Current Affairs 22-06-2020

Secrecy of ballot

• The Supreme Court has held in a judgment that Secrecy of ballot is the cornerstone of free and fair elections.
• Section 94 of the Representation of the People Act upholds the privilege of the voter to maintain confidentiality about her choice of vote.
• The principle of secrecy of ballots is an important postulate of constitutional democracy. The choice of a voter should be free and the secret ballot system in a democracy ensures it.
• However, a voter can also voluntarily waive the privilege of non-disclosure. The privilege ends when the voter decides to waive the privilege and instead volunteers to disclose as to whom she had voted. No one can prevent a voter from doing. Nor can a complaint be entertained as to why she disclosed for whom she voted.

 Operation Samudra Setu

•  INS Airavat set sail from Male in the Maldives to Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu with 198 Indians on Sunday under the next phase of Operation Samudra Setu to repatriate citizens from overseas.
• The Navy launched Operation Samudra Setu on May 8 to repatriate citizens stuck abroad due to the COVID19 pandemic and since then Indian citizens have been evacuated from the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Iran. INS Jalashwa and INS Magar had evacuated 2,874 individuals from the Maldives and Sri Lanka to the ports of Kochi and Thoothukudi.

Golden langurs

• Primatologists have observed that the Gee’s golden langur (Trachypithecus geei), endemic to the semi-evergreen and mixed-deciduous forests straddling India and Bhutan, induce stillbirth of babies killed inside the womb of females, besides practicing infanticide.
• The geographic range of golden langurs is limited to Assam, India and neighboring Bhutan where they live year-round. Golden langurs occupy moist evergreen and tropical deciduous forests as well as some riverine areas and savannas in Assam and Bhutan.
• In 2003, they were considered endangered by the IUCN Red List, and listed as Appendix I on the CITES website.  The main reason for low numbers of golden langurs is because of their localized habitat and the rapid loss of this habitat due to deforestation.
• Chakrashila is India’s first wildlife sanctuary with golden langur as the primary species. Chakrashila has about 600 golden langurs whose population is scattered across western Assam and the foothills of Bhutan.

Detection of fluorine in hot Extreme Helium Stars

• An extreme helium star or EHe is a low-mass supergiant that is almost devoid of hydrogen, the most common chemical element of the universe. There are 21 of them detected so far in our galaxy. The origin and evolution of these Hydrogen deficient objects have been shrouded in mystery. Their severe chemical peculiarities challenge the theory of well-accepted stellar evolution as the observed chemical composition of these stars do not match with that predicted for low mass evolved stars.
• A study by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) an autonomous institute of Department of Science and Technology which detected the presence of singly ionised fluorine for the first time in the atmospheres of hot Extreme Helium Stars makes a strong case that the main formation of these objects involves a merger of a carbon-oxygen (CO) and a Helium (He) white dwarf.
• Fluorine abundances determined from singly ionized fluorine (F II) lines suggest a very high enrichment of fluorine, about a factor of 100 to 10000 times higher than normal stars.

SAANSAD ADARSH GRAM YOJANA (SAGY)

• A study commissioned by the Ministry of Rural Development has observed that the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) has not made “any significant impact” and that “in the current format, it is not achieving the desired purpose”.
• Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) was launched in 2014.
• Under SAGY, each Member of Parliament adopts a Gram Panchayat and guides its holistic progress giving importance for social development at par with infrastructure.
• The goal is to develop three Adarsh Grams by March 2019, of which one would be achieved by 2016. Thereafter, five such Adarsh Grams (one per year) will be selected and developed by 2024.

COVIFOR(Remdesivir)

• Hetero announced it has received both manufacturing and marketing approval for the investigational antiviral drug Remdesivir, from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to treat Covid-19 patients.
• Hetero’s generic version of Remdesivir will be sold under the brand name COVIFOR in India soon. The approval of ‘COVIFOR’ (Remdesivir) can prove to be a game-changer given its positive clinical outcomes.
• The drug Remdesivir has been granted approval by DCGI for the treatment of suspected or laboratory-confirmed cases of Covid-19 in adults and children, hospitalized with severe symptoms of the infectious disease.