IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

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National Digital Health Blueprint

News:

Health Ministry invites all for a stakeholders’ consultation to contribute to National Digital Health Blueprint report.

Aim: To create National Digital Health Eco-System, in public domain. Health Ministry has sought inputs from various stakeholders on its vision.

Beyond News:

• It lays out the ‘building blocks’ for the implementation of the National Health Stack (NHS), which aims to deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) in leveraging health records.
• This National Blueprint illustrates yet another example of the Centre moving forward with a major digitisation program involving the data of millions of citizens without a data protection law in place.

Data researchers and activists have expressed concerns about the development of this policy, which proposes a health data set-up on a foundation of India Stack – a bouquet of privately-owned proprietary software applications.

Source: Press Information Bureau.

Controversial UAPA Bill

News

• The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019 that empowers the Union Home Ministry to designate individuals as terrorists was passed in the Rajya Sabha .

Beyond News

• The Bill amends the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 which was originally passed in 1967 under the then Congress government led by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
• Eventually amendments were brought in under the successive United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments in 2004, 2008 and 2013.

Highlights to know:

• Under the Act, the central government may designate an organisation as a terrorist organisation if it: 
  (i) commits or participates in acts of terrorism,
  (ii) prepares for terrorism, 
  (iii) promotes terrorism, or
  (iv) is otherwise involved in terrorism. 
• The Bill additionally empowers the government to designate individuals as terrorists on the same grounds. 
• The only statutory remedy available to such a person is to make an application before the Central Government for de-notification, which will be considered by a Review Committee constituted by the Government itself.

Source: The Hindu.

BS – VI norms

News:

Armored and Specialized Vehicles of Armed/ Paramilitary Forces Exempted from BS-VI Emission Norms that will Come into Force in April 2020. 

Beyond News:

• Bharat Stage norms are the automotive emission norms which the automotive manufacturers have to comply to sell their vehicles in India.
• These norms are applicable to all two wheelers, three wheelers, four wheelers and construction equipment vehicles.

Objective: To curb growing menace of air pollution through the vehicles emission

• The major difference in standards between the existing BS-IV and the new BS-VI auto fuel norms is the presence of sulphur. (will reduce the amount of sulphur released by 80%)
• As per the analysts, the emission of NOx (nitrogen oxides) from diesel cars is also expected to reduce by nearly 70%.

Source: Press Information Bureau.

India draws red line on Kashmir again with U.S. as External Affairs Minister meets Pompeo

News

• India repeated its rejection of the U.S. offers to mediate on Kashmir when Indian External Affairs Minister met with U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) conference in Bangkok.

Beyond News

• External Affairs Minister had ruled out any conversation had been held between the leaders on the issue and reminded the U.S. that according to the Shimla Agreement 1972 and the Lahore Declaration 1999, India and Pakistan were committed to resolving their issues bilaterally.

Source: The Hindu.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Scientists link Europe heat wave to man-made global warming

News

• The heat wave that smashed temperature records in Western Europe last month was made more intense by man-made climate change,according to a study.

Findings

• The rapid study by a respected team of European scientists points to an array of evidence that man-made global warming was behind the continent’s most recent heat wave.
• Global warming is also making such extreme heat more frequent, the study by experts found.
• The scientists said that the temperatures recorded in France and the Netherlands could happen every 50-150 years in the world’s current climate. Without “human influence on climate,” the temperatures would likely happen less than once in 1,000 years.
• The heat wave broke in Western Europe after a few days late last month, the extreme temperatures have since shifted north and are causing massive ice melts in Greenland and the Arctic.
• The scientists calculated the odds of this type of heat occurring now and how often it would have happened in a world without man-made global warming and compared them. They created the simulations by using eight different sets of complex computer models.
• They studied this new scientific method of climate attribution and pronounced it valid.
• The study helps to pin the blame for the heat wave on climate change.

Source: The Hindu.

Red earth mining poses threat to ecologically sensitive areas: Western Ghats Draft Notification

News

• Anaikatti North, Thadagam reserve forest, Anaikatti South, Anaikatti North reserve forest and Veerapandi were among 30 Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA) listed in the Western Ghats Draft Notification released by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in October 2018.
• Of these, Veerapandi is a revenue village where red earth is mined by brick kiln operators in inordinate levels while others are protected forest areas.

Beyond News

• As per the Draft Notification, there shall be a complete ban on mining, quarrying and sand mining in ESA and all existing mines shall be phased out within five years from the date of issue of the final notification or on the expiry of the existing mining lease, whichever is earlier.
• The report of the high level working group had stressed that the protection of biodiversity outside protected forest has a major role in saving the Western Ghats.
• However, such aspects were blindly ignored in protecting biodiversity around protected forest areas and ESAs of Thadagam Valley.
• Among other places, Chinna Thadagam, Nanjundapuram, Veerapandi, Somaiyampalayam are listed as places lie in hill areas as per an annexure of the Government Order 49 dated March 24, 2009 on HACA.

Source: The Hindu.

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