The Central government established an online RTI portal whereby any Indian citizen, including Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), can apply for information under the RTI Act with the desired Ministry or Department under the Central government. An applicant can also pay the requisite fee through online payment in this portal and submit the RTI application. The Centre had also requested the various State governments to explore the feasibility of implementing online RTI portals. It had even offered to provide technical support for this purpose through the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to the States. However, only the States of Maharashtra and Delhi have established their respective online portals for obtaining information from the departments of their respective governments According to the petitioner, “the provision of an online web portal will help the Indian citizens, including the Non-Resident Indians by speedy dissemination of information requested, which in turn would only help in achieving the aim of the RTI laws of bringing