IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Report: Drop in death sentences awarded by trial courts

News

• The number of death sentences awarded by trial courts in India saw a significant drop from 162 in 2018 to 102 in 2019, according to ‘Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report 2018’, prepared by Project 39A of the National Law University, Delhi.

Significant drop

• According to the report, 52.94 per cent of the 102 death penalties last year (54 death sentences) were given in cases involving sexual offences.
• No death sentence was awarded in 11 states Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim in 2019, while Rajasthan topped the list with 13 death sentences.
• Madhya Pradesh, which recorded the most death sentences (22) in 2018, halved its tally to 11 in 2019, the report said. Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim have not awarded any death sentences in the last four years.
• The death penalties awarded in 2018 were the highest in a calendar year since 2000, possibly as a result of amendments to the Prevention of Child Sexual Offences Act, extending the death sentence to non-homicidal crimes in cases of rape and gangrape of girls below the age of 12.
• Death penalty cases were heard and decided in greater numbers in the Supreme Court last year due to changes in the listing procedure that former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi put in place.
• With the 102 death sentences last year, there are a total of 378 prisoners on death row as of December 31, 2019.
• Project 39A is a research and litigation initiative focusing on the criminal justice system. It works on issues around legal aid, torture, mental health in prisons and death penalty.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

No doubts on India’s Kashmir approach, S-400 missiles to be delivered by 2025: Russia

News

• Russian envoy to India Nikolay Kudashev stated that Russia has ‘no doubts’ about India’s approach to the Kashmir crisis while underlined that the issue remains to be ‘a strictly bilateral matter’ between India and Pakistan.

Long-standing ally

• Deputy Chief of Mission Roman Babushkin stated that the S-400 surface to air missiles (SAMs) will be delivered to India by 2025. The production of S-400 missiles to be delivered to India has started.
• Russia has been a long-standing ally for India on the Kashmir issue ever since its support for the Article 370 dilution.
• A week after the Union government’s J&K move, Russia had become the first UNSC permanent member to come out in support of India as it stated that the move was carried out “within the framework of the Constitution of the Republic of India”.

India needs structural reforms to boost growth, policymakers should lead way for climate action: UN report

News

• In the face of an economic slowdown, India needs to continue structural reforms necessary to boost growth, said a United Nations report.

India’s growth

• The UN report ‘World Economic Situation and Prospects 2020 (WESP)’ stated that,the combination of fiscal stimulus and financial sector reforms, boosting investment and consumption, is expected to support a recovery in growth to 6.6 per cent, but it will take continued structural reforms to bring India’s growth back to its previous levels.
• Even as the report expressed hope that a combination of fiscal stimulus and financial sector reforms will help boost consumption, it lowered India’s GDP growth estimate.
• The report said that one in five countries will see per capita income stagnate or decline this year, but indicated that India may be among a few countries where the per capita GDP growth rate could exceed 4 per cent level in 2020.
• Significantly, the report highlighted that there could be setbacks for sustainable development if prolonged weakness in global economic activity continues and this may further impact the goals to eradicate poverty and create decent jobs for all.
• At the same time, pervasive inequalities and the deepening climate crisis are fuelling growing discontent in many parts of the world.
• In China, GDP growth is projected to moderate gradually from 6.1 per cent in 2019 to 6.0 per cent in 2020 and 5.9 per cent in 2021, supported by more accommodative monetary and fiscal policies.
• The report crucially noted the shift in global economic decision-making power from the EU, the US and other developed countries towards China, India and other developing countries.
• Climate change risks and its impact on the economy and livelihood of people featured prominently in the report.

Defence production: USD 26 bn turnover target by 2025, says Rajnath Singh

News

• Defence Minister said the government has set a target of achieving a turnover of USD 26 billion by 2025 in defence production as India cannot remain dependent on arms import forever.

51st K-9 Vajra-T gun

• Defence Minister flagged off the 51st K-9 Vajra-T gun at the Larsen and Toubro’s (L&T) Armoured Systems Complex at Hazira here in Gujarat.
• L&T Defence is executing the ‘K9 VAJRA-T’ 155mm/52 calibre-tracked, self-propelled, howitzer guns programme.
• The engineering conglomerate, which had won the contract to deliver 100 such howitzer guns, has already delivered 50 units to the Indian Army ahead of deadline, while on Thursday it handed over the 51st gun, the company said in a release.
• The L&T company had in 2007, bagged the contract of Rs 4,500 crore, from the defence ministry for the manufacture of 100 units if K9 VAJRA-T howitzer guns. L&T signed a contract with South Korean company Hanwha Corporation for transfer of technology.
• The hi-tech gun is also equipped with other India specific modifications for desert conditions such as an auxiliary power pack, air-conditioning systems, fire fighting systems, and NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) protection systems.

Maharashtra government finalises new insurer for cashless health insurance scheme

News

• The state government has finalised insurance company United India Insurance as the insurer of its cashless health insurance scheme Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana (MJPJAY).

Cashless health insurance scheme

• MJPJAY, a state-run insurance scheme launched in 2012, covers 2.25 crore families and provides a medical cover of Rs 1.5 lakh. In the latest tender, the government has increased hospitals empanelled under the scheme from 492 to 1,000 and total procedures that patients can avail from 971 to 1,096.
• Once rolled out, the fresh scheme will include hip and knee replacement surgery, paediatric cancers, mental illnesses like depression, schizophrenia, delusional disorders and mood disorders. For certain procedures, the government has increased the cost kidney transplant will fetch a hospital Rs 3 lakh instead of Rs 2.5 lakh, dialysis will be for Rs 1,100 instead of Rs 700, and cost for treatment of a few fractures will rise from Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000.
• Between 2012 till 2019, Maharashtra had tied up with National Insurance Company to run the scheme. Under MJPJAY, a beneficiary can avail free treatment, while the hospital gets reimbursed by the insurance company after state government scrutinises patient’s medical documents.
• The Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) will function along with MJPJAY under a hybrid model. For beneficiaries of PMJAY, which covers treatment cost up to Rs 5 lakh, the state government has created a trust to pay hospitals. Maharashtra has 83 lakh beneficiaries under PMJAY.

Need India’s support to provide rails to develop Chabahar Port: Iran Foreign Minister

News

• Concluding his three-day visit to India, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stated that the development of the Chabahar port will require India and Iran to work together in order to expedite projects like rail connectivity to Afghanistan.

Chabahar Port

• Chabahar, which is located 72 kilometers west of Pakistan’s Gwadar port, holds immense strategic and economic significance for India.
• Importance of completing the Chabahar-Zahedan rail network; It will connect the port to far off mainland areas like Afghanistan and Central Asia.
• US has imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic for the development of Chabahar port in November 2018, but has exempted India from its sanctions offensive through CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act).
• However, the European and Chinese suppliers who had got contracts to supply equipment for the port have been reluctant to deliver, fearing the adverse impact on their business with the US.
• The minister highlighted that although Iran was not interested in renegotiations with the US, it would be open to dialogue if India wants to work in preventing the unrest and bringing the US back to the negotiating table.
• The Chabahar Port complex, backed by India, on Iran’s coast along the Gulf of Oman is being developed to provide an alternative trade route between India and Afghanistan.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Proxima C: A new ‘super Earth’ discovered, but will it be viable for life?

News

• A new ‘Super-Earth’ planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, which is the Sun’s nearest neighboring star, has been discovered by scientists.

Proxima Centauri

• The Proxima c is the second possibly habitable planet, though it is believed to be far beyond the snow line or the boundary where water exists only in frozen form.
• Back in 2016, Proxima b was discovered by scientists, though that planet is much bigger, and closer to the Proxima Centauri star.
• The new Proxima c planet is being seen as a prime candidate for a ‘super Earth’, though it is believed to be much smaller than Proxima b. The new planet takes 5.2 Earth years to complete one orbit around the Proxima Centauri star and is further away from its sun, so it is likely frozen.
• It has a minimum mass is half of that of Neptune, which still puts it in the ‘super Earth’ category, though it is still among the low mass ones. However, the planet is believed to have a surface temperature of minus 234 degrees Celsius.
• Discovery of Proxima c “is highly significant for planet formation models. This is because the planet would have one of the longest periods for orbiting around the star, and a minimum mass in the super-Earth regime, which have been presently detected with using the existing radial velocity (RV) technique.
• The Proxima Centauri is a small low-mass star, which is located nearly 4.2 light years away from Earth, and is believed to be the closest star to our Sun.

Super Earths

• Super Earths are rocky planets that bigger than Earth, without a huge gas envelope surrounding them. According to NASA, these Super Earth’s are planets, which are 10 times more massive than Earth with a rocky surface. But scientists do not yet know for certainty is when the planets lose their rocky surface. Nor is it clear if these planets could support life in the future.
• Proxima b is unlikely to host alien life, though it is believed to be in the habitable zone, where liquid water will stay in its stable form.
• Promixa b is also orbiting the Proxima Centauri star. According to NASA, its mass is believed to be 1.27 Earths and it takes 11.2 days to complete one orbit of its star.

ISRO’s GSAT-30 satellite successfully launched aboard Ariane rocket

News

• India’s “high power” communication satellite GSAT-30, aimed at providing high-quality television, telecommunications and broadcasting services, was successfully launched onboard Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana in the early hours, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

GSAT-30

• • Blasting off from the Ariane Launch Complex in Kourou, a French territory located in northeastern coast of South America, European space consortium Arianespace’s Ariane 5 vehicle injected GSAT-30 into the orbit in a flawless flight lasting about 38 minutes.
  • The 3,357-kg satellite, which was deployed from the lower passenger position of Ariane-5 launch vehicle (VA 251) into to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), is configured on ISRO’s enhanced I-3K Bus structure to provide communication services from Geostationary orbit in C and Ku bands.
  • The satellite derives its heritage from ISRO’s earlier INSAT/GSAT satellite series, and is equipped with 12 C and 12 Ku band transponders.
  • GSAT-30 is to serve as replacement to the “aging” INSAT-4A spacecraft services with enhanced coverage, ISRO has said, adding the satellite provides Indian mainland and islands coverage in Ku-band and extended coverage in C-band covering Gulf countries, a large number of Asian countries and Australia.
  • With a mission life of 15 years, GSAT-30 is an operational communication satellite for DTH, television uplink and VSAT services.
  • The communication payload of GSAT-30 is specifically designed and optimised to maximise the number of transponders on the spacecraft bus.
  • According to the space agency, the spacecraft would be extensively used for supporting VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) network, television uplinking and teleport services, digital satellite news gathering (DSNG), DTH television services, cellular backhaul connectivity and many such applications.

IIT-M develops device to produce ‘clean’ hydrogen fuel from seawater

News

• Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras have developed a novel device that can be used to generate hydrogen fuel from seawater, an advance that may contribute to a cleaner energy future.

Hydrogen fuel

• Using the technology, hydrogen can be produced on demand at the point of use, and hence it need not to be stored.
• This overcomes the storage-related challenges associated with hydrogen as its highly inflammable and may cause an explosion, the researchers said.
• Hydrogen can be a good source of energy for the future. Combustion of hydrogen does not produce carbon dioxide, unlike fossil fuels, making it a ‘clean’ source of energy, they said.
• Hydrogen is produced at a tunable rate without heat, electricity or sunlight. The starting materials are all eco-friendly. The process is amenable to all scales of production that is relevant for the hydrogen economy hence sectors such as automotive, aviation etc. would benefit from this technology.
• The technology is used to generate hydrogen from any source of water.

In a first, Arunachal Pradesh to ‘red list’ its orchids for protection

News

• When the Botanical Survey of India published the first comprehensive orchid census of the country last year, Arunachal Pradesh emerged as its top contributor.
• Nearly half (612 out of 1256) of India’s orchid species can be found in the Northeastern state and there is a strong possibility that there could be many, many more.

Red Listing of orchids

• A year-long project to assess the status of orchids in Arunachal Pradesh was initiated with the government signing a Memorandum of Understanding with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) India to create a Red Listing of orchids at the state level.
• While IUCN Red Listing is a global process to assess the risk faced by different species, state level assessments are done if species are endemic to a certain area.
• The IUCN Red List is a crucial tool in understanding threats against biodiversity and helps initiating action for conservation.
• The diversity of orchid species in Arunachal Pradesh is because of its topography.
• A lack of awareness among the locals is a major reason that leads to orchid depletion in Arunachal Pradesh.
• The biggest threat is due to ignorance. Common people have very little knowledge about the worth of the orchid,the IUCN development is important because it will help determine the status of orchids already discovered.
• In Arunachal Pradesh, the richest concentration of orchids is believed to be in Ziro Valley. An orchid translocation project since 2017 has led to the discovery of more than 20 species in the area.

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