27th June 2017 The Hindu and PIB Daily Current Affairs

1)3 Options regarding Air India:- The Union Cabinet will soon decide the fate of the state owned carrier Air India by deliberating on three options to divest the government’s majority stake and consider the creation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to get rid of a major portion of its debt.

The three options on the table are a full 100% sell-off, a 74% stake sale or retaining a 49% share in the airline, as per the note prepared by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM).

Background:- Because of great loss that Air India is making and also since 86% of Aviation market is Privately owned so why not 100%


2)The United States is set to declare China as one among the world’s worst offenders on human trafficking in its annual Trafficking in Persons Report. 

The declaration would place China in the same category as North Korea, Zimbabwe and Syria.

China will be placed in “Tier 3,” which will be the ranking system’s lowest category.

3)FSSAI issues draft regulations for organic food products:-

What are the Provisions:-

• The draft regulation mandates that labelling of organic foods should convey full and accurate information on the organic status of the product.

• Organic food products should also carry a certification mark or a quality assurance mark given by any of the notified certification bodies.

• The FSSAI’s draft has exempted organic food marketed through direct sale by the original producer or producer organisation to the end consumer from verification compliance. However, this exemption does not apply to processed organic products.

What are Organic Food Products:- Organic food products are either those grown under a system of agriculture without the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides or made from organically produced raw materials.

The FSSAI has defined ‘organic agriculture’ as a system of farm design and management to create an eco system of agriculture production without the use of synthetic external inputs such as chemicals, fertilisers, pesticides and synthetic hormones or genetically modified organisms.

FSSAI:=

• FSSAI was set up in August 2011 under the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006.

• It has powers to lay down standards for food articles and to regulate their manufacturing, storage, distribution, sale and import.

• Some of its activities include licencing and surveillance of food and beverages outlets, enforcement of safety regulations across registered food vendors and ensuring safety of imported food items, their standards and labelling.

4)The ministry of human resource development has set up a new committee to make the final draft on the National Education Policy (NEP) on Monday.

The nine-member panel is to be chaired by former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan.

5)Scientists from South Korea have built the first foldable walking robot that pops up when deployed, and could be used for future space missions as well as seabed exploration on Earth.

Its name has been kept DEPLOYBOT.