tsugeethnow - Tumblr blog

[tsugeethnow]

Dowry Prohibition Act 1961

Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961 was passed by the first Joint sitting of both the Houses of Parliament and it became an Act after it was signed by the then President Dr. Rajendra Prasad on 20th May,1961.

In India Joint sitting of the Parliament has been called for only 3 Bills. 

Dowry Prohibition Act 1961.

Banking Service Commission Repeal Bill 1978.

Prevention of Terrorism Bill 2002.

The Bill which was passed in the Twelfth year of the Republic, clearly states that, Dowry shall be anything or any property or valuable security either given or agreed to be given directly or indirectly by one party to the other in relation with a marriage. 

So, If any person after the commencement of this law, takes or gives anything or any valuable entity shall be entitled to a penalty of imprisonment of not less than 5 years along with a fine of fifteen thousand rupees or the amount equivalent to the Dowry given or accepted. 

If any person demanding anything in relation to the institution of marriage from the other party shall be entitled to an imprisonment of not less than 6 months which shall be extended to 2 years along with a fine of ten thousand rupees.

If any person publishes any offers with regard to the proposal of marriage in any media shall be entitled to a penalty of imprisonment of not less than 5 years along with a fine of fifteen thousand rupees.

Any agreement regarding taking or giving of Dowry shall be void.

[tsugeethnow]

The Protection of Human Rights Amendment Bill 2019

The Minister of Home Affair’s Mr. Amit Shah introduced the Protection of Human Rights Amendment Bill 2019 in the Lok Sabha on July 8, 2019. It was passed by the Lok Sabha on July 19,2019. Further, passed by the Rajya Sabha on July 22, 2019. The New Amendment Act came into effect on August 2, 2019.

The Bill amends the Protection of Human Rights Act 1993. The Act gave provisions for the National Human Rights Commission, State Human Rights Commission and Human Rights Courts.

Earlier the Chairman of National Human Rights Commission shall be a person who had been the Chief Justice of Supreme Court, now this has been amended by giving provisions to the Judges of Supreme Court as well to contest to the post of Chairperson of NHRC and same in the case of State Human Rights Commision as well.

Earlier the Act gave provision for 2 members who has enough knowledge about Human Rights to be the members of NHRC, now this has been amended giving provisions to 3 members, of which one shall compulsory be reserved to a woman.

Earlier, According to the Act, the chairpersons of National Commision of Scheduled Caste, National Commission of Scheduled Tribes and National Commission for Woman were the members of NHRC. Now,by the new amendment act, the chairpersons of National Commission of Backward Classes, National Commission of Protection of Child Rights and the Chief of Commission for Person with Disabilities are included as the members of NHRC.

Earlier the Act provided a term of office for 5 years or till 70 years of age,whichever is earlier, to the Chairpersons and the members of NHRC as well as SHRC. The new bill has cut short the term of office to 3 years or till 70 years of age,whichever is earlier and it removes year limit of reappointment which was 5 years before.

Protection of Human Rights Act 1993 provided the Secretary General of NHRC and Secretary of SHRC to exercise power delegated to them. The Bill amends it by giving provisions to exercise every powers; Administrative and Financial except Judicial functions, which are entitled to the Chairperson’s control.

Furthermore, the Bill declared that the Centre may confer on SHRC human rights functions being discharged by the Union Territories with an exception to Delhi which shall be under the direct control of NHRC. 

[tsugeethnow]

LOKPAL

The Idea of ‘Constitutional Ombudsman’ was first suggested in the parliament by the then Law Minister Ashok Kumar Sen in the early 60′s. 

In 1963, the word ‘Lokpal’ was coined by Dr. L M Sanghvi. Lokpal shall be an anti-corruption authority or ombudsman body which shall have authority over the central government to investigate corruption and related charges over the elected government & officials.

The Lokpal and Lokayukta bills were passed by the Parliament following Anna Hazare’s Jan Lokpal Movement in 2011. The Parliament passed the bills in 2013 and it was given the final assent by the then President Pranab Mukherjee by signing the bill on January 1,2014.

On March 23,2019 a committee comprising the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan appointed retired Supreme Court Judge Pinaki Chandra Ghosh as the first Chairman of Lokpal on March 27,2019 with its members. 

Lokpal consists of 9 members including the Chairman. Four of them shall be judicial members who have been retired as High Court Chief Justice and the other four members shall be non-judicial members from All India Services.

[tsugeethnow]

Pradhan Mantri Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana - PMASBY

PMASBY Pradhan Mantri Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana is a new government healthcare infrastructure scheme launched to provide better access to healthcare facilities to the people of India.

It was announced during the 2021-2022 Budget session of the Parliament on February 1, 2021 and was approved by September 2021 with an outlay of about 64,180 Cr rupees for the coming six years.

The main objective of PMASBY is to fill up the existing gaps in Public health infrastructure in primary as well as critical care facilities in both urban and rural areas. The project also aims to develop a network of surveillance laboratories in metropolitan areas at block, district, regional and national levels to build IT enabled disease surveillance system.

This scheme aims to strengthen existing 33 public health units as well as operationalise new 17 health units at entry points. This will help the public to detect, investigate and combat any disease outbreaks and health emergencies. By the launch of this scheme, the public shall be reliant to use effectively the existing health care infrastructure in its best way and the PMASBY shall also rectify the unevenness in the distribution of medical colleges and increase the availability of healthcare professionals across India.

PMASBY shall benefit the people by the following ways:

Support to about 17,788 rural healthcare and wellness centres of 10 states of high focus.

About 11,024 urban healthcare and wellness centres to be set up under this scheme.

Provide critical care services by setting up exclusive critical care hospital blocks in all districts with population more than 5 Lakhs and in district with less than 5 Lakhs shall be provided services on a referral basis.

Provide diagnostic services to the people by creating a network of laboratories across India with integrated health information portal.

157 new medical colleges has been approved under this scheme, and 63 of them has become operational.

Under this scheme the frontline workers shall be trained to build a workforce that shall be capable to respond any health emergency.

The government will set up 

One National institution for One Health.

Four National Institutes of Virology.

Nine Biosafety level three Laboratories.

One Regional research platform for South East Asia Region of World Health Organisation.

Five Regional National centres for disease control.

To Sum up, PMASBY will improve the healthcare infrastructure in India substantially and the commons will have better access to healthcare services in both rural and urban areas.

[tsugeethnow]

Quorum

Quorum is the minimum number of members required to be present before a meeting is allowed to begin.

The quorum of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is one-tenth of the total members of each house. At present Lok Sabha has 543 members and Rajya Sabha has 245 members (12 of them are nominated by the President of India).

If the quorum is not complete, it’s the duty of the Speaker to adjourn the House or suspend the meeting till the quorum is complete. 

[tsugeethnow]

Bamboo clone crash barriers, a cost effective solution to road safety.

Beema bamboo and coir shall be a low cost and effective solution to replace steel barriers on roads to reduce fatalities and accidents on highways as the centre look forward for innovative means of reducing accidents and at the same time find a cost effective formula to replace steel which shall help the farmers of the Nation. 

As per sources, Steels, metals and alloys barriers cost  ₹2000/ meter whereas bamboos shall cost only a fraction of that.

Beema bamboo is a local product of Karnataka and adjoining areas.

India is the World’s second largest cultivator of Bamboo.

In 2017, Bamboo outside forest areas have been excluded from the definition of ‘Tree’ by amending the Indian Forests Act 1927. It helps to increase the area under Bamboo plantation in Govt. and public lands to supplement farmers income.

The Objective behind this is to reduce the import of Bamboo and bamboo products.

National Bamboo Mission was established by the Govt. of India in 2006 and it was restructured in the year 2018.

[tsugeethnow]

Atal Tunnel, World’s longest highway tunnel.

Atal Tunnel also known as Rohtang Tunnel is a highway tunnel built under the Rohtang pass in the eastern Pir Panjal range of Himalayas on the Leh-Manali highway in Himachal Pradesh. It is the World’s longest highway tunnel at about 9.02 kms long at an elevation of 3100 meters (10171 ft) connecting Solang valley in Manali and Sissu in Lahaul and Spiti District of Himachal Pradesh.

Rohtang Pass is at an elevation of 3978ft (13051 ft).

The tunnel was inaugurated by the Prime Minister,Narendra Modi on October 3, 2020, in the presence of Rajnath Singh (Minister of Defence), Jai Ram Thakur (CM of Himachal Pradesh), and Anurag Thakur (Minister of State for Finance). 

The tunnel will provide all weather connectivity to the remote areas of Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh. The tunnel reduces overall time and distance between Manali and Keylong on the way to Leh-Ladakh. 

Previously the route went through Gramphu, which under good conditions took 5 to 6 hours to cover 116 Kms. With the launch of this tunnel the distance got decreased to 71 kms which shall be covered in 3-4hrs less time. Atal tunnel has bypassed most of the sites which were prone to road blockades, avalanches and traffic snarls.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi renamed the tunnel as the Atal Tunnel, in honour of Shree Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on 25 December 2019, Vajpayee's birthday.

In 1960, Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru suggested a rope way to Rohtang pass with local tribes. Then after 39 years, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the Prime Minister, he visited Lahaul in 2000 upon request by the locals and declared that Rohtang Tunnel would be constructed after conducting a feasibility study by RITES. Later it was undertaken by Border Road Organisation.

It is a horseshoe-shaped, single tube double lane tunnel with a roadway of 8 metres and an overhead clearance of 5.525 metres. It has been designed for a traffic density of 3,000 cars and 1,500 trucks per day with a maximum speed of 80 km/hr.  The tunnel is 10.5-metre wide and a 3.6x2.25 metre fireproof emergency egress tunnel has been built into the main tunnel itself. 

The tunnel is equipped with various security features such as CCTV cameras, telephone connections at every 150 metres for any emergency, fire hydrant mechanism at every 60 metres and auto incident detection system.

The overall project cost was  ₹3200 Crores.

[tsugeethnow]

Amazonia - I Satellite of Brazil

Amazonia - I is the first indigenously developed Earth Observatory Satellite by Brazil to monitor the ecosystem of Amazon Rainforest. It  has been successfully transported via a cargo flight from Sao Jose dos Campos to Chennai

This Satellite will be launched into space from Sriharikota launch centre from PSLV-51 along with three private satellites by Indian Startups as secondary payloads.

[tsugeethnow]

Lithium Triangle

The three South American countries Chile, Argentina and Bolivia comprise the ‘Lithium Triangle’ which hosts more than the half of the world's lithium reserves.

Reserves of Lithium, a much demanded metal for batteries of Electrical Vehicles have been first discovered in Mandya, a place 100km away from Bengaluru in the State of Karnataka. The present estimates tells that there are 30,300 tonnes of Li20 over an area of 0.5 km x 5 km which contributes to about 14,100 tonnes of Lithium metal.

Currently, Indian imports all its Lithium needs.

[tsugeethnow]

Prohibition of Inter-faith marriages amounts to the violation of ideal of fraternity.

The term “Fraternity” was originally stated in the Preamble of our Constitution. The Preamble declares that Fraternity has to assure both Dignity of the Individual and Unity and Integrity of the Nation.

Dignity of the Individual is assured by the provisions of the Fundamental rights and the Directive principles of State policy.

Unity and Integrity of the Nation is assured by the provisions of the Fundamental Duties, Article 51A.

The terms Socialist, Secular and Integrity was added to the Preamble of our Constitution by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act.

[tsugeethnow]

Asian Waterbird Census AWC

Asian Waterbird Census was initiated in the year 1987 in the Indian subcontinent and has grown rapidly to cover the major regions of Asia, from Afghanistan eastwards to Japan, Southeast Asia and Australasia.

It is aimed at monitoring the status and condition of wetlands on annual basis. The census covered the entire Asian _ Australasian Flyway and a large part of Central Asian Flyway. It obtains information of waterbird populations at wetlands during the non-breeding period of most species, January.

AWC contributes to conservation activities from local to global level, which includes: Ramsar Convention of Wetlands by identifying and monitoring wetlands of International Importance; Convention on Migratory Species by monitoring the status of migratory waterbirds and their habitats; Conservation on Biological Diversity which aims at conservation and sustainable use of Biodiversity; Implementation of East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership Initiative and Central Asian Flyway Action Plan through monitoring important and Flyway Network sites; Birdlife International’s Important Bird Area IBA Programme; IUCN/ Birdlife International’s Global Special Programme (Red List); Wetlands International’s Waterbird Population Estimates Programme.

[tsugeethnow]

Deaths due to lightning strikes reduced by nearly 37% from 2800 in 2018-19 to 1771 in 2019-20.

Air is a poor conductor of Electricity ang gets extremely hot when lightning passes through it. Lightning can heat the surface of the air to approximately 50,000 degree Fahrenheit which is five times hotter than the surface of the Sun.

A Lightning Arrester, in no way can be equal to a Surge Arrester. A Lightning arrester is to protect the apparatus from the outer surface while that of Surge arrester is to protect the apparatus from inside.

[tsugeethnow]

The Ministry of Tourism’s SAATHI.

The Ministry of Tourism has partnered with the Quality Council of India QCI to assist the Hospitality Industry in their preparedness to continue operations safely and mitigate risks arising out of the COVID19 pandemic through an initiative called System for Assessment, Awareness and Training for Hospitality Industry SAATHI.

[tsugeethnow]

250 Crows died within a month in Rajasthan due to Bird flu.

Bird Flu is caused by an Influenza Virus that rarely infects human. Many types of bird flu has been identified. Of them, H5N1 and H7N9 are the two strains which recently infected humans. 

At present, there are no commercially available vaccines for humans against bird flu strains. The United States is accumulating H5N1 vaccines as it is easy for the virus to transmit from person to person as well as it has killed 60% of the people who has been infected.

[tsugeethnow]

NDRF to extinguish wildfire in the Dzukou Valley.

The Dzukou valley is a sanctuary located at the borders of the northeastern states Nagaland and Manipur.

Its known for endangered species of birds and animals, specifically the Blyth’s tragopan - Nagaland State Bird.

[tsugeethnow]

Residents of forest villages in Dibru-Saikhowa National Park have allegedly been denied access to govt schemes since 1986.

The Mishing tribes is an indigenous community inhabiting in some parts of the states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. They are considered as a Scheduled tribe by the Government by the name “Miri”. 

Ali-Aye-Ligang is a festival marking the beginning of the sowing season and marks the start of a new agricultural calendar. It's a five day festival. The Celebration begins with the heads of the family sowing ceremonial rice paddy seeds in the corner of their fields and praying for their crop abundance.

[tsugeethnow]

Growth in Reserve Bank of India’s All India Housing Price Index continued to be moderate.

All India Housing Price Index is released by Reserve Bank of India. It varied widely, increasing 9% in Ahmedabad and contracting 5.5% in Delhi. Among the major cities, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai recorded a sequential decline in HPI.