Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Home most unsafe for children: Childline report

News

• Childline Kozhikode in Kerala is planning to launch a new project titled ‘Safe neighbourhood for every child’ in the district soon, in view of the increasing physical and sexual offences on children in the district.
• The project will be implemented with the help of various agencies including residents associations and Kudumbashree.

Findings

• A recent data released by Childline shows that close relatives and neighbours are the key offenders in most of the sexual and physical abuse cases in which children are victims. Members of the family are behind at least one-third of the total abuse cases.
• Of the 130 physical abuse and corporal punishment cases reported in the city in 2017-18, family members were the accused in 43 cases.
• While uncles, cousins and grandparents coming into the picture occasionally, in a large number of cases it is either of the parents who abuse the child. While the father was the abuser in 15 cases, the mother was in 14 cases.
• Of the 120 sexual abuse cases reported, the abuser is a relative in 28 cases while it is a neighbour in 43 cases. It is alarming that parents and step-parents too have been found guilty in 7 cases. The abuse happened inside the victim’s house in 30 cases while in 27 cases, it happened in a neighbouring home.
• A comforting feature is that parents/guardians of abused children have become increasingly willing to file complaints and move legally. In the 120 sexual offence cases, the guardians filed a complaint willingly in 90 cases.
• While boys in the 11-15 age group are most prone to physical abuses of different nature, girls of the age group 6 to 16 are most prone to sexual abuse.
• The number of serious sexual abuse is much higher as against sexual harassment cases. As many as 31 cases of sexual assault, 24 of aggravated sexual assault and 36 of aggravated penetrative sexual assault were reported during the year. On the other hand, not even one digital abuse has been registered during the year.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

India removed from currency monitoring list

News

• The S. removed India from its currency monitoring list of major trading partners, citing steps being taken by New Delhi that addressed some of the Donald Trump administration’s major concerns.

Beyond News

• Switzerland is the other nation that was removed from the list.
• India has been removed from the monitoring list in this report, having met only one out of three criteria a significant bilateral surplus with the United States for two consecutive reports, the Treasury Department said.

WHO drops being transgender from list of mental disorders

News

• The World Health Organization (WHO) will no longer categorise being transgender as a “mental disorder”.
• The change was brought in after a major resolution to amend the WHO health guidelines was approved.

Beyond News

• The global health organisation said that,Evidence is now clear that gender incongruence is not a mental disorder, and indeed classifying it as such can cause enormous stigma for people who are transgender. Also there remain significant health care needs that can best be met if the condition is coded under the ICD (International Classification of Diseases).
• Gender incongruence has now been listed under sexual health conditions.
• Significant change in the mental disorders section of ICD-11 is the attempt of statisticians to simplify the codes as much as possible to allow for coding of mental health conditions by primary health care providers rather than by mental health specialists. This will be a critical move since the world still has a scarcity of mental health specialists upto 9 out of 10 people needing mental health care don’t receive it.
• The WHO’s removal of “gender identity disorder” from its diagnostic manual will have a liberating effect on transgender people worldwide.
• In India, psychiatrists at an individual level have stopped treating transgender as a mental health condition. With this move, the Indian government will have to make the changes in the medical systems and laws that require this now officially outdated diagnosis.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Gaganyaan: SRO, IAF ink pact for astronaut training

News

• The Indian Air Force and the Indian Space Research Organisation signed an MoU for getting Indian astronauts trained for ISRO’s Gaganyaan.

Beyond News

• The development formally involves IAF’s Bengaluru-based medical arm, the Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM), in the programme as the nodal centre to train the first set of Indian astronauts.
• The ₹10,000-crore Gaganyaan is planned for 2022, the 75th year of Indian independence.
• ISRO has suggested that eventually 10 candidates be trained and kept ready for the space travel. Finally three astronauts are planned to circle Earth for about seven days from a distance of 400 km.
• Part of the training would take place outside the country. At least three experts Russia, the US and France have voiced their interest in preparing Indian astronauts at their facilities.
• A similar agreement has already been signed with Defence Research and Development Organisation. ISRO would use the human science related technologies and products of DRDO’s bioscience laboratories.

Hydrographic ship joins SNC

News

• The Southern Naval Command has got a new hydrographic vessel.

Beyond News

• INS Investigator, which was under the Andaman and Nicobar Command for six years, will now be under the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Naval Command (SNC), based in Kochi.
• The 1,900-tonne ship was built at Garden Reach Ship Builders, Kolkata, and was commissioned into the Navy in 1990.
• INS Investigator is commanded by Commander and has a complement of 20 officers and 200 sailors. The ship is fitted with state-of-the-art survey equipment, including a Deep Sea Multibeam Echosounder, Single Beam Echosounders, Side Scan Sonars and modern survey software suites.
• INS Investigator carries four 9.2 metre Survey Motor Boats (SMBs) for undertaking survey in shallow waters. The ship also has an integral Chetak helicopter for supporting survey operations.
• INS Investigator primary role is to undertake hydrographic surveys for the production of navigation charts. In her secondary role, the ship can be converted into a 40-bed hospital ship.

New species of wasp identified in Goa

News

• A new species of wasp from the genus Kudakrumiahas been recently identified by scientists in Goa.
• The wasp, Kudakrumia rangnekari, was named after Goa-based researcher Parag Rangnekar.
• The new species was collected in the forests of Western Ghats.

‘Forbidden’ planet discovered in Neptunian Desert

News

• Astronomers have discovered a rogue exoplanet with its own atmosphere in the Neptunian Desert.

Beyond News

• NGTS-4b, nick-named ‘The Forbidden Planet’ is smaller than Neptune but three times the size of Earth.
• The exoplanet, has a mass of 20 Earth masses, a radius 20 per cent smaller than Neptune, and temperature of 1000 degrees Celsius.
• It orbits around the star in only 1.3 days the equivalent of Earth’s orbit around the Sun of one year. It is the first exoplanet of its kind to have been found in the Neptunian Desert, researchers said.
• The Neptunian Desert is the region close to stars where no Neptune-sized planets are found.
• This area receives strong irradiation from the star, meaning the planets do not retain their gaseous atmosphere as they evaporate leaving just a rocky core.
• However NGTS-4b still has its atmosphere of gas.
• When looking for new planets, astronomers look for a dip in the light of a star with the planet orbiting it and blocking the light.
• Usually only dips of one percent and more are picked up by ground-based searches.
• Researchers believe the planet may have moved into the Neptunian Desert recently, in the last one million years, or it was very big and the atmosphere is still evaporating.

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