IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

IASTODAY CAPSULES are available free -date wise => CLICK HERE

Bill mandating death penalty for ‘honour killing’

News

• A bill was passed in the Rajasthan Assembly to curb incidents of ‘honour killing’ in the State with the provision of punishment of death penalty or life imprisonment for murdering couples in the name of family honour.

Rajasthan Prohibition of Interference with the Freedom of Matrimonial Alliances in the Name of Honour and Tradition Bill, 2019

• The Bill provisions punishment of death penalty or life imprisonment till natural death for killing a couple or either of them in the name of honour.
• Whoever causes death of a couple or either of them on the basis that marriage of such couple has dishonoured, or brought disrepute to the caste, community or family shall be punished with death, or with imprisonment for life, which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person’s natural life, and with fine which may extend to ₹5 lakh.
• If the couple or either of them is grievously hurt, the punishment will be from 10 years rigorous imprisonment to imprisonment for life and with fine of maximum ₹3 lakh, whereas the punishment will be three to five years imprisonment with fine which may extend to ₹2 lakh in case of simple injuries, it says.
• Sub Divisional Magistrate or the District Magistrate shall receive any request or information from any person or persons seeking protection from any unlawful assembly, or from any other person who is likely to or who have been objecting to any lawful marriage.
• It says no person or group shall assemble at any time with the view or intention to deliberate on or condemn any marriage, not prohibited by law, on the basis that such marriage has dishonoured the caste or community tradition or brought disrepute to all or any of the persons forming part of the assembly or the family or the people of the locality concerned.
• Such gathering shall be treated unlawful and every person convening or organising such assembly, and every member, thereof, participating therein directly or indirectly shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term not less than six months, but may extend to five years and shall also be liable to fine which may extend to ₹1 lakh.

Source: PRS india, The Hindu

Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill

News

• The Lok Sabha  passed the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019.
• The Bill, seeks to ban commercial surrogacy and provides for constituting a National Surrogacy Board, State Surrogacy Boards, and the appointment of appropriate authorities for the regulation of the practice and process of surrogacy.

Aim: to ending the exploitation of women who are lending their womb for surrogacy, and protecting the rights of children born through this.

• The Bill will also look after the interests of the couple that opt for surrogacy, ensuring that there are laws protecting them against exploitation by clinics that are carrying this out as a business.

Surrogacy Bill- Significant provisions

• The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill regulates altruistic surrogacy and prohibits commercial surrogacy.
• It defines surrogacy as a practice where a woman gives birth to a child for an eligible couple and agrees to hand over the child to them after the birth.
• The Bill allows altruistic surrogacy, which involves a surrogacy arrangement where the monetary reward only involves medical expenses and insurance coverage for the surrogate mother. Commercial surrogacy is prohibited under the Bill.
• This type of surrogacy includes a monetary benefit or reward (in cash or kind) that exceeds basic medical expenses and insurance for the surrogate mother.
• The couple intending to commission a surrogacy arrangement must be a close relative of the surrogate mother. In addition, the couple have to be Indian citizens who have been married for at least five years and are in the age group of 23-50 years (female partner) and 26-55 years (male partner), and secure a medical certificate stating that either or both partners are infertile.
• The couple also should not have any surviving child (whether biological, adopted or surrogate), except if the surviving child is mentally or physically challenged or suffers from a fatal illness, among other provisions.
• The surrogate mother, apart from proving that she is a close relative of the couple intending the surrogacy, has to married with a child of her own, in the age bracket of 25 to 35 years old, and should not have been a surrogate mother before.
• The Bill states that any child born out of a surrogacy procedure shall be the biological child of the intending couple and will be entitled to all rights and privileges that are available to a natural child.

Sources: PRSindia, The Hindu.

J&K – largest Union Territory

News

• Jammu and Kashmir will be the largest Union Territory (UT) in the country in terms of area once it is carved out, following the Centre’s move to bifurcate the State. Ladakh will be the second largest UT after it comes to force.

Union Territories

• With the addition of two new UTs, its total number will go up to nine; J&K, Ladakh, Delhi, Puducherry, Diu and Daman, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Currently, only two UTs Delhi and Puducherry  have Legislative Assemblies. With the addition of Jammu and Kashmir, the number will go up to three. UTs with legislative assemblies have Lt. Governors.
• The number of MPs from UTs may vary but all have representation in Parliament. For instance, Delhi sends seven MPs, the largest among union territories.

       Several J&K politicians arrested

• Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, who were under house arrest, have been arrested.
• Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference leaders Sajjad Lone and Imran Ansari have also been arrested.

Government changed special status of Kashmir

• President Ram Nath Kovind issued a presidential order under Article 370 (1) of the Constitution. This clause enables the President to specify the matters which are applicable to Jammu and Kashmir. As it can be issued only with the Jammu and Kashmir government’s concurrence, the notification uses the words “with the concurrence of the Government of the State of Jammu and Kashmir”. This presumably means the Governor, who is now administering the State under President’s Rule, has given his concurrence on behalf of the State government.
• The Order supersedes the 1954 Order. This effectively means that all the provisions that formed the basis of a separate “Constitution” for Jammu and Kashmir stand abrogated. The Order declares that all the provisions of the Constitution of India, shall apply to Jammu and Kashmir too.
• However, some special measures were still needed for the scrapping of Article 370 altogether. Therefore, a few clauses were added to Article 367 of the Constitution.

Article 370 

• The government revoked Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and proposed that the State be bifurcated into two separate Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
• Article 371, which has special provisions for other States, mostly from the Northeast, has invited some attention.
• Most of the States that have been accorded special provisions under Article 371 are in the northeast and the special status aims to preserve their tribal culture.
• Article 371(A) states that no act of Parliament shall apply to the State of Nagaland in respect of the religious or social practices of the Nagas, its customary law and procedure, administration of civil and criminal justice involving decisions according to Naga customary law and ownership and transfer of land and its resources.
• Article 371-G that deals with special provisions with respect to Mizoram has similar nature.
• Article 371B deals with special provision with respect to the State of 
• The main objective of inserting Article 371B was to facilitate the creation of the sub-State ‘Meghalaya’.
• Article 371C deals with special provisions with respect to Manipur which became a State in 1972.
• Articles 371F, 371H talk about special provisions with respect to States of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, respectively.
• Article 371 gives the power to the President of India to establish separate development boards for Vidarbha, Marathwada regions of Maharashtra and the rest of the State and Saurashtra, Kutch and rest of Gujarat.
• Special provisions with respect to Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa are dealt in Articles 371D and 371E, 371J, 371I respectively.

Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Bill

News

• The Lok Sabha passed a bill which provides a mechanism for social, economic and educational empowerment of transgenders.

Transgender Persons Bill 2019

• It makes provision for establishing a national authority for safeguarding rights of transgenders.
• According to the 2011 Census there are more than 4.80 lakh transgenders in the country. In the Bill there are provisions for penalty and punishment in cases of offences and sexual harassment against transgender persons.
• A contentious provision that criminalised begging by transgender people has been removed from the Bill.
• According to the Bill, a transgender is a person whose gender does not match with the gender assigned to that person at birth and includes trans-man or trans-woman (whether or not such person has undergone sex reassignment surgery or hormone therapy or laser therapy or such other therapy), person with inter-sex variations, gender-queer and person having such socio-cultural identities as ‘kinner’, ‘hijra’, ‘aravani’ and ‘jogta’.
• A person would have the right to choose to be identified as a man, woman or transgender, irrespective of sex reassignment surgery and hormonal therapy. It also requires transgender persons to go through a district magistrate and district screening committee to get certified as a trans person.

Source: PIB india, PRS india

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

IMPRINT India

News:

Union HRD Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ inaugurates TechEx – a technology exhibition organized to demonstrate products and prototypes developed under IMPRINT and UAY .

About scheme:

• IMPRINT scheme was launched in November, 2015 .
• IMPacting Research, INnovation and Technology (IMPRINT) is a pan-IIT and IISc joint collaboration to develop a blueprint for research of immediate relevance to society requiring innovation, direct scientific research into identified areas, ensure higher funding support for research into these areas 
  TechEx – technology exhibition at IIT Delhi, was recently organized to demonstrate products and prototypes developed under the two flagship schemes of MoHRD namely IMPRINT and UchhatarAvishkar Yojana (UAY). 
  TechEx is a unique effort, which offers an excellent platform to the researchers to showcase their work and inspire them to do their best in their respective domains.
• 142 projects at a total cost of Rs.313.30 cr. were approved under the IMPRINT-I. These projects are funded jointly by MHRD and the participating Ministry in the ratio of 50:50.

Source: PIB india

India’s Deep Ocean Mission

News

• India’s ambitious ‘Deep Ocean Mission’ is all set to be launched this year. The ₹8,000-crore plan to explore deep ocean minerals.

Aim; To explore and extract polymetallic nodules.

• These are small potato-like rounded accretions composed of minerals such as manganese, nickel, cobalt, copper and iron hydroxide. They lie scattered on the Indian Ocean floor at depths of about 6,000 m and the size can vary from a few millimetres to centimetres. These metals can be extracted and used in electronic devices, smartphones, batteries and even for solar panels.

Area for deep-sea mining. 

• The International Seabed Authority (ISA), an autonomous international organisation established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, allots the ‘area’ for deep-sea 
• India was the first country to receive the status of a ‘Pioneer Investor ‘ in 1987 and was given an area of about 1.5 lakh sq km in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) for nodule exploration. In 2002, India signed a contract with the ISA and after complete resource analysis of the seabed 50% was surrendered and the country retained an area of 75,000 sq km.
• The estimated polymetallic nodule resource potential in this area is 380 million tonnes (MT), containing 4.7 MT of nickel, 4.29 MT of copper, 0.55 MT of cobalt and 92.59 MT of manganese. Further studies have helped narrow the mining area to 18,000 sq km which will be the ‘First Generation Mine-site’.
• Apart from the CIOB, polymetallic nodules have been identified from the central Pacific Ocean. It is known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.

Environmental impact

• These deep remote locations can be home to unique species that have adapted themselves to conditions such as poor oxygen and sunlight, high pressure and extremely low temperatures. Such mining expeditions can make them go extinct even before they are known to science.
• The deep sea’s biodiversity and ecology remain poorly understood, making it difficult to assess the environmental impact and frame adequate guidelines.
• Environmentalists are also worried about the sediment plumes that will be generated as the suspended particles can rise to the surface harming the filter feeders in the upper ocean layers.
• Additional concerns have been raised about the noise and light pollution from the mining vehicles and oil spills from the operating vessels.

Source: The Hindu

Canine distemper virus (CDV)

News:

Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) caused the death of five Asiatic lions in Gir forest, Gujarat.

Beyond news:

Last year, over 20 lions from the Gir forest succumbed to the viral infection.

Canine Distemper Virus:

Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) is a viral disease that infects the gastrointestinal, respiratory, and central nervous systems.

More to know:

• CDV can be spread through direct contact (licking, breathing air, etc.) or indirect contact (bedding, toys, food bowls, etc.),though it cannot live on surfaces for very long. Inhaling the virus is the primary method of exposure.
  There is no known cure for CDV
  A recent study published in Threatened Taxa notes that 86% of the tested dogs around Ranthambhore National Park in Rajasthan carried Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) antibodies in their bloodstream.

Source: Hindu Business line

Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air missiles (QRSAM)

News:

Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight-tested its state-of-the-art Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missiles (QRSAM) against live aerial targets from Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur.

More to know:

• It has been developed to replace the ‘Akash’ missile defence system, and has 360-degree coverage.
  It uses solid fuel propellant and has a strike range of 25-30 km with capability of hitting multiple targets.
  It is capable of hitting the low flying objects.
  DRDO has successfully test-fired indigenously developed Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air missiles (QRSAM) from a test range off the Odisha coast.

Source: PIB India

CLICK HERE TO SEE DATE WISE CURRENT AFFAIRS