Current Affairs 24-06-2020

CURRENT AFFAIRS 24-06-2020

YUKTI 2.0

Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, launched an initiative ‘YUKTI 2.0’ to help systematically assimilate technologies having commercial potential and information related to incubated startups in our higher education institutions.
YUKTI 2.0 is logical extension of earlier version of ‘YUKTI’, an initiative of MHRD, to identify ideas relevant in COVID pandemic.
YUKTI 2.0 will also help in fostering the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in our academic institutions.

Vienna Convention:

What is in news?

Protesting “espionage” and “terrorism related” activities by official of the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi as well as the “ill treatment” of Indian High Commission officials in Islamabad, the government has decided to reduce the staff strength at both missions by half.
The government’s decision, which will bring down Indian staff strength in Pakistan. The last time this kind of reduction of diplomats was seen was in 2001, after the attack on Parliament.
The behaviour of Pakistan and its officials is not in conformity with the Vienna Convention and bilateral agreements on the treatment of diplomatic and consular officials . On the contrary, it is an intrinsic element of a larger policy of supporting cross border violence and terrorism,” the MEA said in its statement.

What is Vienna Convention?

The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963 is an international treaty that defines a framework for consular relations between independent states.
A consul performs two functions: protecting in the host country the interests of their countrymen, and furthering the relations between the two states.
Consular and Diplomat work out of the same premises, and under this treaty they are afforded most of the same privileges.
Immunity given to consular is similar to diplomat. The treaty has been ratified by 179 states.

Rath Yatra :

What is in news?

The wooden chariots of Lord Jagannath, elder brother Lord Balabhadra and sister Goddess Subhadra outside the temple in Puri on Tuesday. The Rath Yatra this year was a pale shadow of the grand spectacle, with the pilgrim town under curfew and the sea of devotees missing due to the COVID19 pandemic.

Puri jaganath Temple :

The Jagannath Temple in Puri was called the “White Pagoda”.
The temple is a part of Char Dham (Badrinath, Dwaraka, Puri, Rameswaram) pilgrimages that a Hindu is expected to make in one’s lifetime.
When most of the deities in the temples of India are made of stone or metal, the idol of Jagannatha is made of wood which is ceremoniously replaced in every twelve or nineteen years by using sacred trees.
The temple is believed to be constructed in the 12th century by King Anatavarman Chodaganga Deva of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty.
The temple is famous for its annual Ratha Yatra or Chariot festival, in which the three principal deities (Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra) are pulled on huge and elaborately decorated temple cars
Jagannath Puri temple is called ‘Yamanika Tirtha’ where, according to the Hindu beliefs, the power of ‘Yama’, the god of death has been nullified in Puri due to the presence of Lord Jagannath.

Mi8 Helicopter

What is in news?

The Russian built Mi8 helicopter, which served the Indian Air Force for more than 35 years before being decommissioned from service, being fixed on a platform at Shankumugham in Thiruvananthapuram.

About:

Mi-8, also known as Pratap, is a helicopter served the IAF from 1971 to 2017
It is commonly used as a transport helicopter and as an airborne command post, an armed gunship.
It has served the IAF in mainland India and the island territories of Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands.
It has been deployed in various operations such as IPKF operation in Sri Lanka, UN Mission in Congo, Operation Megdoot of 1989 in the Siachen Glacier, Operation Pawan in Srilanka it also operated exclusively in humanitarian, rescue and disaster relief operation across the country including during the devastating 2015 Chennai floods, etc.

Naga Peace Accord :

What is in News?

A Central Bureau of Investigation team (CBI) is in Manipur to question former Manipur Chief Minister O. Ibobi Singh and some officials in connection with the alleged embezzlement of Rs 332 crore by the four former chairmen of the Manipur Development Society MDS .
In November last year, the agency had registered the case and searched multiple locations in Gurugram, Aizawl and Imphal, on the day when Manipur Congress legislators led by the former CM staged a protest in Delhi against the Naga Accord.

What is Naga Peace Accord?

In 2015, an agreement was signed between the Centre and the Naga groups led by the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) after the latter agreed to give up its long-standing demand for sovereignty.
There was a broad understanding on a settlement within the Indian constitutional framework, with due regard to the uniqueness of Naga history and tradition.
The Naga Movement is the oldest movement for self-determination in India and is also the longest surviving insurgency. The presence of multiple factions representing the Naga interests makes the process of self-determination complicated.
The distribution of Naga population in various states of the North-East such as Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Assam, and Nagaland, as well as in adjoining Myanmar further trivializes the issue of carving the ‘Greater Nagalim’ or a separate state for all the Nagas in the region.

Government e-Marketplace (GeM)

What is in news?

In a push to promote local products, the Union government has made it mandatory for all sellers on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), a platform for public procurement, to list the Country of Origin while registering new products. Those who had uploaded products are getting regular warnings that they will be removed if the origin details are not updated.

The changes to the GeM, a Special Purpose Vehicle under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, are in line with the Centre's Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India policies, an official statement said.

GeM facilities:

Listing of products for individual, prescribed categories of Goods/ Services of common use.
Look, estimate, compare and buying facility on dynamic pricing basis.
Market place buying of majority of common User Items.
Buying Goods and Services online, as and when required.
Transparency and ease of buying.
Useful for low value buying and also for bulk buying at competitive price using Reverse Auction/ e-bidding.
Continuous vendor rating system.
Return policy.

Trump cuts H1B Visas

What is in news?

U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order on suspending new H1B visas till the end of the year in an effort to ease unemployment will impact both IT firms like TCS, Cognizant and Infosys as well as big tech companies like Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook, who use the H1B program for their staffing needs. Each year, the U.S. issues 85,000 new H1Bs, most of which go to Indians.

About:

The White House has made a proclamation restricting the issuance of non immigrant work visas across the board, purportedly to clamp down on American jobs going to foreign workers, a consistent policy priority of the Donald Trump administration.
The broadbrush order includes the H1B visa for skilled workers, which is widely garnered by Indian nationals, the H2B visa issued to seasonal workers in the landscaping and hospitality industries, the L1 visa for intracompany transfers, and the J1 visa for students on workstudy summer programs.

HC grants bail to pregnant women on humanitarian grounds

What is in news?

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted bail to Safoora Zargar, Jamia Coordination Committee media coordinator, who was arrested in the northeast Delhi violence case .Ms. Zargar, who is 23week pregnant, “purely on humanitarian grounds”.

Under the Article 21,22 :

According to Article 21:

“Protection of Life and Personal Liberty: No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.” This fundamental right is available to every person, citizens and foreigners alike.

Article 21 provides two rights:

Right to life
Right to personal liberty

The fundamental right provided by Article 21 is one of the most important rights that the Constitution guarantees. The Supreme Court of India has described this right as the ‘heart of fundamental rights’.
The right specifically mentions that no person shall be deprived of life and liberty except as per the procedure established by law. This implies that this right has been provided against the State only. State here includes not just the government, but also, government departments, local bodies, the Legislatures, etc.
Any private individual encroaching on these rights of another individual does not amount to a violation of Article 21. The remedy for the victim, in this case, would be under Article 226 or under general law.
The right to life is not just about the right to survive. It also entails being able to live a complete life of dignity and meaning.
The chief goal of Article 21 is that when the right to life or liberty of a person is taken away by the State, it should only be according to the prescribed procedure of law.

Article 22

Article 22 deals with the protection against arrest and detention in certain cases. This article is applicable to both citizens and non-citizens. This provision extends certain procedural safeguards for individuals in case of an arrest. It comes into the picture after a person has been arrested. It is not a fundamental right against detention and arrest. The idea behind this right is to prevent arbitrary arrests and detention.

What is Preventive Detention?

Punitive detention is detention after a trial. Preventive detention is detention without trial. The idea behind this is to prevent an individual from committing a crime. This means that persons can be detained on grounds of suspicion. The rights of people arrested in this manner are governed by preventive detention laws.

Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971:

What is in news?

Allowed a woman in her 25^th week of pregnancy bearing twins to medically terminate one of the foetuses detected with substantial abnormalities.
The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971 bars abortion if the foetus has crossed the 20week mark. An exception to the law is made if a registered medical practitioner certifies to a court that the continued pregnancy is life threatening for the mother.

Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971:

It has proposed a requirement for opinion of one provider for termination of pregnancy, up to 20 weeks of gestation.
It has also introduced the requirement of opinion of two providers for termination of pregnancy of 20-24 weeks of gestation.
It enhanced the upper gestation limit from 20 to 24 weeks for special categories of women which will be defined in the amendments to the MTP Rules which would include vulnerable women.
The upper gestation limit would not apply in cases of substantial foetal abnormalities diagnosed by Medical Board.
The name and other particulars of a woman whose pregnancy has been terminated shall not be revealed except to a person authorised in any law for the time being in force.

How the decision to abort should be taken?

The question of abortion needs to be decided on the basis of human rights, the principles of solid science, and in step with advancements in technology.
A key aspect of the legality governing abortions has always been the ‘viability’ of the foetus.
In human gestation, ‘viability’ indicates the period from which a foetus is capable of living outside the womb.
There is no uniform gestational viability for abortion. It’s usually placed at about 28 weeks but may occur earlier, even at 24 weeks.
As technology improves, with infrastructure upgradation, and with skillful professionals driving medical care, this ‘viability’ naturally improves.

Paris Agreement:

What is in news?

Mr. Bolton calls the Paris Agreement a ‘charade’ that has given ‘leeway’ to countries like China and India, leaving them “essentially unfettered”. He talks about the threat the U.S. allies and others face from the INF (Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces) treaty because a number of countries such as China are not party to it.

Paris agreement:

In short, Paris Agreement is an international agreement to combat climate change.
From 30 November to 11 December 2015, the governments of 195 nations gathered in Paris, France, and discussed a possible new global agreement on climate change, aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and thus reduce the threat of dangerous climate change.
The 32-page Paris agreement with 29 articles is widely recognized as a historic deal to stop global warming.
Paris Agreement comes under the broad umbrella of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). UNFCCC is a convention held in 1992 to combat climate change. Kyoto Protocol (1997) was another major international commitment under UNFCCC.

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty:

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty, formally Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles) is a 1987 arms control agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Under the INF Treaty, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. agreed to eliminate within three years all ground-launched-missiles of 500-5,500 km range and not to develop, produce or deploy these in future.
The U.S. destroyed 846 Pershing IIs and Ground Launched Cruise Missiles (GLCMs) and the U.S.S.R., 1,846 missiles (SS-4s, SS-5s and SS-20s), along with its support facilities.

Importance of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in U.S.-Russia relations:

Under the Treaty, the two parties agreed that a whole important class of nuclear weapons would be removed from Europe, and only tactical nuclear weapons (TNW) or short-range missiles mostly deployed on the territory of Germany would remain.
The INF Treaty for years served to mitigate fears of both parties in relation to possibility of military escalation, operational miscalculation, and helping to shift the logic of MAD [mutually assured destruction] to the higher “more sensitive” political level.

Operation Samudra Setu

What is in news?

INS Airavat, deployed by the Indian Navy for “Operation Samudra Setu", entered Tuticorin harbour early 23 Jun 2020 with 198 Indian nationals embarked from Male, Maldives. Thus far Indian Navy has brought back 2386 Indian citizens from Maldives to India.

About Operation samudra setu?

Indian Navy has launched Operation “Samudra Setu” - meaning “Sea Bridge”, as a part of national effort to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas. Indian Naval Ships Jalashwa and Magar are presently enroute to the port of Malè, Republic of Maldives to commence evacuation.
The Government has been closely monitoring the situation with respect to effect of COVID-19 pandemic on our citizens abroad. The Indian Navy has been directed to make suitable preparations for their evacuation by sea.
The Indian Mission in Republic of Maldives is preparing a list of Indian nationals to be evacuated by Naval ships and will facilitate their embarkation after requisite medical screening. A total of 1000 persons are planned to be evacuated during the first trip, catering for COVID- related social distancing norms vis-a-vis the carrying capacity and medical facilities available onboard.
The ships have been suitably provisioned for the evacuation operation. The evacuated personnel would be provided the basic amenities and medical facilities during the sea-passage. In view of the unique challenges associated with COVID-19 stringent protocols have also been stipulated.