Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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Supreme Court quashes U.P. law allowing ex-CMs to retain official bungalows

News

• The Supreme Courtrejected an Uttar Pradesh law which allowed former Chief Ministers use of the State official bungalows and comforts on taxpayers’ expense as “unconstitutional.”

Beyond News

• A Bench did not buy the justification made by government in Uttar Pradeshthat its former Chief Ministers are considered a privileged class who deserve to enjoy certain benefits even after demitting office.
• The Supreme Court’s verdict came on a petition filed by NGO Lok Prahari against laws enacted by the U.P. State Assembly which allows former CMs and ministers official bungalows and staff at public expense.
• The petition filed by the NGO challenged the constitutional validity of the Uttar Pradesh Ministers (Salaries and Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Act of 2016 and The Allotment of Houses under Control of the Estate Department of 2016.
• The NGO had sought action against the State authorities for acting in contempt of a Supreme Court verdict in August 2016, directing them to ensure that the former chief ministers vacate the bungalows.
• Amicus curiae and senior advocate had submitted that it was a violation of Article 14 (fundamental right to equality) of the Constitution to allow former Chief Ministers to retain their official bungalows indefinitely. Once they demit office, they are just ordinary citizens not eligible for special privileges of office.

Inter-country child abduction: Central panel questions key principle of Hague Convention

News

• A committee set up by the Centre to prepare a report on the issue of inter-country parental child abduction has questioned one of the basic principles of the Hague Convention by arguing that the return of the child to his or her habitual residence may not necessarily be in the best interest of the child.

Beyond News

• There is immense pressure on India from the U.S. to accede to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which is a multi-national treaty that seeks to protect children wrongfully removed by one of the parents from the custody of the other parent.
• At the heart of this treaty is the criterion of “habitual residence” of the child, which is used to determine whether the child was wrongfully removed by a parent as well as to seek the return of the child.
• The Committee feels that the concept of habitual residence is not synchronous with the best interest of the child, says a report by the Justice Rajesh Bindal Committee.
• It adds that returning a child to the place of habitual residence may result in sending the child to an inharmonious set-up as well as overlook the fact that a mother is the primary caregiver of the child.
• The panel has also prepared a draft law to safeguard the interest of the children, as well as those of the parents, particularly mothers.

Important conditions

• The important conditions under which a child’s return can be refused are — best interest of the child, domestic violence or mental or physical cruelty or harassment against the parent who fled with the child, the parent claiming the return of the child was not exercising the custody rights at the time of removal, and if there is a grave risk that the child would be exposed to physical or psychological harm.
• The panel has also emphasised the importance of the “Indian family system” in ensuring the best interest of the child, seemingly to question the logic behind returning the child to a place of habitual residence outside India.
• The report also requires the setting up of an Inter-Country Parental Child Removal Disputes Resolution Authority, which will be the nodal body to decide on the custody of the child, mediate between the warring parties, as well as order the return of the child to the country of habitual residence.
• The Justice Rajesh Bindal Committee was set up last year to suggest a model legislation to safeguard the interest of the child as well those of the parents when an NRI (Non Resident Indian) marriage goes sour and one of the parents flees from one country to another with the child.

Road safety proposal suggests aptitude test for cab drivers

News

• A new policy proposed to enhance the safety of road users across various categories in the Capital seeks to ensure not just safer roads but also “Safe Drivers” behind the wheels of commercial vehicles such as cabs, autorickshaws and trucks to address the issue of drivers’ error, one of the obvious, but significant, causes of road accidents in the city.

Beyond News

• If passed in its current form, the draft Delhi Road Safety Policy which, according to a government source was similar to its national counterpart, will ensure that the driver of the cab or autorickshaw which you take is not only behaviourally fit but also possesses the aptitude to be behind the wheels of a commercial vehicle.
• In addition to designing and enforcing “a comprehensive and standardised driver training curriculum” the policy seeks to include “behavioural education and psychometric analysis” as part of the training curriculum of “all commercial drivers”.
• It also recommends training them in first-aid.
• Noting that the year 2016 saw as many as 7,375 road accidents in Delhi in which 7,175 people were injured and 1,591 lives were lost, the policy envisioned to affect a reduction in road accidents and fatalities by 30% between 2018 and 2020 and a reduction of 80% in such cases between 2018 and 2025.
• While the draft policy proposes Star Ratings for Delhi’s streets based on safety parameters and reconsideration of existing speed limits on all roads based on experts’ recommendations it also recognises that “national highways and major roads of the city are more accident prone due to heavy movement of commercial as well as other vehicles”.

From seeking to undertake “measures for fatigue management of heavy motor vehicle drivers” who use these highways, the policy also recommends the placement of ambulance on both national and state highways “in every reasonable distance between two identified trauma care units” to aid emergency medical care to victims of road accidents.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Australia pledges US$34-million to help save the koala

News

• Australia unveiled a US$34-million plan to help bring its koala population back from the brink, following a rapid decline in the furry marsupial’s fortunes.

Beyond News

• The Australian Koala Foundation estimates there may be as few as 43,000 koalas left in the wild, down from a population believed to number more than 10 million prior to European settlement of the continent in 1788.
• Studies show a 26 per cent decline in the koala population in New South Wales over the last 15-20 years. The state lists the species as “vulnerable,” while in other parts of the country they are effectively extinct.
• Under the Aus$45 million plan, thousands of hectares will be set aside to preserve the marsupial’s natural habitat.
• Funds will be used to tackle diseases ravaging koala populations, including chlamydia which causes blindness, infertility and death in the species.
• Cash has also been earmarked for research, roadkill hotspot upgrades and a new hospital to care for sick and injured koalas. A hotline will also be set up to report koalas in trouble.

Water ice hidden on the moon

News

• Scientists have found a mineral in a lunar meteorite that points to the presence of abundant hidden reserves of water ice under the surface of the moon, which could be potentially useful for future human exploration.

Beyond News

• A team from the Tohoku University in Japan found the mineral, called moganite, in a lunar meteorite discovered in a desert in northwest Africa.
• Moganite, a crystal of silicon dioxide, is known to form on the earth in specific circumstances in sedimentary settings from alkaline fluids. It has never before been detected in samples of lunar rock.
• Researchers believe the mineral formed on the surface of the moon in the area called Procellarum Terrane, as water originally present in lunar dirt evaporated due to exposure to strong sunlight. In the subsurface, water remains as ice.

Early bird had teeth: study

News

• A gull lookalike with teeth: scientists refined their description of a fascinating fowl at the evolutionary junction between dinosaur and modern bird – with skull features of both.

Beyond News

• Newly-discovered fossils show the extinct Icthyornis dispar, or “fish bird”, had a mouth filled with sharp, curved teeth like those of a dinosaur, a team wrote in the scientific journal Nature.
• But the tip had been transformed into a sharp, toothless, “pincer-like” instrument – the original bird beak.
• This was likely used for preening and handling objects after reptile arms turned into wings.
• The newly-modelled skull, reconstructed from the fossil remains of several fish birds, lifted the veil on “what the bird beak looked like as it first appeared in nature,” said study.
• The remainder of the jaw was filled with teeth. At its origin, the beak was a precision grasping mechanism that served as a surrogate hand.
• The results showed that bird beaks started evolving earlier than thought, the team concluded.
• The fish bird’s so-called “transitional” beak was attached to a skull with an enlarged cavity for its evolving, more modern brain, it said.
• But bones in the cheek region more dinosaur-like, with large chambers for stronger jaw-snapping muscles.
• This indicated that in bird evolution, “the brain transformed first while the remainder of the skull remained more primitive and dinosaur-like,” the researchers said.

‘Helium gas detected around exoplanet for first time’

News

• In a first, astronomers have detected helium gas in the atmosphere of a planet that orbits a star far beyond the solar system.

Beyond News

• University of Exeter in the U.K., scientists have found evidence of the inert gas on exoplanet WASP-107b, 200 light years from the earth.
• Helium is the second most common element in the universe and it has long-since been predicted to be one of the most readily-detectable gases on giant exoplanets.
• However, this is the first time that the gas has been successfully found, researchers said.
• The team believes that the study could pave the way for scientists to discover more atmospheres around Earth-sized exoplanets across the galaxy.

New technology purifies water using sunlight

News:

• Scientists have developed a new technology that uses the sunlight to purify water with near-perfect efficiency.

Beyond News:

• The idea of using energy from the sun to evaporate and purify water was reportedly described by Greek philosopher Aristotle over 2,000 years ago.
• By draping black, carbon-dipped paper in a triangular shape and using it to both absorb and vaporise water, researchers have developed a method for using sunlight to generate clean water with near-perfect efficiency.
• Usually, when solar energy is used to evaporate water, some of the energy is wasted as heat is lost to the surrounding environment. This makes the process less than 100 per cent efficient.
• New system has a way of drawing heat in from the surrounding environment, allowing us to achieve near-perfect efficiency, said the associate professor.
• The low-cost technology, could provide drinking water in regions where resources are scarce, or where natural disasters have struck.
• Solar stills have been around for a long time. These devices use the sun’s heat to evaporate water, leaving salt, bacteria and dirt behind.
• Then, the water vapour cools and returns to a liquid state, at which point it’s collected in a clean container.

Advantages

• The technique has many advantages. It is simple, and the power source the sun is available just about everywhere. However, even the latest solar still models are somewhat inefficient at vaporizing water.
• Researchers addressed this challenge by increasing the efficiency of their evaporation system by cooling it down.
• The bottom edges of the paper hang in a pool of water, soaking up the fluid like a napkin. At the same time, the carbon coating absorbs solar energy and transforms it into heat for evaporation.

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