Daily Prelims Notes 28 May 2021

May 28, 2021
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

Daily Prelims Notes

28 May 2021

Table Of Contents

Subject : Science & tech

Context : the government is still examining the American pharma giant’s request for indemnity against the cost of compensation for any severe side effects, Dr V K Paul ,who also heads the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC), said.

Concept :

National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration(NEGVAC)

NEGVAC constituted by the government is providing guidance on prioritisation of population groups, procurement and inventory management, vaccine selection and vaccine delivery and tracking mechanism
It was set up in August 2020 under the chairmanship of Niti Aayog member VK Paul, to conceptualise a strategy for coronavirus vaccine delivery in India.
The expert committee held its first meeting on August 12 of this year.
The meeting was chaired by Dr V K Paul, Member Niti Aayog along with Secretary (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) as co-Chair.
National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) in consultation with State Governments and all relevant stakeholders have prepared and presented a detailed blueprint of vaccine storage, distribution, and administration.
The Expert Group in consultation with the States is working actively on vaccine prioritization and distribution of vaccine.

2. PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS ACT

Subject : National Legislations

Context : Delhi Police Thursday arrested 27-year-old Gaurav Sharma, a YouTube content creator, for animal cruelty after a video showed his dog floating in the air with helium balloons strapped to his back.

Concept :

About the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act:

It prohibits any person from inflicting, causing, or if it is the owner, permitting, unnecessary pain or suffering to be inflicted on any animal.
It provides for punishment for causing unnecessary cruelty and suffering to animals.
Section 2 of the act defines animals and types of animals like domestic or captive animals.
Section 4 provides for Welfare Board of India (WBI), a statutory advisory body for animal welfare and protection of animals from unnecessary suffering and pain. Late Smt. Rukmini Devi Arundale, well known humanitarian and Bharatnatyam exponent led it since its foundation for almost 20 years.
It mentions forms of cruelty, exceptions, and killing of a suffering animal in case any cruelty has been committed against it, so as to relieve it from further suffering.
Provides the guidelines relating to experimentation on animals for scientific purposes.
An animal cannot be exhibited or trained by any person, if:

Such a person is unregistered as per the provisions of this chapter;

Such an animal has been barred from being included in any performance by the Central Government through a notification in the Official Gazette.

3. UNHRC

Subject : International Organisations

Context : India skips UNHRC resolution to probe human rights violation in Gaza; Netanyahu condemns UN body probe order.

Concept :

The UN Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the world.
The Council was created by the United Nations General Assembly in 2006. It replaced the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) serves as the Secretariat of the Human Rights Council.
OHCHR is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

Members:

It is made up of 47 United Nations Member States which are elected by the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
The UNGA takes into account the candidate States’ contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights, as well as their voluntary pledges and commitments in this regard.

The Council’s Membership is based on equitable geographical distribution. Seats are distributed as follows:

African States: 13 seats
Asia-Pacific States: 13 seats
Latin American and Caribbean States: 8 seats
Western European and other States: 7 seats
Eastern European States: 6 seats
Members of the Council serve for a period of three years and are not eligible for immediate re-election after serving two consecutive terms.

Procedures and Mechanisms:

Universal Periodic Review: UPR serves to assess the human rights situations in all United Nations Member States.
Advisory Committee: It serves as the Council’s “think tank” providing it with expertise and advice on thematic human rights issues.
Complaint Procedure: It allows individuals and organizations to bring human rights violations to the attention of the Council.
UN Special Procedures: These are made up of special rapporteurs, special representatives, independent experts and working groups that monitor, examine, advise and publicly report on thematic issues or human rights situations in specific countries.

4. MANGROVES

Subject : Environment

Context : Environmentalists warn that erosion by sea water will be a recurrent phenomenon in the area if forests and mangroves are not given importance over commercial developments around coasts.

Concept :

Mangroves are the plant communities occurring in inter-tidal zones along the coasts of tropical and subtropical countries.
Mangrove forests perform multiple ecological functions such as production of woody trees; provision of habitat, food, and spawning grounds for fin-fish and shellfish; provision of habitat for birds and other valuable fauna; protection of coastlines and accretion of sediment to form new land.
Mangrove plants have several unique adaptations that allow them to survive in harsh environment. Mangroves are extremely important to the coastal ecosystems they inhabit.
Physically, they serve as a buffer between marine and terrestrial communities. They protect coastlines from damaging winds, waves, and floods.
Mangrove has an important role in improving water quality by filtering pollutants and trapping sediments from the land. They reduce coastal erosion.
Ecologically, they provide habitat for a diverse array of terrestrial and marine organisms.
The area of mangroves has greater species diversity as it is the junction of terrestrial and marine ecosystems.
They have very high salt tolerance and so some species which require this ambience also thrive upon mangroves.
According to one of its oft-quoted definition, “Mangroves represent a characteristic littoral (near the sea shore) forest ecosystem and they are mostly evergreen forests that grow in sheltered low lying coasts, estuaries, mudflats, tidal creeks backwaters (coastal waters held back on land), marshes and lagoons of tropical and subtropical regions”.
Mangrove Forests trees project different types of roots:

Prop – They are down into the water

Air – They are vertically configured up from the mud

Stilt – These roots emerge from the main trunk of the tree; also called adventitious roots.

According to the Forest Survey of India, 2019, Mangroves’ cover in the country increased by 54 sq km (91.10 percent) in comparison to the 2017 assessment.
Mangrove Cover in India is 4975 sq km (0.15 percent of the total geographical area.)
Mangrove cover is divided as:

Very Dense – 1476 sq km (29.66 percent)

Moderately Dense – 1479 sq km (29.73 percent)

Open Mangroves – 2020 sq km (40.61 percent)

There are three important types of mangroves:

Red mangroves: They grow along coastlines and are the hardiest of the three major mangrove plant types.
Black mangroves: They are named so because of their dark bark. They usually grow at slightly higher elevations than red mangroves. They have access to more oxygen because the roots are more exposed.
White mangroves: They grow at higher elevations than red and black mangroves. Generally they do not have aerial roots. But sometimes there is unique growth of peg roots when oxygen is depleted due to flood.

5. FUGITIVE ECONOMIC OFFENDER

Subject : Economy / Governance

Context : Fugitive diamond trader MehulChoksi has been arrested in Dominica after he was reported missing early this week from his home in Antigua and Barbuda, the Caribbean nation of which he has been a citizen since early 2018.

Concept :

Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 seeks to confiscate properties of economic offenders who have left the country to avoid facing criminal prosecution or refuse to return to the country to face prosecution.

Fugitive economic offender:

A person against whom an arrest warrant has been issued for committing an offence listed in the Act and the value of the offence is at least Rs. 100 crore.

Some of the offences listed in the act are:

Counterfeiting government stamps or currency.
Cheque dishonour
Money laundering.
Transactions defrauding creditors.

Declaration of a Fugitive Economic Offender:

After hearing the application, a special court (designated under the PMLA, 2002) may declare an individual as a fugitive economic offender.
It may confiscate properties which are proceeds of crime, Benami properties and any other property, in India or abroad.
Upon confiscation, all rights and titles of the property will vest in the central government, free from encumbrances (such as any charges on the property).
The central government may appoint an administrator to manage and dispose of these properties.

Bar on Filing or Defending Civil Claims:

The Act allows any civil court or tribunal to prohibit a declared fugitive economic offender, from filing or defending any civil claim.
Further, any company or limited liability partnership where such a person is a majority shareholder, promoter, or a key managerial person, may also be barred from filing or defending civil claims.
The authorities may provisionally attach properties of an accused, while the application is pending before the Special Court.

Powers:

The authorities under the PMLA, 2002 will exercise powers given to them under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act.
These powers will be similar to those of a civil court, including the search of persons in possession of records or proceeds of crime, the search of premises on the belief that a person is an FEO and seizure of documents.

6. INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING

Subject : Economics

Context : Recently, five companies filed their draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) for an initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). In 2020-21, as many as 69 companies raised close to Rs 75,000 crore through public issues, including IPOs.

Concept :

Initial Public Offering

IPO is the selling of securities to the public in the primary market.
Primary market deals with new securities being issued for the first time. It is also known as the new issues market.
It is different from secondary market where existing securities are bought and sold. It is also known as the stock market or stock exchange.
It is when an unlisted company makes either a fresh issue of securities or an offer for sale of its existing securities or both for the first time to the public.
Unlisted companies are companies that are not listed on the stock exchange.
It is generally used by new and medium-sized firms that are looking for funds to grow and expand their business.

7. INDIAN BROADCASTING FOUNDATION (IBF)

Subject : Governance

Context : The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the apex body of broadcasters, is expanding its purview to cover digital streaming platforms and will be renamed the Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF).

Concept :

The move would bring broadcasters and OTT (over-the-top) platforms, which have seen a substantial jump in their viewership base after the pandemic, under one roof.
For this, the IBDF was in the process of forming a new wholly-owned subsidiary to handle all matters of digital media.
The IBDF would also form a self-regulatory body, the Digital Media Content Regulatory Council (DMCRC), for digital OTT platforms.

About IBF

The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) was founded in the year 1999.
The IBF is the parent organisation of the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) which was set up in the year 2011.
The BCCC examines content-related complaints relating to all non-news general entertainment channels in India.

8. NEWS BROADCASTERS ASSOCIATION

Subject : National Organisations

Context :Exempt digital arms of news channels from IT Rules: NBA

Concept :

The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) represents the private television news & current affairs broadcasters.
It is the collective voice of the news& current affairs broadcasters in India .It is an organization funded entirely by its members.
The NBA has presently 25 leading news and current affairs broadcasters (comprising 47 news and current affairs channels) as its members.
The NBA presents a unified and credible voice before the Government, on matters that affect the growing industry.

9. V D SAVARKAR

Subject : History

Context : On 28th May, India pays tribute to the freedom fighter, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (Veer Savarkar) on his birth anniversary.

Concept :

VD Savarkar was born on 28th May, 1883 in Bhagur, a village near Nashik in Maharashtra.

Related Organisations and Work:

Founded a secret society called Abhinav Bharat Society.
Went to the United Kingdom and was involved with organizations such as India House and the Free India Society.
Involved in the formation of Hindu Mahasabha.
He was the president of Hindu Mahasabha from 1937 to 1943.
Savarkar wrote a book titled ‘The History of the War of Indian Independence’ in which he wrote about the guerilla warfare tricks used in 1857 Sepoy Mutiny.
He also wrote the book ‘Hindutva: who is hindu?’.

Trial and Sentences:

Arrested in 1909 on charges of plotting an armed revolt against the Morley-Minto reform (Indian Councils Act 1909).
Arrested in 1910 for his connections with the revolutionary group India House.
One of the charges on Savarkar was abetment to murder of Nashik Collector Jackson and the second was waging a conspiracy under Indian penal code 121-A against the King emperor.
Following the two trials, Savarkar was convicted and sentenced to 50-years imprisonment also known as Kala Pani and transported in 1911 to the Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
He was not considered by the British government as a political prisoner.
He died on 26th February 1966 due to fasting on his own wish of death.

Abhinav Bharat Society (Young India Society)

It was a secret society founded by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and his brother Ganesh Damodar Savarkar in 1904.
Initially founded at Nasik as MitraMela, the society was associated with several revolutionaries and political activists with branches in various parts of India and London.

India House

It was founded by ShyamjiKishanVerma in 1905 in London.
It was opened to promote nationalist views among Indian students in London.

Free India Society

It was a political organization of Indian students in England, committed to obtaining the independence of India from British rule.
Initially an intellectual group, it became a revolutionary outfit under its founding leader, Madam BhikajiCama.

Hindu Mahasabha

It was a political party formed in 1933.
It was founded by Veer Damodar Savarkar, LalaLajpat Rai, Madan Mohan Malviya.
The organisation was formed to protect the rights of the Hindu community, after the formation of the All India Muslim League in 1906 and the British India government’s creation of separate Muslim electorate under the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909.

10. CARTEGENA PROTOCOL

Subject : Environment

Context : There is a multilateral template in place for clean bio research — the 1992 UN Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992, and the 2000 Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety

Concept :

On 29 January 2000, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP5) adopted a supplementary agreement to the Convention known as the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. It came into force on 11 September 2003.
CBD covers the rapidly expanding field of biotechnology through its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.
It addresses technology development and transfer, benefit-sharing, and biosafety issues.
The Biosafety Protocol seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology.
It creates an advanced informed agreement (AIA) procedure that requires exporters to seek consent from importing countries before the first shipment of LMOs meant to be introduced into the environment (e.g. seeds for planting, fish for release, and microorganisms for bioremediation)
It establishes an internet-based “Biosafety Clearing-House” to help countries exchange scientific, technical, environmental, and legal information about LMOs.
The Protocol gives a precautionary approach to the issue of the transfer of LMOs from one country to another.
The Protocol includes a clause that makes clear the Parties’ intent that the agreement does not alter the rights and obligations of governments under the World Trade Organization (WTO) or other existing international agreements.

11. RWANDA GENOCIDE

Subject : International Relations

Context : Macron asks Rwanda to forgive France over 1994 genocide role

Concept :

In April, every year, Rwanda begins its annual 100 days of mourning that coincides with the length of the genocide against Tutsi minority.
In Rwanda, about 85% of the population used to comprise of Hutus and the rest 14% consisted of the Tutsi minority (before the Genocide, probably less than 10% now) and 1% of other communities.
On April 7, 1994, President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was assassinated. His murder was followed by large scale violence against the minority community of Tutsi’s and political opponents.
In just 100 days in 1994, about 800,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda by ethnic Hutu extremists. They were targeting members of the minority Tutsi community, as well as their political opponents, irrespective of their ethnic origin.

12. MPLADS

Subject : Government Schemes

Context : Restore MPLADS funds to assist Covid and cyclone victims: AdhirRanjan Chowdhury to PM Modi

Concept :

The MPLAD scheme was formulated in 1993 to enable Members of Parliament (MPs) to recommend development works in their constituencies with emphasis on the creation of durable community assets based on the locally felt need.
Durable assets of national priorities and community needs viz. drinking water, primary education, public health, sanitation and roads, etc.
Initially, the Scheme was under the control of the Ministry of Rural Development and Planning.
In October, 1994, the scheme was transferred to the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation.
Under this scheme,every MP is entitled to spend Rs 5 crore annually.
Similar to MPLADS, several states have enacted schemes called Member of Legislative Assembly Local Area Development Scheme (MLALADS) where funds are given to MLAs.
MPLAD funds can also be used for implementation of the schemes such as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan), conservation of water through rain water harvesting and SansadAadarsh Gram Yojana, etc.

13. WORLD NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES

Subject : Science & tech

Context : Delegates at the 74th World Health Assembly unanimously adopted a proposal by the UAE to declare January 30 as ‘World NTD Day’.

Concept :

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a diverse group of tropical infections which are common in low-income populations in developing regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
They are caused by a variety of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, protozoa and parasitic worms (helminths).
They include dengue, rabies, blinding trachoma, Buruli ulcer, endemic treponematoses (yaws), leprosy (Hansen disease) etc.
These diseases are contrasted with the big three infectious diseases (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria), which generally receive greater treatment and research funding.
1 in 5 people around the world are affected by NTDs.
India is home to the world’s largest absolute burden of at least 11 of these major neglected tropical diseases.

14. ACCELERATED EFFORTS TO END MALARIA

Subject : International Relations

Context : The ongoing 74th World Health Assembly (WHA) — the main governing body of the World Health Organization (WHO) comprising 194 member states — has adopted a new resolution to accelerate efforts to end malaria.

Concept :

The disease — caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes — claims more than 400,000 lives annually.
The world reported estimated 229 million cases of malaria and 409,000 deaths in 2019, according to a WHO report.
The WHO said an estimated 7.6 million deaths and 1.5 billion cases had been averted since 2000, but the global gains in combatting malaria have levelled off in recent years.
The aim of the resolution is to urge Member States to step up progress on containing the disease, in line with WHO’s updated global malaria strategy and the WHO Guidelines for malaria.
It called countries to expand investment, scale up funding for global response and boost investment in research and development of new tools.
The WHO Global Malaria Programme (GMP) is responsible for coordinating WHO’s global efforts to control and eliminate malaria.
Its work is guided by the Global technical strategy for malaria 2016–2030 adopted by the World Health Assembly in May 2015.
National Strategic Plan (NSP) for Elimination of Malaria (2017-2022) was launched by the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare.
India has set its goal to eliminate Malaria by 2027 three years ahead of the global deadline for the elimination of Malaria.
It is designed based on the National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) 2016 formulated with the support of the World Health Organization’s Global Technical Strategy for Malaria (2016-2030).