Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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States’ approval not needed for quota Bill

News

• The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Fourth Amendment) Bill of 2019 providing up to 10% reservation for economically weaker sections of the society may be notified as the law of the land sooner than expected.

Beyond News

• The proviso to Article 368 (power of Parliament to amend the Constitution and procedure thereof) holds that an amendment to a fundamental right coming under Part III of the Constitution need not be ratified by the Legislatures of one-half of the States. So, this Bill may be notified by the Central government as soon as it gets the assent from the President.
• The Bill, passed by both the Houses of the Parliament, adds new clauses to Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution. Both the Articles come under the part of ‘Fundamental Rights’ in the text of the Constitution.
• They are part of the ‘right to equality’ section of fundamental rights envisaged in the Constitution.
• The new clause (6) to Article 15 allows the government to carve reservation for the economically weaker sections of the society in higher educational institutions, including private ones, whether they are aided or not by the State.
• Minority educational institutions are exempted. Likewise, the new clause (6) to Article 16 provides for quota for economically-deprived sections in the initial appointment in government services.

Centre aims for 20% cut in air pollution by 2024

News

• The Centre has launched a programme to reduce particulate matter (PM) pollution by 20-30% in at least 102 cities by 2024.

Beyond News

• The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), which was formally unveiled, is envisaged as a scheme to provide the States and the Centre with a framework to combat air pollution.
• Pointing out that curbing PM pollution would be a long-term process, officials said the ₹300-crore programme will bring pollution concerns to the heart of a State’s development plans.
• In the past year, the 102 cities, identified as hotspots of pollution, were asked to submit a plan for how they would address the problem.
• Broadly, the plans include increasing the number of monitoring stations, providing technology support, conducting source apportionment studies, and strengthening enforcement. For achieving the NCAP targets, the cities will have to calculate the reduction in pollution keeping 2017’s average annual PM levels as the base year.
• The World Health Organisation’s database on air pollution over the years has listed Tier I and Tier II Indian cities as some of the most polluted places in the world. In 2018, 14 of the world’s 15 most polluted cities were in India.
• A study ranked India as No.1 on premature mortality and deaths from air pollution.
• As part of the NCAP, cities have been given a specified number of days to implement specific measures such as “ensuring roads are pothole-free to improve traffic flow and thereby reduce dust” (within 60 days) or “ensuring strict action against unauthorised brick kilns” (within 30 days). It doesn’t specify an exact date for when these obligations kick in.

Trump threatens imposition of national emergency over border wall issue

News

• S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose a national emergency which will empower him to go ahead with his plan to construct a barrier, concrete or steel, along the southern border with Mexico to prevent flow of illegal immigrants into the country.

Beyond News

• Trump said imposing a national emergency is the last option and threatened to use it if the Democrats do not allocate funding for his controversial U.S.-Mexico border wall plan.
• A wall along the U.S.-Mexico border was one of Trump’s signature campaign promises. Trump wants $5.7 billion to build the wall, even though he said repeatedly during his campaign that he would make Mexico pay for the structure.
• The Democrats are refusing to allocate the money, arguing that a wall would be costly and ineffective. Mexico has rejected Trump’s demand to pay for the border wall.
• A national emergency is declared in times of a crisis or a situation where certain circumstances threaten the country. In this case, Mr Trump says the crisis is being caused by the illegal immigrants arriving on the U.S.-Mexico border.
• Declaring a national emergency gives the president access to special powers that are contained in many provisions under the National Emergencies Act of 1976. This Act was signed by President Gerald Ford in September, 1976, to formalise the emergency powers of the president. These powers effectively allow the president to bypass the usual political process.
• Trump’s predecessor, Obama, used it 13 times, while his predecessor George Bush used it 12 times. If Trump goes ahead with declaring a national emergency, it would be the fourth of his administration.

If Trump and Kim can meet, why not other countries: Nepal on stalled SAARC summit

News:

• Nepal strongly pitched for convening of the SAARC summit, saying differences should be resolved through dialogue and the grouping should collectively deal with terrorism and other key challenges facing the region.
• The 2016 SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation) Summit was to be held in Islamabad. But after a deadly terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Jammu and Kashmir that year, India expressed its inability to participate in it.

Beyond News

• It is Pakistan’s turn to host the summit. However, India, citing continued support to cross-border terrorism by Pakistan, has been maintaining that it is difficult to proceed with the summit.
• The summit was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate in the meet. Maldives and Sri Lanka are the seventh and eighth members of the grouping.
• The Nepalese foreign minister, who held bilateral talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, said his country has been raising the issue of the SAARC summit with India.
• SAARC summits are usually held biennially, hosted by a member state in alphabetical order. The member state hosting the summit assumes the chair of the Association. The last SAARC Summit in 2014 was held in Kathmandu, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• The Nepalese foreign minister also said he has requested the Indian government to replace Rs 7 crore worth of old Indian currency notes with new ones.
• Following the demonetisation exercise in India, people in Nepal deposited the old notes in banks in Nepal. Indian currency is extensively used by Nepalese people and businesses.
• The Nepalese government last month asked its citizens to refrain from keeping or carrying Indian bank notes higher than Rs 100 denomination.
• On Nepal’s ties with China, Nepal has very close ties with India and it will be unfair to compare his country’s relationship with India to that of China.
• Eminent Persons’ Group (EPG) on Nepal-India relations was finalising its report covering all aspects of the bilateral ties and asserted that there was no difference of opinion between the two sides on the issue.

The EPG was formed in January 2016 with the mandate to review various aspects of the bilateral relations including Nepal-India Friendship Treaty 1950.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

In a first for India, 20-day-old baby undergoes brain surgery

News

• Surgeons at the Faridabad-based 300-bed Sarvodaya Hospital and Research Centre (SHRC) have successfully conducted brain surgery on a 19-day-old baby boy weighing a little over one kilogramme.

Beyond News

• This is the first time in India that neurosurgery of such a low-weighing baby has been done by opening the skull and removing a life-threatening blood clot from the brain, which caused a seizure in the neonate.
• The condition would have proved fatal had it not been treated promptly.
• The premature baby was one among twins born pre-term at 33 weeks.

Navy tests air-dropped containers

News

• The Indian Navy has successfully tested containers that can be air-dropped to enhance its operational logistics capability at sea.

Beyond News

• Having a test payload of 50 kg, these containers, equipped to carry spares for ships up to 2,000 km away from the coast, were air-dropped into the Arabian Sea on January 8.
• This will reduce the requirement of ships to be close to the coast for collecting spares and stores, thereby increasing the duration of their deployment.
• The Sahayak Containers, would enhance its operational logistics capability. Commander Karnik explained that a test payload of 50 kg was dropped in the container, which descended to the sea with the help of a parachute. With the success of these trials, series production of Sahayak containers and parachutes would be undertaken.
• These cylindrical containers have been indigenously developed by the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL) and the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
• The Indian Navy had last month inducted its first Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV) in Mumbai, to be deployed off the west coast.
• Another DSRV will be deployed along the east coast, in Visakhapatnam. This will reduce dependence on foreign navies for salvage and rescue. With this, the Indian Navy joins a select league of nations with the capability to rescue their submarines.

New single-dose Ebola drug treatment developed

News

• Scientists have developed an experimental drug that in one dose successfully protected non-human primates against a lethal infection of all strains of the deadly Ebola virus.
• The study, found that a two-antibody cocktail called MBP134 could fully protect non-human primates and ferrets against lethal Ebola virus infections caused by the Bundibugyo and Sudan strain as well as the deadliest Zaire strain that caused the 2013-16 epidemic in West Africa and the current outbreak in DR Congo.

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