Comprehensive Current affairs 30 November 2020

One Nation, One Election.

PM Modi raised the pitch for “One Nation, One Election” and a single voter list for all polls in order to prevent the impact of the model code of conduct on development works every few months due to frequent elections.

About:

Modi also asked the presiding officers attending the meet to apply their mind to simplify the language of statute books and allow for an easier process to weed out redundant laws.

He said, “One Nation, One Election' isn’t just an issue of deliberation but also a need of the country. Elections are held at different places every few months and it hampers the developmental work. Therefore, it’s a must to have a deep study and deliberation on ‘One Nation, One Election’.”

On one voter list, he observed, “only one voter list should be used for Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha and other elections. Why are we wasting time and money?”

Emphasising need for coordination between all three wings of the state -- Legislature, Executive and Judiciary, he stated that everything, from their role to their decorum, was described in the Constitution itself.

Autonomous District Council.

Autonomous District Council (ADC)s are institutions of local governance created under sixth schedule with executive, legislative and judicialpowers.

Sixth Schedule consists of provisions for administration of tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura andMizoram.

There are 10 areas- three in Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram each and one in Tripura that are registered asautonomous districts.

Each autonomous district and regional council consists of not more than 30 members, of which four arenominated by the governor and the rest via elections.

BIS standards revised for two-wheeler helmets.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued the ‘Helmet for riders of Two Wheelers Motor Vehicles (Quality Control) Order, 2020.

Protective Helmets for Two-Wheeler Riders have been included under compulsory BIS certification and the publication of the Quality Control Order.

Key recommendations:

As per the directions of the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety for considering lighter helmets in India suiting the country's climatic conditions and that for ensuring compliance amongst citizen to wear the helmets, a Committee was formulated.

The Committee had experts from different fields, including expert doctors from AIIMS and also from BIS.

The Committee in March 2018 after detailed analysis in itsreport recommended lighter helmetsin the Country, and Ministry accepted the report.

Quality control order:

QCO would mean that only BIS certified two-wheeler helmets would be manufactured and sold in the Country for two wheelers.

This would help in avoiding sale of low-qualitytwo-wheeler helmets in the Country which would in turn help in protecting citizens involved in two-wheeler accidents from fatal injuries.

 China's Chang'e-5 lunar probe conducts 2nd braking, prepares to land.

China's Chang'e-5 lunar probe successfully completed its second braking at 8:23 p.m. Sunday (BJT), entering a circular lunar orbit 200 kilometers above the moon and getting ready for the landing operation, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of China National Space Administration (CNSA).

This follows its first braking one day earlier, which took place at a position about 400 kilometers above the moon and enabled it to be captured by the moon's gravitational field and fly in an elliptical lunar orbit.

The second braking brings it closer to the moon. Over the next week, the probe, composed of four parts – the orbiter, lander, ascender and Earth re-entry module – will perform multiple complicated tasks on a tight schedule.

The four parts will separate into two pairs. The lander and ascender will head to the moon and collect samples, while the orbiter and Earth re-entry module will continue to fly around the moon and adjust to a designated orbit, getting ready for the docking with the ascender.

The landing operation is expected in three days. Once touched down on the lunar surface, the lander will collect two kilograms of lunar sample.

It will shovel some surface material, drill a two-meter-deep hole and extract the soil from inside it, which will act as an archive of the moon, with the bottom recording information from a billion years ago, and the top more closely reflecting the present day.

Once the samples are secured, the ascender will take off from the lunar surface to transfer the moon samples to the re-entry capsule waiting in lunar orbit, which will then carry them back to earth.

The sampling work and the take-off of the ascender from the lunar surface need to be completed within 48 hours, according to Liu Jiangang, chief of the command team in Beijing.

 India set to double oil refining capacity in five years.

India plans to nearly double its oil refining capacity in the next five years offering a much more Aggressive Timeline than Previously.

• It was announced that India’s oil refining capacity could jump to 450-500 million tonnes in 10 years from the current level of about 250 million tonnes earlier. But now, it will be achieved in the next five years.

• Natural Gas currently accounts for about 6% of the energy consumed in the country.

• India would achieve its targets of increasing renewable energy capacity to 175 gigawatts by 2022 and 450 gigawatts by 2030 ahead of schedule.

• The country had renewable energy capacity of about 75 gigawatts at the end of 2018. Oil Refining and Natural Gas:

• Oil and gas sector is among the eight core industries in India.

• The government has allowed 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in many segments of the sector, including natural gas, petroleum products and refineries among others.

• India has been the fourth-largest Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) importer since 2011 after Japan, South Korea, and China.

• As of August 01, 2020, India’s oil refining capacity stood at 249.9 million metric tonnes (MMT), making it the second-largest refiner in Asia.

• Private companies own about 35.29% of the total refining capacity in FY20.

• The petroleum and natural gas sector attracted FDI worth US$ 7.82 billion between April 2000 and March 2020.

• The energy trade between India and US is likely to touch US$ 10 billion in FY20.

• The Oil Ministry plans to set up bio-CNG (compressed natural gas) plants and allied infrastructure at a cost of Rs 7,000 crore (US$ 1.10 billion) to promote the use of clean fuel. Some of the major initiatives taken by the Government of India to promote oil and gas sector are:3

• Indian Scheme ‘Kayakave Kailasa’ - enabled SC/ST entrepreneurs in providing bulk LPG transportation.

Plan to set up around 5,000 compressed biogas (CBG) plants by 2023.

• Plan to double natural gas production to 60 bcm and drill more than 120 exploration wells by 2022.

UNIQUE DOCUMENT IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (UDIN).

UDIN is a unique number given to documents attested by Chartered Accountants in Practice. It is an 18 digits system generated unique number which shall generated separately for each document.

Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), in its gazette notification dated 2nd August, 2019, had made generation of UDIN from ICAI website mandatory for every kind of certificate/tax audit report and other attests made by their members as required by various regulators.

This was introduced to curb fake certifications by non-CAs misrepresenting themselves as Chartered Accountants.

Brereton War Crimes Report.

The report, which was released last week and is widely being referred to as the‘Brereton War Crimes Report’, alleges that a group of 19 soldiers within the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) elite Special Air Services and commandos regiment had killed and brutalised at least 39 Afghan civilians, including children.

About:

The damning report was released after a four-year inquiry led by Army ReserveMajor General Paul Brereton following whistle-blower and local media reports ofalleged killings of unarmed Afghani civilians. Over four years, investigators looked into at least 57 incidents of misconduct and questioned over 400 witnesses under oath.

The inquiry found that, “credible evidence” of the “murder” of 39 prisoners, farmers and other civilians by19 special forces soldiers between 2005 and 2016.

The report described the soldier’sactions as a “disgraceful and a profound betrayal” of the ADF.

The final report was delivered on 6 November 2020. The redacted version was released publicly on 19 November 2020.

Key findings:

The report found evidence of 39 murders of civilians and prisoners by (or at the instruction of) members of the Australian special forces, which were subsequently covered up by ADF personnel.

The report stated 25 ADF personnel were involved in the killings, including those who were "accessories" to the incident.

The unlawful killings discussed by the report began in 2009, with most occurring in 2012 and 2013.

1 in 9 children infected by COVID-19: UNICEF.

An analysis report on COVID-19 infections was released recently by the UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund).

Highlights:

• The report was titled 'Averting a Lost COVID Generation'. It warns of significant and growing consequences for children as the pandemic approaches its second year.

• Children and adolescents under the age of 20 years accounted for 1 in 9 of COVID-19 infections, that is 11% of the 25.7 million infections.

• 140 million children are living in monetary poor household due to COVID-19.

• Schools are not a main driver of community transmission, and children are more likely to get the virus outside of school settings.

 • School closures due to COVID-19 affected almost 90 per cent of students around the world including 743 million girls.

• Internet channels reach only 24 per cent of schoolchildren globally, reflecting socio-economic inequality and a deep digital divide.

• Students in lower-income countries have missed more days of school than students in higher income countries.

• Refugees and asylum seekers are excluded from COVID-19-related social protection measures.

• 3 billion people globally have no access to a place to wash their hands; 700 children die every day from diseases caused by this lack of inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene.

• Gender-based violence is predicted to increase for every three months of COVID-19 lockdowns.

• Approximately 70 per cent of mental health services for children and adolescents are disrupted.

• One third of the countries witnessed a drop of at least 10% in coverage of health services.

• There was a 40% decline in the coverage of nutrition services for women and children across 135 countries.

• More than 250 million children under 5 could miss the life-protecting benefits of vitamin supplementation programmes.

Warnings:

• An estimated 2 million additional child deaths and 200,000 additional stillbirths could occur over a 12-month period with severe interruptions to services and rising malnutrition.

• An additional 6 to 7 million children under the age of 5 will suffer from wasting or acute malnutrition in 2020.

• A 14% rise in additional child deaths per month—mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

 • Globally, the number of children living in multidimensional poverty (no access to education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation or water) is estimated to have soared by 15% by mid-2020.

Recommendations:

• Bridge the digital divide to ensure all children were able to access school learning and guaranteed provision of nutrition and health services.

• The governments around the world are required to adopt measures to curb rise in child poverty.

• A six-point plan to protect children by UNIICEF:

• Ensure all children learn, including by closing the digital divide.

• Guarantee access to health and nutrition services and make vaccines affordable and available to every child.

• Support and protect the mental health of children and young people and bring an end to abuse, gender-based violence and neglect in childhood.

• Increase access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene and address environmental Degradation and Climate Change.

• Reverse the rise in child poverty and ensure an inclusive recovery for all.

• Redouble efforts to protect and support children and their families living through conflict, Disaster and Displacement .

Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Crypto currencies.

The 4th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Crypto currencies was recently held virtually.

Highlights:

• It was organised by Interpol, Europol and the Basel Institute on Governance.

 • It is an initiative of the Working Group on Cryptocurrencies and Money Laundering established in 2016 by the three organisations.

• It aims to strengthen knowledge, expertise and best practices for investigations into financial crimes and intelligence on virtual assets and crypto currencies.

• Over 2,000 representatives from 132 countries attended the Conference. Representatives from Law enforcement agencies, Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), International organisations and the private sector etc. participated.

• They met virtually to shape international cross-sector solutions against the criminal use of

Crypto currencies, exploring criminal flows and operations in the dark markets, ransomware and sex tortion, money laundering involving virtual assets, and the transfer of drug proceeds using crypto currencies.

• It served as an opportunity to underline the need for countries and jurisdictions to increase the exchange of tactical information and best practices.

• A multi-agency and multidisciplinary approach involving both the private and public sectors is a key to tackling criminal finances and the misuse of crypto currencies.

• By combining the expertise and data on financial crime held by the private sector with the investigative capabilities of law enforcement, collective capabilities can be enhanced.

Sustainable peatland management can prevent future pandemics.

Sustainably managing peatlands — peat-swamp forests found around the tropics — can protect humans from future pandemics, according to a new study. Peatlands were rich in biodiversity, including many potential vertebrate and invertebrate vectors, or carriers of disease.

These included numerous vertebrates known to represent a risk of spreading zoonotic disease, such as bats, rodents, pangolins and primates. Zoonotic diseases are those that jump from animals to humans.

 These areas also faced high levels of habitat disruption such as wild or human-made fires and wildlife harvesting that were perfect conditions for potential zoonotic emerging infectious diseases (EID) .

The study gave examples from around the world.

The first reported case of Ebola in 1976 was from a peat land area, as was the most recent outbreak in May 2020, it noted.

The cradle of the HIV/AIDS pandemic was believed to be around Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, another area with extensive peat lands.

Wildlife harvesting for consumption and trade was common in tropical forest nations. For instance, in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, fruit bats were captured in tropical peat-swamp forest areas and transported to local markets for sale as wild meat.

High densities of domestic and semi-wild animals reared on peat lands could also serve as a direct or indirect zoonotic EID vector to humans.

E.g predominantly peat land municipality of Palangka Raya in Indonesia. The area had over 1.8 million chickens, according to the Statistics of Palangka Raya Municipality, 2018.

The study also talked about large numbers of naturally cave-roosting edible-nest swiftlets being reared in special buildings in many peat land areas, with most nests exported to China.

Sustainably managing tropical peat lands and their wildlife was important for mitigating the impacts of the ongoing novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The move would also help in reducing the potential for future zoonotic EID emergence and severity.

Arctic has influenced Antarctica’s ice sheets.Study.

New research by Canada’s McGill University has shown that the Antarctic ice sheet was largely moulded in the last 40,000 years by its counterpart in the Arctic.

 As climate cooled during the last Ice Age, water became locked up in land ice in the Northern Hemisphere, leading to dropping sea levels in Antarctica. This consequently led to growth of the Antarctic ice sheet.

On the other hand, as the climate warmed during the period of deglaciation, the retreating ice in the Northern Hemisphere led to rising water levels around Antarctica.This, in turn, drove a retreat of the Antarctic ice sheet.