Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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India, China set for post Wuhan boundary talks

News

• National Security will be in Chengdu, China, for boundary talks with foreign minister and state councilor Wang Yi, to build on the Wuhan informal summit in April between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Beyond News

• The 21st round of talks between the two Special Representatives (SRs), which will mainly take place, is unlikely to yield any major breakthrough on the resolution of the boundary question, especially as India goes into election mode till the middle of next year.
• The two senior officials are also expected to prepare for a meeting between Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi on the sidelines of a G-20 meeting in Argentina capital Buenos Aires.
• The talks, which are taking place amid a terror attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi, are likely to sharpen the focus on “regional situation,” which includes Pakistan and Afghanistan.
• The Foreign Secretary had affirmed that talks on the resolution of border differences would be based on principles and parameters anchored in a 2005 agreement.
• India and China have a border dispute along the western, central and eastern sectors of their 3,488-km Line of Actual Control (LAC).
• Analysts say that during the SR dialogue, a discussion on Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) to keep the borders calm is expected to feature prominently.
• For the first time, cadets from the Indian and Chinese military academies, as well mid-level officers, will meet each other regularly.

Causing disproportionate harm to attacker while defending oneself amounts to culpable homicide: SC

News

• Use of fatal force or causing disproportionate harm to overpower an aggressor in self-defence amounts to culpable homicide and not murder, the Supreme Court has held.

Beyond News

• A Bench reiterated in a recent judgment that the “law on the aspect of causing disproportionate harm and exceeding right to private defence is amply clear. In cases of disproportionate harm leading to death of the aggressor, sentence under Section 304 Part I (of the Indian Penal Code) is the appropriate sentence”. This provision deals with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
• Self-defence is one of the exceptions to the offence of murder defined in Section 300 of the Code. The apex court has described the right to self-defence as a “very valuable right” with a “social purpose”.
• However, a retaliation that overwhelms the imminent threat posed by the aggressor, though done in self-defence, amounts to a crime in itself.
• The judgment came in a case dating back to 1991 concerning a fatal quarrel between two Punjab Home Guard volunteers over the repayment of a loan of ₹100.

With Kovind in town, Australia launches vision 2035 for India

News

• The Government of Australia has begun to implement a vision document that will shape bilateral ties with India till 2035.

Beyond News

• The announcement from Prime Minister Scott Morrison regarding implementing “India Economic Survey” was made in the backdrop of the ongoing visit to the country by President Ram Nath Kovind.
• Australia has agreed to implement some important recommendations of the survey over the next twelve months that will include India-AustraliaFood Partnership, expansion of mining business and greater aviation connectivity.
• The India Economic Survey is a report authored by former Australian envoy Peter Varghese and was released earlier this year.
• The report made wide-ranging recommendations to transform India-Australia ties by firming up ties between Australia and Indian States.
• On the sidelines of the visit by President Kovind, Australia and India concluded five agreements, including one between the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute based in Ranchi, and the Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation, Canberra.
• An agreement between the Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur, and the University of Western Australia, Perth, for cooperation in agricultural research and education was also signed.

Modi lays foundation stone for city gas work in 122 districts

News

• Prime Minister laid foundation stones to mark the beginning of work for CNG supply to automobiles and piped cooking gas to kitchens in 129 districts of 18 states, covering over a quarter of India’s population.

Beyond News

• Keen to cut emissions through a greater share of environment friendly natural gas as auto and cooking fuel, Prime Minister also launched the tenth round of bidding for award of city gas licenses in 124 new districts, which have been clubbed into 50 Geographical Areas (GAs).
• Downstream regulator Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) had just a few weeks back awarded licenses for 78 out of the 86 GAs put on offer in the 9th round of bidding.
• Of the GAs awarded in the 9th round, Mr. Modi laid foundation stones for work in 65 GAs, made up of 129 districts, while leaving out the ones in election-bound states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana due to the model code of conduct.
• The license winners of 61 GAS out of these 65 GAS organised functions in their respective areas, which were connected to Vigyan Bhawan in the national capital through video conferencing, where the prime minister formally launched the city gas works.
• With an annual consumption of 142 million standard cubic meters per day, the share of natural gas in India’s energy mix is just 6.2 per cent. This compares to a world average of 24 per cent. Gas accounts for 25 per cent share in Gujarat’s energy mix.
• Gas is an environment-friendly fuel which is cheaper than not just liquid fuels such as petrol and diesel but is also cheaper than subsidised LPG.
• PNGRB had offered 106 GAs in the previous eight bid rounds, of which 56 were awarded. 35 GAs were authorised by the government prior to incorporation of PNGRB.
• In the tenth bid round for giving licences to retail CNG to automobiles and piped natural gas to household kitchens, 50 geographical areas or GAs spread over 124 districts in 14 states, covering 24 per cent of India’s population and 18 per cent of its area, are being offered.
• In the ninth bid round, 86 GAs spread over 174 districts in 22 states and union territories and covering 26 per cent of India’s population and 24 per cent of its area was offered. Of these, 78 GAs have been awarded to companies like Adani Gas, Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Torrent Gas.
• First CNG station or a piped natural gas connection in the GAs awarded in the previous round will take at least 1-2 years to become operational.

India, Pak. commit to Kartarpur corridor

News

• In a rare sign of concord between the two countries, the letters were exchanged on the same day, with Pakistan’s government informing the Indian High Commission in Islamabad that Prime Minister Imran Khan will lay the foundation stone for the corridor on the Pakistani side on November 28.

Beyond News

• A Cabinet meeting in Delhi proposed building a passage for the pilgrims accessible “365 days and 24 hours. Hours later, the Cabinet decision was conveyed by Ministry of External Affairs in a letter to the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi.
• The Cabinet also decided that preparations for the 550th anniversary of the founder of the Sikh faith will be overseen by Home Minister, which will include the setting up of a “centre for interfaith studies” in Amritsar, University Chairs in U.K. and Canada for the study of Guru Nanak, and a railway train connecting holy sites for the community.
• The Kartarpur Sahib corridor was first proposed in 1999 when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took a bus ride to Lahore, as a long-standing demand from the Sikh community for easy access to the revered shrine across the border where Guru Nanak spent the last 18 years of his life.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

NASA’s InSight on track for Mars touchdown

News

• NASA’s InSight spacecraft is on track for a soft touchdown on the surface of the Red Planet on November 26.

Beyond News

• InSight will hit the top of the Martian atmosphere at 19,800 kph and slow down to eight kph about human jogging speed before its three legs touch down on Martian soil.
• That extreme deceleration has to happen in just under seven minutes.
• Launched on May 5, Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander marks NASA’s first Mars landing since the Curiosity rover in 2012.

India to study marijuana-derived drugs

News

• Three major science administrators in India The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Indian Council for Medical Research and the Department of Biotechnolgy are getting together to promote research in herbal drugs, some of which involve deriving new drugs from marijuana.

Beyond News

• Researchers will test whether strains of marijuana grown at the CSIR-IIIM campus in Jammu could be effective in the treatment of breast cancer, sickle-cell anaemia as well as be “bio-equivalent” (similar in make-up and effect) to marijuana-derived drugs already approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA)
• Marijuana (or hemp), more formally parts of the cannabis super-family, is illegal for commercial cultivation though it grows as weed in several parts of the country. Uttarakhand, Jammu and as of this month Uttar Pradesh have allowed restricted cultivation of the plant for medical research.
• There is an unmet need for terminal cancer patients and because of restrictions we have lost 50-60 years of valuable research into the properties of these plants.
• The studies into the therapeutic potential of marijuana is part of a larger governmental thrust to making new drugs derived from herbs and plants that find mention in Ayurvedic and other traditional-medicine knowledge systems.
• The U.S. FDA this year approved Epidiolex (cannabidiol) [CBD] oral solution for the treatment of seizures associated with two rare and severe forms of epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome.

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