Daily Current Affairs including static notes - 9 JUNE

The Hindu -

Modi likely to take the spirit of Wuhan to Qingdao {International Relations}

Why in news?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today departed for China’s Qingdao to attend the two-day long 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Agenda of SCO summit
The SCO has a rich agenda for cooperation, ranging from fighting terrorism, separatism and extremism to promoting cooperation in connectivity, commerce, customs, law, health and agriculture; protecting the environment and mitigating disaster risk, and fostering people-to-people relations.
Highlights
This will be India’s first participation in the summit as a full-time member of the organisation. India, along with Pakistan, became the full-time member during Astana summit in June 2017.
Prime Minister Modi is also scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping apart from holding meetings with various other participating leaders.
SCO
The SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation that focuses on strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states and promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology and culture, and making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region.

The SCO has two sub-divisions including Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) and SCO Secretariat.
The SCO’s main goals are as follows

Strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states; promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology and culture, as well as in education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection, and other areas; making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region; and moving towards the establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order.

U.S. wants India out of S-400 deal {International Relation}

In news
India is planning to buy five S-400 Triumf air defence systems for around $4.5 billion from Russia.
US stand on this deal
The United States is trying to discourage India from buying large defence systems from Russia, an action that may attract sanctions, according to a senior official of the State Department.
US President Donald Trump in August 2017 signed into law the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanction Act or CAATSA that imposes sanctions on a country or utility for any significant purchase of military equipment from Russia.
Background
CAATSA cannot impact the India-Russia defense cooperation.”
The United States passed the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) against Russia in August 2017 for reportedly influencing and manipulating the 2016 presidential election process. Core provisions of the CAATSA, including sanctions on Russian business entities and senior Russian political and business figures, came into effect in January 2018.
CAATSA
Provisions of the CAATSA threatens India and several other close friends and allies with sanctions.
The Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, CAATSA (H.R. 3364, Pub.L. 115–44), is a United States federal law that imposed sanctions on Iran, North Korea, and Russia. The bill was passed during the 115th Congress, 98–2 in the Senate. On August 2, 2017, President Donald Trump signed it into law while issuing two statements simultaneously that he believed the legislation was “seriously flawed”

‘GST Council meet may take up inclusion of natural gas’ {Economic Policy}

In news
Petroleum is a considerably larger source for revenues not only for [the] Centre but States also and on [the] natural gas front, there is some consensus for bringing it into GST ambit and therefore, it could be the first petroleum product that could come within the GST network.
Currently, petroleum crude, motor spirit (petrol), high speed diesel, natural gas, and ATF have been kept out of GST.
Basics
‘Inclusive GST’ is a commonly used term since the implementation of GST.
What does ‘Inclusive GST’ mean ?
There are two important ways in which price of a good or service is denoted under a tax regime:
  1. Price inclusive of taxes: It implies that the price of a good or service includes tax. The tax is not separately charged from the customer. Thus, Inclusive GST means that GST is included in the price of the product.
  2. Price exclusive of taxes: This means that the price of good or service does not include tax. Tax is separately charged over and above the price of the product. The term ‘plus taxes’ is used in many cases.
When is ‘Inclusive GST’ used ?
  1. When MRPe. Maximum Retail Price is displayed on the goods sold in retail stores, price of services displayed on websites, prices reflected in advertisements etc.
  2. When the seller is willing to keep his price lower than competitorsby not charging GST from consumers and thus keeping the price inclusive of GST
  3. When the seller of good or service isregistered under GST If he is not registered, GST is not required to be charged and in that case price would be same whether inclusive or exclusive of GST.
Price Inclusive of GST is important
  1. For a customer to understand the correct price of the good or service and not get cheated by the seller.
  2. For a customer to be clear that if price is inclusive of GST, it does not mean that GST is not applicable on the good or service.
  3. For a seller to determine correct price of the good or service depending upon type of customers and competitors.
  4. For a seller to understand that GST must be separately reflected in the GST Invoiceeven if price charged is inclusive of taxes.

‘Dolphins may be naming friends’ {Ecology}

In news
Dolphins may be more akin to humans than believed, said a study released recently, confirming that the marine mammals use individual “names” to identify friends and rivals among social networks.
The Study
According to the study led Stephanie King of the University of Western Australia, no other non-human animal has ever been found to do this, even when forming long-term cooperative partnerships.
“When two groups meet each other, they will exchange their signature whistles so that they know who’s present.
“They sometimes also copy the signature whistle of another animal when they are not around but we don’t know what that means yet.”

Palm leaf manuscripts at ORI set to be digitised

In news
The Oriental Research Institute in the city, which is a treasure trove of ancient palm leaf and paper manuscripts, is set to digitise its collection and preserve them for posterity. There are about 30,000 palm leaf and paper manuscripts in the ORI collection apart from about 40,000 rare books
Oriental Research Institute (ORI)
Formerly known as the Oriental Library, the Oriental Research Institute (ORI) at Mysore, India, is a research institute which collects, exhibits, edits, and publishes rare manuscripts written in various scripts like Devanagari (Sanskrit), Brahmic (Kannada), Nandinagari (Sanskrit), Grantha, Malayalam, Tigalari, etc.
The Oriental Library was started in 1891 under the patronage of Maharaja Chamarajendra Wadiyar X. It is located at the northern end of Krishnaraja Boulevard (adjacently opposite to Mysore University’s Crawford Hall), in the architecturally attractive Jubilee Hall built in 1887 to commemorate the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria’s accession to the British throne. It was a part of the Department of Education until 1916, in which year it became part of the newly established University of Mysore. The Oriental Library was renamed as the Oriental Research Institute in 1943.
The ORI houses over 45,000 Palm leaf manuscript bundles and the 75,000 works on those leaves. The manuscripts are palm leaves cut to a standard size of 15 cm by 3.5 cm.
Brittle palm leaves are sometimes softened by scrubbing a paste made of ragi and then used by the ancients for writing, similar to the use of papyrus in ancient Egypt. Manuscripts are organic materials that run the risk of decay and are prone to be destroyed by silverfish.
To preserve them the ORI applies lemon grass oil on the manuscripts which acts like a pesticide. The lemon grass oil also injects natural fluidity into the brittle palm leaves and the hydrophobic nature of the oil keeps the manuscripts dry so that the text is not lost to decay due to humidity.

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