Daily Prelims Notes 1 May 2021
- May 1, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN
Daily Prelims Notes
1 May 2021
Table Of Contents
- GURU TEG BAHADUR
- DRONE DELIVERY OF COVID-19 VACCINES
- SEDITION LAW
- BRONCHOALVEOLAR LAVAGE
- PETA
- LEGAL METROLOGY (PACKAGING RULES)
- YUDHVIR SINGH
- SOLI SORABJEE
- EMERGENCY FINANCIAL POWERS
Subject: Culture
Context: PM Modi offers prayers at Sis GanjGurudwara, pays tributes to Guru Teg Bahadur.
Concept:
Guru Teg Bahadur (1621-1675)
- Guru Teg Bahadur was the ninth of ten Gurus of the Sikh religion.
- One hundred and fifteen of his hymns are in Guru Granth Sahib.
- He stood up for the rights of Kashmiri Pandits who approached him against the imposition jizya tax.
- He was publicly killed in 1675 on the orders of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in Delhi for refusing to convert.
- In the words of Noel King of the University of California, “Guru Teg Bahadur’s martyrdom was the first-ever martyrdom for human rights in the world.
- He is fondly remembered as ‘Hind di Chaadar’.
2. DRONE DELIVERY OF COVID-19 VACCINES
Subject : Governance
Context: Drone use Permission to Telangana Government for Experimental delivery of Covid-19 Vaccines.
Concept :
- Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have granted conditional exemption for drone deployment to the Government of Telangana.
- The drone usage permission has been granted for conducting experimental delivery of Covid-19 vaccines within Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) Range using drones.
- The permission exemption is valid for a period of one year or until further orders.
- Earlier this month, similar permission was granted to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for conducting feasibility study of Covid-19 vaccine delivery using drones in collaboration with IIT Kanpur.
The grant of these permissions is intended to achieve the dual objectives of faster vaccine delivery & improved healthcare access by:
- Ensuring primary healthcare delivery at the citizen’s doorstep
- Limiting human exposure to COVID congested or COVID prone areas through aerial delivery
- Ensuring access to health care to the last mile, especially in remote areas
- Possible integration into the middle mile of medical logistics for long range drones
- Improving medical supply chain, especially with a third vaccine expected to be commissioned and millions of doses to be transported across India
Subject: Governance
Context: Supreme Court agrees to examine Constitutional validity of Sedition law – Section 124A of Indian Penal Code.
Concept :
- edition, which falls under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, is defined as any action that brings or attempts to bring hatred or contempt towards the government of India and has been illegal in India since 1870.
Historical Background of Sedition Law:
- Sedition laws were enacted in 17th century England when lawmakers believed that only good opinions of the government should survive, as bad opinions were detrimental to the government and monarchy.
- This sentiment (and law) was borrowed and inserted into the Section 124A of IPC in 1870, by the British.
- British used Sedition law to convict and sentence freedom fighters. It was first used to prosecute Bal Gangadhar Tilak in 1897.
- Mahatama Gandhi, too, was later tried for sedition for his articles in Young India.
Supreme Court Observations
- In 1962, the Supreme Court decided on the constitutionality of Section 124A in KedarNath Singh v State of Bihar.
- It upheld the constitutionality of sedition, but limited its application to “acts involving intention or tendency to create disorder, or disturbance of law and order, or incitement to violence”.
- It distinguished these from “very strong speech” or the use of “vigorous words” strongly critical of the government.
- In 1995, the Supreme Court, in Balwant Singh v State of Punjab, held that mere sloganeering which evoked no public response did not amount to sedition.
Subject : Science & tech
Context : A number of symptomatic patients who tested false negative in RT-PCR assays have subsequently been confirmed Covid-positive in Bronchoalveolar Lavage (BAL) tests.
Concept :
- Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) (also known as bronchoalveolar washing) is a diagnostic method of the lower respiratory system in which a bronchoscope is passed through the mouth or nose into an appropriate airway in the lungs, with a measured amount of fluid introduced and then collected for examination.
- This method is typically performed to diagnose pathogenic infections of the lower respiratory airways (leading to, for example pneumonia and COVID-19), though it also has been shown to have utility in diagnosing interstitial lung disease.
- Bronchoalveolar lavage can be a more sensitive method of detection than nasal swabs in respiratory molecular diagnostics, as has been the case with SARS-CoV-2 where bronchoalveolar lavage samples detect copies of viral RNA after negative nasal swab testing.
- In particular, bronchoalveolar lavage is commonly used to diagnose infections in people with immune system problems, pneumonia in people on ventilators, and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
Subject : International Organisations
Context : Epicurious, one of the world’s most popular recipe websites, announced that it will no longer be publishing any beef-related content. People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which described the move as “terrific”.
Concept :
- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an American animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president.
- The nonprofit corporation claims 6.5 million supporters. Its slogan is “Animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way”.
- It focuses on four core issues—opposition to factory farming, fur farming, animal testing, and the use of animals in entertainment.
- It also campaigns for a vegan lifestyle and against eating meat, fishing, the killing of animals regarded as pests, the keeping of chained backyard dogs, cock fighting, dog fighting, beekeeping, and bullfighting.
6. LEGAL METROLOGY (PACKAGING RULES)
Subject : Governance
Context: Importers of medical devices, used particularly for providing oxygen support to Covid-19 patients, are now allowed to import these devices without prior mandatory declaration for the next three months, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs said in a notification.
Concept :
- The importers can make all necessary declarations after the custom clearance, but before they are sold to consumers. The Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, make it mandatory to get the approvals prior to the import.
- Department of Consumer Affairs, administers the Legal Metrology Act 2009. The act provides for application of legal requirements to measurements and measuring instruments.
- The objective of Legal Metrology is to ensure public guarantee from the point of view of security and accuracy of the weighments and measurements.
- The Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities), Rules 2011 are primarily intended to ensure that the consumers are able to make informed choices by being informed of essential declarations on the pre-packed commodities.
Subject : Important Personalities
Context :The Vice President of India presented the ‘Yudhvir Memorial Award’ to Hyderabad-based gynecologist, Dr. Evita Fernandez in recognition of her service for the cause of women’s healthcare and empowerment. He also paid tributes to late Yudhvir Singh.
Concept :
- Yudhvir Singh (1897 – 1983) was an Indian freedom fighter, politician and homeopathic doctor.
- He was a member of the Arya Samaj, and edited the publication Arya-Kumar.
- He was a leader of the Indian National Congress in Delhi. He took part in the pro-independence struggles of 1932, 1941 and the Quit India Movement of 1942.
- In 1935 Singh became the secretary of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee. In 1937 he became a municipal commissioner of Delhi, a post he held until 1952.
- He served as Minister, Health and Rehabilitation, Industries and Labour and Rationing and Jail in the Delhi State government between 1955 and 1956. During his tenure the Delhi Homeopathic Act was passed (the Act came into force on 1 October 1956).
- Singh was presented with Padma Shri in 1971 and later with Padma Bhushan in 1977 by the government.
Subject: Important Personalities
Context: Soli Sorabjee passed away on 30 April 2021 due to COVID-19.
Concept :
- Soli Jehangir Sorabjee (1930 – 2021) was an Indian jurist.
- In 1971, Sorabjee was designated a senior advocate of the Bombay High Court.
- He served as Solicitor-General of India from 1977 to 1980.
- He served as Attorney-General for India from 1989 to 1990, and again from 1998 to 2004.
- In 2002, he received the Padma Vibhushan for his defence of the freedom of expression and the protection of human rights. He worked on the Citizen’s Justice Committee which represented the 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims pro bono.
- Some of the other cases in which he appeared include: KesavanandaBharati v. State of Kerala, Maneka Gandhi v Union of India, S. R. Bommai v. Union of India, and I.R. Coelho v. State of Tamil Nadu.
- He also appeared in the case of B.P. Singhal v. Union of India, in which the Supreme Court held that state governors could not be dismissed without due cause.
Subject : Defence / Governance
Context : Armed Forces given emergency financial powers to combat Covid.
Concept :
- In a statement, the Defence Ministry said Singh “invoked special provisions and granted Emergency Financial Powers to the Armed Forces to empower them and speed up their efforts in tide over the current” second wave of the pandemic
- The powers, it said, will help the formation commanders “to establish and operate quarantine facilities/hospitals and undertake procurement/repair of equipment/items/material/stores, besides provisioning of various services and works required to support the ongoing effort against the pandemic”.
- Vice Chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force, including Chief of Integrated Defence Staff To The Chairman Chiefs Of Staff Committee (CISC) and General Officer Commanding-in-Chiefs and equivalents of all three services have been given full powers, the ministry said.
- The Corps Commanders and Area Commanders of the forces have been delegated powers uptoRs 50 lakh per case.
- For the procurement under the emergency orders, the forces need not even take concurrence of the Integrated Financial Advisor from the defence finance department.
- The powers have been given for a three-month period.