Vision IAS Monthly Current Affairs December 2018 is a monthly magazine which contains compilation of news for the month of November 2018 bearing relevance to Civil Service Examination. News and events from all domain i.e. National, Business, International etc. have been dealt in brief. The magazine is brought out monthly by renowned Delhi based IAS coaching institute VISION IAS.

Table of Contents

1. POLITY & GOVERNANCE _______________ 4 1.1. Demand for Abolishing the Concurrent List 4 1.2. Education as a Criteria for Local Elections _ 5 1.3. Draft IT Rules_________________________ 6 1.4. Section 4 of the RTI Act ________________ 8 1.5. Witness Protection Scheme _____________ 9 1.6. India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX) ______11 2. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS ___________ 13 2.1. India-Bhutan ________________________13 2.2. India-Maldives_______________________14 2.3. Extradition__________________________16 2.4. American Retrenchment from Afghanistan18 2.5. New Peace Agreement on Yemen_______20 3. ECONOMY __________________________ 22 3.1. Farm Loan Waiver____________________22 3.2. Agriculture Export Policy, 2018 _________24 3.3. GM Crops___________________________26 3.4. Draft Electricity Amendment Bill________29 3.5. Smart Meters _______________________30 3.6. Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)__32 3.7. Coal Swapping Scheme Extended _______32 3.8. New Rules For E-Commerce____________33 3.9. Angel Tax ___________________________35 3.10. States’ Start-up Ranking 2018 _________36 3.11. Retail, SME Loans to be Linked to External Benchmarks ____________________________36 3.12. GDP Back Series Data ________________37 3.13. National Pension System (NPS) ________39 4. SECURITY ___________________________ 41 4.1. Surveillance by State Agencies _________41 4.2. Permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee _____________________________43 4.3. Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region _________________________________43 4.4. UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact _______________________________44 5. ENVIRONMENT ______________________ 46 5.1. Katowice COP 24_____________________46 5.2. Sixth Annual Report to CBD ____________48 5.3. Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification 2018___________________________________50 5.4. Sea Level Rise in India_________________52 5.5. Seabed 2030 ________________________53 5.6. Guidelines for Ground Water Extraction _54 5.7. India Water Impact Summit 2018 and Urban River Management Plan __________________56 5.8. Charging Infrastructure Guidelines ______57 5.9. Asiatic Lion Conservation Project _______58 5.10. Tiger Conservation __________________59 5.11. Great Indian Bustard ________________60 5.12. Gangetic Dolphin ___________________61 5.13. Rat-Hole Mining ____________________63

6. SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ______________ 65 6.1. Cyber-Physical Systems _______________ 65 6.2. BullSequana Supercomputer ___________ 66 6.3. GSAT-11____________________________ 67 6.4. VISIONS-2 Mission ___________________ 67 6.5. Soyuz ______________________________ 68 6.6. Sunspot Cycle _______________________ 68 6.7. Telerobotic Surgery __________________ 69 6.8. National Medical Devices Promotion Council _______________________________________ 69 7. SOCIAL ISSUES_______________________ 71 7.1. Paternity Leave ______________________ 71 7.2. Draft Child Protection Policy ___________ 72 7.3. Global Gender Gap Report 2018 ________ 74 7.4. Tribal Education in India_______________ 75 7.5. SDG India Index – Baseline Report 2018 __ 76 8. CULTURE ___________________________ 78 8.1. PRASAD Scheme _____________________ 78 8.2. Adopt a Heritage Project ______________ 78 8.3. Bhasha Sangam Program ______________ 79 8.4. Pietermaritzburg Station Incident_______ 79 8.5. Sikh Takhts _________________________ 80 8.6. Sri Satguru Ram Singhji _______________ 80 8.7. Hornbill Festival _____________________ 81 8.8. India’s First Music Museum____________ 81 9. ETHICS _____________________________ 83 9.1. The Safety & Ethics of Gene Editing _____ 83 10. NEWS IN SHORT ____________________ 85 10.1. iGOT_______________________________ 85 10.2. International Press Institute’s Death Watch 85 10.3. Google News Initiative_________________ 85 10.4. Gilets Jaunes Protests _________________ 85 10.5. U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) _______________________________________ 85 10.6. Pokkali Paddy________________________ 85 10.7. International Rice Research Institute _____ 85 10.8. ENSURE Portal _______________________ 86 10.9. RISE 2018 ___________________________ 86 10.10. Floating Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP) ____ 86 10.11. Share Swap ________________________ 86 10.12. Survey on Retail Payment Habits of Individuals (SRPHi) _________________________________ 86 10.13. World Customs Organization___________ 87 10.14. The Climate Change Performance Index 2019 _______________________________________ 87 10.15. Global Climate Risk Index 2019 _________ 87 10.16. International Conference on Sustainable Water Management _______________________ 87 10.17. Eco Nivas Samhita, 2018 ______________ 87 10.18. International Whaling Commission ______ 88 10.19. Punganur Cows _____________________ 88 10.20. Women Entrepreneurship Platform 2.0 __ 88 10.21. Partners’ Forum 2018 ________________ 88 10.22. Nikshay Poshan Yojana (NKY) __________ 88

10.23. National Trust _______________________89 10.24. Bogibeel Bridge______________________89 10.25. International Centre for Automotive Technology_______________________________89 10.26. India’s First Railway University __________89 10.27. Train-18____________________________89 10.28. Saturn Losing its Iconic Rings ___________89 10.29. Avangard Hypersonic System ___________90

10.30. Ideate for India _____________________ 90 10.31. National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies__________________________________ 90 10.32. Rajkumar Shukla ____________________ 90 10.33. Clean Sea-2018 _____________________ 90 10.34. Recent Military Exercises______________ 91 10.35. State Schemes ______________________ 91