Daily Prelims Notes 9 August 2022

August 9, 2022
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Daily Prelims Notes

9 August 2022

Table Of Contents

1. House panel bats for equality in guardianship

Subject: Polity

Section: Acts

Context

A mother and father should have equal rights as guardians of their children and the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act (HMGA), 1956 should be amended as it discriminates against women, a parliamentary panel has recommended in its report.

Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956

The Act in its current form does not provide for joint guardianship nor does it recognise the mother as the guardian of the minor legitimate child unless the father is deceased or is found unfit.
The Act gives preference to father over mother, it goes against the right to equality and right against discrimination envisaged under Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution. The committee feels that there is an urgent need to amend the HMGA and accord equal treatment to both mother and father as natural guardians
Section 6 of the HMGA lays down that in the case of a Hindu minor boy and a Hindu minor unmarried girl, the father is the natural guardian and ‘after’ him the mother.
Section 7 of the same Act provides that the natural guardianship of an adopted son, who is a minor, passes on adoption to the adopted father and ‘after’ him to the adoptive mother

The Panel Recommendations

It has also proposed guardianship rights of those differently abled and suffering from autism or cerebral palsy, people suffering from mental health problems as well as senior citizens.
In such cases where guardianship of majors is concerned, the panel says the law should consider “supported decision making” as an alternative to guardianship where a person appoints trusted advisers such as friends, family or professionals to serve as supporters.
The parliamentary panel has also called for a relook at child custody in case of marital disputes and suggested empowering courts to award joint custody to both parents when conducive for the welfare of the child, or award sole custody to one parent with visitation rights to the other.
On adoption, the committee has said the LGBTQ community should also be covered under the law.
The committee has also suggested harmonising the provisions of the JJ Act, 2015 and the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (HAMA), 1956 as adoption under the former is tedious and time-consuming, and the latter has lacunae such as inability to trace the source of the child being given for adoption or lack of post-adoption follow-ups.
The panel has revived an old demand for maintaining an adoption registry of children adopted through the HAMA as many fear it is sometimes used as a conduit for trafficking.

Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015

Under the act the prospective adoptive parents should be physically, mentally, emotionally stable, financially capable.
While single men can adopt only boys, single women can adopt a child of any gender.
It also says that no child should be given in adoption to a couple unless they have at least two years of stable marital relationship.

2. Petition to recognise minorities at district level is contrary to law: Supreme Court

Subject: Polity

Section: Judiciary

Context

A Bench of Justices U. U. Lalit and S. Ravindra Bhat remarked that minority status of linguistic and religious communities have to be considered State wise.
The judge was referring to the majority verdict given by the 11-judge Bench in the T. M. A Pai versus State of Karnataka case in 2002.
In the previous hearing before Justice Lalit’s Bench, Mr. Thakur had complained that followers of Judaism, Bahaism and Hinduism, who were the real minorities in Ladakh, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Kashmir, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur could not establish and administer educational institutions of their choice, thus jeopardising their basic rights guaranteed under Articles 29 and 30.
But the Court had indicated that a religious or linguistic community which were a minority in a particular State could inherently claim protection and the right to administer and run their own education institutions under Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution.

Who are the minorities notified by the Government of India?

Currently, only those communities notified under section 2(c) of the NCM (National Commission for Minorities) Act, 1992, by the central government are regarded as minority.
- Despite the Supreme Court’s 11-judge bench judgment in T.M.A Pai case, which clearly determined that linguistic and religious minorities must be identified at the state level rather than at the national level, section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Act 1992 gave the Centre “unbridled power” to inform minorities.
In 1992, with the enactment of the NCM Act, 1992, the MC became a statutory body and was renamed as the NCM.
In 1993, the first Statutory National Commission was set up and five religious communities viz. The Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) were notified as minority communities.
In 2014, Jains were also notified as a minority community.

NCM Composition:

NCM consists of a Chairperson, a Vice-Chairperson and five members and all of them shall be from amongst the minority communities.
Total of 7 persons to be nominated by the Central Government should be from amongst persons of eminence, ability and integrity.
Tenure: Each Member holds office for a period of three years from the date of assumption of office.

What are the Constitutional Provisions for Minority?

Article 29:

- It provides that any section of the citizens residing in any part of India having a distinct language, script or culture of its own, shall have the right to conserve the same.
- It grants protection to both religious minorities as well as linguistic minorities.
- However, the SC held that the scope of this article is not necessarily restricted to minorities only, as use of the word ‘section of citizens’ in the Article includes minorities as well as the majority.
Article 30:
- All minorities shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
- The protection under Article 30 is confined only to minorities (religious or linguistic) and does not extend to any section of citizens (as under Article 29).
Article 350-B:
- The 7th Constitutional (Amendment) Act 1956 inserted this article which provides for a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities appointed by the President of India.
- It would be the duty of the Special Officer to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities under the Constitution.
- He would report to the President upon those matters at such intervals as the President may direct. The President should place all such reports before each House of Parliament and send them to the governments of the states concerned
- The Constitution does not specify the qualifications, tenure, salaries and allowances, service conditions and procedure for removal of the Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities

3. What is an IMEI number, how can police use it in cases of mobile phone theft?

Subject: Science and Technology

Section: Awareness in AI and computer

Context

With rising cases of mobile phone snatching in the national capital, the Delhi Police is now planning to close ranks with internet service providers and the department of telecommunications to block stolen or robbed phones.
This will be done by using the device’s International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number.

What is IMEI number?

The International Mobile Equipment Identity or IMEI is a unique number that is used to identify a device on a mobile network. It has 15 digits, and is like your phone’s unique identity. When you use the internet or place a call through your cellular service provider, then this number is used to verify the identity of your device. If you have a dual SIM phone, then you will have two IMEI numbers, one for each slot.

How can you check your IMEI number?

Device manufacturers print it on stickers and paste them on the device and its box. It is usually found on the back of your phone, under the battery pack.
However, the easiest way to find it is to dial *#06# on your mobile, and your screen will immediately display the IMEI number of your current device.

How is it useful?

Its operational use aside, the IMEI number can help network providers track down a device in case it gets stolen or is lost. Once such loss or theft is reported, the carrier/s can deny the device access to the cellular network even with a new SIM card. This will practically render the device useless as it won’t be able to make or receive calls.

How is the police using this to check thefts?

The plan works by immediately registering “data of all stolen phones and uploading it on our servers and the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS)”.
Police are also helping victims register on the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) to block their stolen phones.

Are there any challenges?

According to the police, few gangs have started formatting stolen phones.
“Mobile phones which don’t have a flexible operating system can be broken into. There is software that can change IMEI numbers of the phones as well. This might cause trouble for law enforcement agencies in blocking stolen devices,” a police official revealed.

Central Equipment Identity Register

Department of Telecommunications (DoT) under the Ministry of Communications has initiated a Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) for mobile service providers.

The National Telecom Policy of 2012 calls for the establishment of a National Mobile Property Registry to address the issue of security, theft, and other concerns including reprogramming of mobile handsets.

Central Equipment Identity Register

It will be a central depository or database of all mobile phones connected to networks across India.
- Every mobile network provider in India has an Equipment Identity Register (EIR), or a database of the phones connected to its network.
- These EIRs will now share information with a single central database, i.e CEIR.
CEIR will have information on the Device’s :
- International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number.
- Model
- Version

4. Climate change fuelling rise in extreme weather events

Subject: Geography

Section : Physical geography

Context: According to IMD climate change has hampered the ability of forecasting agencies to make predictions accurately.

Analysis of the study-

An analysis of the day-to-day rainfall data since 1970 shows that the number of very heavy rainfall days had increased and that of light or moderate rainfall days had decreased.
That means if it is not raining, it is not raining. If it is raining, it is raining heavily.
The rainfall is more intense when there is a low pressure system. This is one of the most important trends found in the tropical belt, including India.
Studies have proved that this increase in heavy rainfall events and decrease in light precipitation are due to climate change.
The IMD had explained that climate change has increased the surface air temperature, which in turn has increased the evaporation rate.
Since warmer air holds more moisture, it leads to intense rainfall.

Impact of climate change on weather prediction-

Climate change has hampered the ability of forecasting agencies to accurately predict severe events.
The India Meteorological Department is installing more radars and upgrading its high-performance computing system to meet the challenge.
Though the monsoon rainfall had not shown any significant trend in the country, the number of heavy rainfall events had increased and that of light rainfall events had decreased due to climate change.
The impact-based forecast will improve to become “more granular, specific and accurate” by 2025 and the IMD will be able to provide forecasts up to panchayat-level clusters and specific areas in cities in the coming years, the IMD said.

Severity of cyclones –

Climate change has increased the instability in the atmosphere, leading to an increase in convective activity — thunderstorms, lightning and heavy rainfall.
The severity of cyclones in the Arabian Sea is also increasing.
This increase in the frequency of extreme weather events is posing a challenge to forecasters.
Studies show that the ability to predict heavy rainfall is hampered due to climate change.

Improvement in prediction model-

The IMD’s forecast accuracy had improved by about 30% to 40% for severe weather events such cyclones, heavy rain, thunderstorms, heat waves, cold waves and fog in the past five years due to an improvement in the observational network, modelling and computing systems.
The number of deaths due to cyclones and heat waves had also reduced over the years because of an improvement in the early warning lead time and preparedness, planning, prevention and mitigation approaches.
The IMD is bolstering its observational network with the augmentation of radars, automatic weather stations and rain gauges and satellites to improve predictability.
IMD has put up six radars in the northwest Himalayas and four more will be installed this year.
The procurement process is on for eight radars in the northeast Himalayan region.
There are certain gap areas in the rest of the country that will be filled up with 11 radars.
The number of radars will increase from 34 at present to 67 by 2025 the IMD has said.
Radars are preferred because they have a higher resolution and can provide observations every 10 minutes.

Climate change and Himalayas-

On climate change increasing the fragility of the Himalayas, IMD said, “Climate change is a fact and we need to plan all our activities accordingly.
A study by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, MoES says the frequency of mini-cloud bursts (five cm or more rainfall in an hour) is increasing in the Himalayas and it can also cause damage.

Deficit in north, east, and the north-east–

On the impact of climate change on monsoon, the digital data of the rainfall since 1901 shows that the parts of north, east and northeast India show a decrease in rainfall, while some areas in the west, such as west Rajasthan, show an increase.
Thus, there is no significant trend for the country as a whole.
The monsoon is random and it shows large-scale variations.

What the government has said-

At present, the IMD-MoES weather modelling system has a resolution of 12 kilometres. The target is to make it six kilometres.
The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) also has plans to upgrade its high-performance computing system -from a capacity of 10 petaflops currently to 30 petaflops in the next two years- which will help assimilate more data into the model that can then be run at higher resolutions. The lower the range of a weather model, the higher its resolution and the greater the precision.
Similarly, the resolution of the regional modelling system will be improved from three kilometres to one kilometre.

State-wise analysis-

The government had told Parliament that Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Meghalaya and Nagaland had shown significant decreasing trends in the southwest monsoon rainfall during the recent 30-year period (1989-2018, both years included).
The annual rainfall over these five States, along with Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, had also shown significant decreasing trends.

5. Govt. plans system to scour dailies for public grievances

Subject: Polity

Section: National Body

Context

The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievance and Pensions has informed a Parliamentary Standing Committee that the government is working on to develop a “technology solution”, where grievances published in newspapers and on social media platforms can be suo motu registered on the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) for action by the authorities concerned.
CPGRAMS is an online platform available to the citizens 24×7 to lodge their grievances to the public authorities on any subject related to service delivery. The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) informed the parliamentary panel that in 2016, all Ministries, organisations and departments were requested to regularly examine the grievances column of newspapers to pick up the cases coming under their purview and take expeditious action to redress them in a time bound manner.

6. Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC)

Subject: Polity

Section: National Body

Context: The Union Ministry forHealth& Family Welfare published a new Bill to replace the colonialera Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940.

Concept:

It is an Autonomous Institution of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India.
IPC is created to set standards of drugs in the country.

Functions

Its basic function is to update regularly the standards of drugs commonly required for treatment of diseases prevailing in this region.
It publishes official documents for improving Quality of Medicines by way of adding new and updating existing monographs in the form of Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP).
It further promotes rational use of generic medicines by publishing National Formulary of India.
IP prescribes standards for identity, purity and strength of drugs essentially required from health care perspective of human beings and animals.
IPC also provides IP Reference Substances (IPRS) which act as a finger print for identification of an article under test and its purity as prescribed in IP.

Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP)

It is published by the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) on behalf of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India in fulfillment of the requirements of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules 1945 there under.
IP is recognized as the official book of standards for the drugs being manufactured and/or marketed in India.
IP contains a collection of authoritative procedures of analysis and specifications of drugs for their identity, purity and strength.
The standards of the IP are authoritative in nature and are enforced by the regulatory authorities for ensuring the quality of drugs in India.
During quality assurance and at the time of dispute in the court of law the IP standards are legally acceptable.
The Standards prescribed in the IP are to establish the compliance with regulatory requirements on an article.
The criteria to be adhered are: The interpretation of a monograph must be in accordance with all the general requirements, testing methods, texts and notices pertaining to it, in the IP.
A product is not of standard quality unless it complies with all the requirements of the monograph.

The National Formulary of India

It is essentially meant for the guidance of the members of the medical profession; medical students, nurses and pharmacists working in hospitals and in sales establishments.
In the preparation of this Formulary, the expert opinion of medical practitioners, teachers in medicine, nurses, pharmacists and Pharmaceutical manufacturers has been obtained.
The selection of drugs for inclusion in the National Formulary has been made taking into consideration the relative advantages and disadvantages of the various drugs used, the extent of their use in current medical practice and their availability in the country.
Thus the National Formulary of India represents a broad consensus of medical opinion in respect of drugs and their formulations and provides the physician with carefully selected therapeutic agents of proved effectiveness which form the basis of national drug therapy.

The Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI)

It was launched with a broad objective to safe guard the health of 1.27 billion people of India.
Adverse drug Reactions (ADRs) are reported from all over the country to NCC-PvPI, which also work in collaboration with the global ADR monitoring centre (WHO-UMC), Sweden to contribute in the global ADRs data base.
NCC-PvPI monitors the ADRs among Indian population and helps the regulatory authority of India (CDSCO) in taking decision for safe use of medicines.

Quality Assurance (QA)

The Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) is maintaining quality management system through its Quality Assurance Department (QA).
The Quality Assurance Department is playing a vital role in the maintenance of quality standards.
The purpose of the quality assurance department is to maintain the quality system of the Indian Pharmacopoeia Laboratory at Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission and ensure its compliance with “General Requirement for the Competence of Testing and Calibration Laboratories” (ISO/IEC17025:2017), “General requirement for the Competence of Reference Material Producer” (ISO/IEC 17034:2016), “Conformity Assessment- General requirement for Proficiency Testing” (ISO/IEC 17043:2010) and WHO prequalification, adherence to the laid down system and procedures at IPC.

Daily Mapping

7. Krishna and Godavari river

Subject :Geography

Section: Mapping

Context :Krishna, Godavari levels on the rise

Krishna

The Krishna Basin extends over Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka having a total area of 2,58,948 Sq.km which is nearly 8% of the total geographical area of the country.
It is bounded by Balaghat range on the north, by the Eastern Ghats on the south and the east and by the Western Ghats on the west. The Krishna River rises from the Western Ghats near Jor village of Satara district of Maharashtra at an altitude of 1,337 m just north of
The total length of river from origin to its outfall into the Bay of Bengal is 1,400 km. Its principal tributaries joining from right are the Ghatprabha, the Malprabhaand the Tungabhadra whereas those joining from left are the Bhima, the Musi and the Munneruare joining the river from left. The major part of basin is covered with agricultural land accounting to 75.86% of the total area and 4.07% of the basin is covered by water bodies.
Krishna river rises in the Western Ghats at an elevation of about 1337 m. just north of Mahabaleswar, about 64 km from the Arabian Sea and flows for about 1400 km and outfalls into the Bay of Bengal. The principal tributaries joining Krishna are the Ghataprabha, the Malaprabha, the Bhima, the Tungabhadra and the Musi.

Godavari:

The Godavari basin extends over states of Maharashtra, Telangana ,Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha in addition to smaller parts in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Union territory of Puducherry having a total area of 3,12,812 Sq.km with a maximum length and width of about 995 km and 583 km.
The basin is bounded by Satmala hills, the Ajanta range and the Mahadeo hills on the north, by the Eastern Ghats on the south and the east and by the Western Ghats on the west.
The Godavari River rises from Trimbakeshwar in the Nashik district of Maharashtra about 80 km from the Arabian Sea at an elevation of 1,067 m. The total length of Godavari from its origin to outfall into the Bay of Bengal is 1,465 km.
Godavari river rises near Nasik in Maharashtra at an elevation of about 1067 m and flows for a length of about 1465 km before outfalling in to the Bay of Bengal. The principal tributaries of the river are the Pravara, the Purna, the Manjra, the Penganga, the Wardha,the Wainganga the Pranhita(combined flow of Wainganga, Penganga, Wardha), the Indravati, the Maner and the Sabri.

8. Mulya Pravah

Subject: Government schemes

Section: Education

Context: The University Grant Commission has approved the revised guidelines of “Mulya Pravah “

Mulya Pravah: University Grants Commission (UGC) has launched a policy framework, Mulya Pravah – Guidelines for Inculcation of Human values and Professional Ethics in Higher Educational Institutions

9. Russia suspends START arms inspections over US travel restrictions

Subject: International Relations

Section: International body

START TREATY:

It is a treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on measures for the further reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms.
It entered into force on 5th February, 2011.
New START has replaced the 1991 START I treaty, which expired December 2009, and superseded the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT), which terminated when New START entered into force.
It is a successor to the START framework of 1991 (at the end of the Cold War) that limited both sides to 1,600 strategic delivery vehicles and 6,000 warheads.
It continues the bipartisan process of verifiably reducing the USA and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals by limiting both sides to 700 strategic launchers and 1,550 operational warheads.
It will lapse in February 2021 unless extended for a five-year period.