EC revises norms concerning star campaigners for elections.
With
a view to ensuring the conduct of free, fair, peaceful, transparent, ethical
and safe elections during COVID-19, the Election Commission has revised the
norms concerning star campaigners for all ongoing and future elections during
the period of pandemic COVID-19.
•In
the revised norms, the Commission said the maximum limit on the number of star
campaigners for recognized National and State political parties will be 30 in
place of 40 and for unrecognized registered political parties it will be 15 in
place of 20.
•It
said, the period of submission of the list of star campaigners is extended from
7 days to 10 days from the date of notification.Political parties, which have
already submitted list of star campaigners will resubmit a revised list within
the stipulated period.
•It
said, request for permission for the campaigning by star campaigners are to be
submitted to the district election authorities at least 48 hours before the
start of campaign so that all necessary safety measures are put in place well
in time.
Modi hails investment opportunities in India.
Indian
PM Modi has hailed the trinity reforms in the field of labour, education and
agriculture and asserted that India undertook structural reforms amidst the
global pandemic to usher in revolutionary changes in the country.
•Addressing
the Invest India Conference in Canada through video conferencing on Modi said
the reforms introduced by the government have resulted in substantial
improvement in the country's ranking in terms of ease of doing business.
•Highlighting
the key markers of the huge surge in FDI in the country during 2019, he said the
country has decriminalized many provisions in the Companies Act.
•Modi
said the country emerged as a Pharmacy center of the world during the pandemic
and extended assistance to over 150 countries around the world by ensuring
supplies of life saving drugs.
•Underlining
the change in mindset and perception of every one regarding the country, he
said, India has all the necessary vitals which make it a lucrative investment
destination.
•
Modi said, the vibrant democracy, stability of government, transparency in
business and availability of large market in the country ensures predictable
return for all the Investors.
Crime in India report 2019 saw the increase in crime
rate.
According
to the annual Crime in India 2019 report by the National Crime Records Bureau
(NCRB), the crimes in SC, ST category saw an increase of 25.7% as compared to
2018.
Highlights of the Report:
•
Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of crimes against SCs in 2019,
followed Rajasthan and Bihar.
Rape Cases:
•
In the number of cases of rape of women belonging to SCs, Rajasthan topped the
list with 554 cases, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Madhya
Pradesh recorded the highest number of cases against STs as it recorded
followed by Rajasthan and Odisha.
Cognizable Crimes:
•
A total of cognizable crimes comprising Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Special and
Local Laws (SLL) crimes showed an increase of 1.6% in registration of cases
over 2018.
•
An increase of 7.3% cases of crime against women were registered in 2019
compared to 2018.
Cybercrimes
Increased by 63.5% in 2019.
•
In 2019, 60.4% of cybercrime cases registered were for the motive of fraud,
followed by Sexual Exploitation and causing disrepute with 4.2%.CHRI Statement:
•
The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), a police reforms advocacy
group, said few cases were being registered for specific discriminatory action
against SCs and STs.
Crimes
against SCs and STs Include categories:
•
Atrocities committed by non-SC/ST members under the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989.
•
Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955.
Afghanistan's
top peace negotiator Abdullah Abdullah today met PM Modi. Ongoing peace
initiative to bring back stability in the war-ravaged Afghanistan was discussed
by the leaders.
•External
Affairs Ministry Spokesperson said Modi reaffirmed India's long term commitment
to further deepen ties with Afghanistan.Mr Abdullah is in Delhi on a five-day
visit as part of the efforts to build a regional consensus and support for the
Afghan peace process.
•
Despite of not accepting Taliban as the political stakeholder of Afghanistan
India is now believed to support a national peace and reconciliation process
which is Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled.
•On
September 12, an Indian delegation attended the inaugural ceremony of the
intra-Afghan negotiations in Doha while External Affairs Minister of India
Jaishankar joined it through video conference.
5Turkey's reopening of Northern Cyprus beach sparks
controversy.
Turkey's
decision to reopen parts of Varosha, a seaside resort in the breakaway Turkish
Cypriot north of Cyprus, has raised concerns both locally and internationally,
days before an election in Northern Cyprus.
•President
Nicos Anastasiades of Cyprus' Greek-majority south called the opening a
"flagrant violation of international law and the resolutions of the UN
Security Council." Cyprus' close ally Greece has also warned that the
issue will be raised with the European Union.
•Varosha
was abandoned in 1974 when Turkey invaded Cyprus, dividing the island along
ethnic lines. For years before that, Varosha had been Cyprus' premier resort
with a mile-long stretch of beach. Now, it looks like a ghost town with trees
growing out of abandoned buildings facing the sea.
•While
some Turkish Cypriots hailed the move, Greek Cypriots carried out protests
against the reopening of the region across the UN buffer zone.
•Some
say that the move may be an attempt by Turkey to sway the upcoming elections in
the favor of nationalist leader and Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Ersin Tatar,
who announced the reopening after consulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan.He is set to challenge incumbent President Mustafa Akinci, who has
criticized this move.
GoI starts procurement of Kharif crops at MSP.
Government
has started procurement of Kharif Crops at Minimum Support Price (MSP) in full
swing.
•So
far, approval has been accorded for procurement of over 20 lakh 37 thousand
metric tonne of paddy benefitting nearly 1 lakh 70 thousand farmers across the
country.
•The
procurement this year has been reported to be 33 per cent higher than the
corresponding time span last year. Government has disbursed around 3 thousand
850 crore rupees to the farmers in lieu of the procurements.
•Based
on the proposal from the States, approval has also been accorded for
procurement of 30 lakh 70 thousand metric tonnes of Pulses and Oilseeds for
Kharif Marketing Season 2020 from the States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka,
Maharashtra, Telangana, Gujarat, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.
•Government
through its Nodal Agencies has also procured over 376 metric tonne of Moong
having MSP value of 2 crore 71 lakh rupees benefitting farmers in Tamil Nadu
and Haryana.
•Approval
for procurement of Kharif Crops is also being accorded to various other States
and Union Territories on receipt of their proposal for agricultural produces as
per the Price Support Scheme.
The
constellation of maritime surveillance satellites for the Indian Ocean Region,
to be jointly launched by India and France, will be able to trace illegal
spillage of oil by ships, a senior French space agency CENS official said on
Sunday.
In
August last year, CNES and ISRO committed to developing and building a
constellation of satellites carrying telecommunications and radar and optical
remote-sensing instruments, constituting the first space-based system in the
world capable of tracking ships continuously.
•After
a successful design phase led by a joint team of ISRO-CNES, the satellite is
now set to enter its development phases in the coming months, the official
said.
BrahMos surface-to-surface supersonic cruise missile.
India
test-fired an extended-range BrahMos surface-to-surface supersonic cruise
missile that can hit targets 400km away.
BrahMos Test:
•
The range has been increased from the existing 290km.
•
The extended-range variant was tested from the Integrated Test Range at
Balasore in Odisha.
•
The test has cleared the decks for India to induct a second class of
supersonic, long-range tactical cruise missiles, propelled by a liquid-fuelled
booster capable of Hitting targets over 500km away.
•
The missile featured an indigenous booster and air-frame section along with
many other ‘Made in India’ sub-systems.
•
The missile was tested for the second time.
•
The missile cruised at a top speed of Mach 2.8 (nearly three times the speed of
sound).
•
The configuration of the existing missile – the world’s fastest supersonic
cruise missile —has been tweaked to enhance its range.
Significance of the Test:
•
The significance of the BrahMos test from a mobile launcher was that the cruise
missile reached 75% indigenisation with India now having the capability to
design the airframe as well as an indigenous liquid-fuelled booster.
•
BrahMos missiles are already deployed in the Ladakh theatre along with a
limited number of 1,000km range Nirbhay subsonic cruise missiles to counter the
missiles and rockets deployed by the Chinese army in Tibet and Xinjiang.
•
The two armies are locked in a tense standoff in the Ladakh sector of the Line
of Actual Control (LAC).
•
The successful launch has paved the way for the serial production of the
indigenous booster and other indigenous components of the Powerful Weapon
System.
BrahMos Missile:
•
The missile is an Indo-Russian joint venture.
•
The first supersonic cruise missile system known to be in service.
•
The BrahMos is a multi-stage missile having a solid propellant in the first
stage and the ramjet liquid propellant in the second stage.
•
It has land, air and naval variants.
•
The missile is capable of carrying a conventional as well as nuclear warhead of
300 kilograms.
•
It operates on ‘Fire and Forget Principle’ by adopting varieties of flights on
its way to the target.
•
The missile derives its name from the names of two rivers, namely the
Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia.
•
India is also working on a hypersonic missile, BrahMos-II (K), capable of
taking out hardened targets such as underground bunkers and weapon storage
facilities at seven times the speed of sound (Mach 7) or 8,575 kmph.
Methane is responsible for a quarter of global warming
occurred since the 1850s. Resarch
.
Raising
livestock, increase in coal mining, landfills, and oil and gas production were
the specific activities linked to the greatest increases, according Global
Carbon Project.
•
Wetlands contributed the most of the emissions, at 30 per cent, while oil, gas
and coal activities accounted for 20 per cent of the emissions. Agriculture
made up 24 per cent of the emissions, while landfills were responsible for 11
per cent.
•
Tropical regions in three continents Africa, Asia and South America were
responsible for 64 per cent of the entire planet’s emissions, while temperate
regions and the Arctic contributed to 32 per cent and four per cent
respectively.
•
Water-logged soil once it begins to thaw creates conditions ideal for methane
production.
•
Emissions increased nine per cent compared to the last decade.
•
While methane emissions briefly stabilized between 2000 and 2006,
concentrations of the gas in the atmosphere now exceed 1,875 parts per billion
or about 2.5 times that from the 1850s.
Global
Carbon Project:
•
The GCP is a Global Research Project of Future Earth and a research partner of
the World Climate Research Programme.
•
The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle.
•
It collaborates with many groups to gather, analyze, and publish data on
greenhouse gas emissions in an open and transparent fashion, making datasets
available on its website and through its Publications.
•
It releases the Global Carbon Atlas (established in 2013) a tool for
visualising data related to the Global Carbon Cycle.
Joshua Cheptegei sets 10000m world record.
Ugandan
Joshua Cheptegei smashed the men’s 10,000m world record on Wednesday at the
Valencia World Record Day, crossing the line in a stunning 26 minutes 11.02
seconds to take six seconds off a 15-year-old record.
Cheptegei,
24, broke the previous mark of 26:17:53, set by Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele, at a
special event in a near-empty Turia stadium here as only 400 people including
sponsors, journalists and staff were allowed in.
Focus on UPSC Mains:
Eco Disaster Unfolding on Kamchatka Beach.
According
to a report, an ‘Ecological Disaster’ of sorts is unfolding on a black volcanic
beach of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East.
What is the Matter?
•
Three weeks ago, surfers on the Khalaktyrsky beach outside Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky,
the largest town in Kamchatka, had reported of burning eyes, throat ache,
headache, fever and a fear of losing eyesight on emerging from the water.
•
These included octopuses, seals, sea urchins, stars, crabs and fish.
•
Examination of the sea water by the administration has shown that levels of
phenols and oil compounds have spiked.
•
The river displayed a yellow colour.
•
There is a training camp of the Russian military upstream. Another theory being
speculated is that ships carrying oil in the vicinity had leaked it into the
sea water.
•
Kamchatka is a UNESCO world heritage site.
Temperatures
in Antarctic Peninsula Highest in 30 years:
•
Temperatures in 2020 on the Antarctic Peninsula, the northernmost tip of the
Antarctic continent, have been the highest in nearly three decades, a study by
researchers from the University of Santiago de Chile has found.
•
Temperatures reached between two and three degrees Celsius on the peninsula
between January and August, according to a report on science and environment
website.
•
That is “more than two degrees Celsius over typical values”, according to
researchers.
•
This was an alarming development since it could indicate that the ocean in the
area was once again warming, According to Scientists.
•
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Terra satellite has
photographed the enormous amount of Andes mountain sediment deposited by the
Amazon river into the Atlantic Ocean.
•
Most of the sediment that the Amazon carried to the Atlantic came from three
rivers flowing in the western part of the basin, namely the Maranon, the
Ucayali and Mamoré.
Kamchatka Peninsula:
•
Kamchatka is 900 miles long and it is closer to Alaska than it is to Moscow.
•
Kamchatka contains the highest concentration of active volcanoes in the world,
as well as freezing winters that are braved by nomadic reindeer herders.
•
The volcanoes have been incorporated into an extensive UNESCO World Heritage
Site that is home to a wide variety of wildlife, including brown bears, sea
otters and sea eagles.
•
This peninsula has over 150 volcanoes and 29 out of them are active.
•
It has a group of 19 volcanoes known as Volcanoes of Kamchatka which is UNESCO
World Heritage Site.
•
It has many volcanoes, geysers, hot springs and even a lake of acid.
•
The region’s extensive network of rivers and proximity to the Sea of Okhotsk
and Pacific Ocean allows it to play host to the largest variety of salmonid
species on earth, including the Sockeye Salmon.
Lokpal and Lokayukta.
The
Justice Prafulla Kumar Misra has recently retired from the post of Goa
Lokayukta and has highlighted the issues related to the state office and the
proceedings.
About Lokpal and Lokayukta:
•
Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, 2013: It provides the establishment of Lokpal for the
Union and Lokayukta for States.
•
It received assent from the President on 1st January 2014 and came into force
on 16th January 2014. The term Lokpal and Lokayukta were coined by Dr L. M.
Singhvi.
•
These institutions are statutory bodies without any constitutional status. They
perform the function of an "ombudsman” and inquire into allegations of
corruption against certain public functionaries and for related matters.
About Goa Lokayukta Act:
•
Before the enactment of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 itself, many states
had already set up the institution of Lokayuktas.
•
It was sent to the Central government in 2003 and passed in the Assembly only
in October 2011, after it was reintroduced.
•
It is modelled upon Karnataka and Kerala’s Lokayukta Acts but with less strict
provisions.
•
It is intended to remove grievances of individual(s) against maladministration
of government officials.
•
A complaint under this Act can be filed either on the basis of an allegation or
on the basis of the Grievance.
•
During his tenure, the office of the Lokayukta received 191 cases, 133 of which
were disposed of. Among the 58 pending cases are 21 in which he sent reports to
the government, but the state government has not acted and Action Taken Reports
are still awaited.
•
His recommendations included initiation of disciplinary action, transfer, probe
into mishandled funds, misuse of powers of ministers and bureaucrats, detailed
investigation by the Anti- Corruption Bureau or a declaration that an elected
functionary is unfit to hold office.
•
Officials stalled preliminary enquiry by avoiding registering an FIR and hence
many cases went to Lokayukta because of that.
•
He referred to the Supreme Court’s Lalita Kumari versus Government of Uttar
Pradesh judgment (2013) where the court has clearly said that whenever anyone
comes to the police station and makes a complaint of a cognisable offence the
police officer is bound to register an FIR, under the Section 154 of Criminal
Procedure Code (CrPC).
•
His reports were indicative of the lack of governance, irrespective of any
party of power of the day and highlighted bureaucratic apathy and apathy of
politicians.
•
The state act does not have the powers of the prosecution that the Karnataka
and Kerala Acts have, nor does it have a provision for contempt of the
Lokayukta’s orders.
•
Lokayukta has an investigation wing in which police officers are supposed to be
deputed however, it lacked an adequate number of qualified personnel.
Suggestions:
•
Power of Prosecution:Under Section 17 of the Goa Lokayukta Act, the power to
prosecute should be given to the Lokayukta.
•
It is there in Karnataka and Kerala acts but not present in Goa Act, where it
is under ‘initiation of Prosecution’ and says that if the Lokayukta notices
that an offence has been committed, then (s)he may pass an order and the
appropriate authority “shall” initiate prosecution against the public
functionary.
•
The initiation of prosecution should not be left to the discretion and the
“shall” here means that the opinion of the Lokayukta is mandatory to be
followed.
•
About Power to Punish on Contempt: While making the rules, the Act should have
been included with the power to punish on contempt of the orders of Lokayukta,
which is still not available under the rules of the Act.
•
He must be true to the oath and continue to be committed to discharging the
duty without fear or favour, affection or ill will.
No comments:
Post a Comment