National Current Affairs – UPSC/IAS Exams- 14th November 2019

by Mentors4ias · November 14, 2019

Office of Chief Justice under RTI

Topic: Polity and Governance

In News: Constitution bench upheld the January 2010 Delhi High Court judgment which said that the apex court and the office of the CJI would fall within the ambit of the 2005 RTI Act.

What the order means:

The outcome is that the office of the CJI will now entertain RTI applications. Under Section 2(f) of the RTI Act, information means “any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force”.

Criticism:

Offices such as those of the Prime Minister and the President too are public authorities under the RTI Act. But public authorities have often denied information quoting separate observations by the Supreme Court itself in 2011: “Officials need to furnish only such information which already exists and is held by the public authority and not collate or create information”; and, “the nation does not want a scenario where 75% of the staff of public authorities spends 75% of their time in collecting and furnishing information to applicants instead of discharging their regular duties”.

Significance of the Judgement:

The verdict underlines the balance Supreme Court needs between transparency and protecting its independence.
The step is significant because it opens the doors to RTI requests that will test the frontiers of what has been a rather opaque system. What new red lines are drawn will decide how effective the step is.
Read more on RTI @ https://nammakpsc.com/wp/right-to-information-amendment-bill-2019/

Source: Hindu

Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) Code

Topic: Government Initiatives

In News: The Centre will seek the passage of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH) Code in the next Budget session of Parliament for approval.

More on the Topic:

The code aims to regulate the employment of workers, including those engaged by contractors, and their working conditions across sectors.
It is one of the four codes that are part of the Centre’s labour reforms agenda.
The four labour codes on Wages, Industrial Relations, Social Security and Occupational Safety, and Health and Working Conditions are intended to provide workers with wage security, social security, safety, health and grievance redress mechanisms.
Key Provisions: Replaces 13 labour laws relating to safety, health and working conditions, including the Factories Act, 1948, the Mines Act, 1952, and the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970.
Applicability: Establishments employing at least 10 workers, All mines and docks, Provides special provisions for certain types of establishments and classes of employees, such as factories and building and construction workers.
A National Occupational Safety and Health Advisory Board in place of multiple committees at present.
The Board will have tripartite representation from trade unions, employer associations and state governments.
The Board will advise the government on the standards, rules and regulations on workers’ safety, besides overseeing the implementation of the Code.
Licensing Requirements: One registration, one licence and one tax return instead of multiple registrations, licenses and returns as required in the existing 13 labour laws.
Formalisation of Employment: The Code provides for a statutory provision to issue appointment letter to every employee of the establishment.
Safety and Welfare Provisions: The employer is required to provide a hygienic work environment with ventilation, comfortable temperature and humidity, sufficient space, clean drinking water, and latrine and urinal accommodations.
The Code provides for uniform threshold for welfare provisions for all establishments. Welfare Provisions include crèche, canteen, first aid, welfare officer etc.
Duties of Employees include taking care of their own health and safety, complying with the specified safety and health standards, and reporting unsafe situations to the relevant authority.
Working Hours For Women: Women, after their consent, will be permitted to work beyond 7 pm and before 6 am subject to the safety, holidays, working hours or any other condition as prescribed by the state or the central government.
Penalty: An offence that leads to the death of an employee will be punishable with imprisonment of up to two years, or a fine up to five lakh rupees, or both.
The courts may direct that at least 50% of such fine be given as compensation to the heirs of the victim.
If an employee violates provisions of the Code, s/he will be subject to a fine of up to Rs 10,000.

Source: Indian Express

BRICS -Young Innovator’s Prize

Topic: International Affairs

In News: India’s Ravi Prakash has won the BRICS-Young Innovator Prize at 4th BRICS -Young Scientist Forum’s Conclave held during 6-8 November2019 in Brazil. He won the first first prize carrying $25,000 for inventing an affordable indigenous milk chilling unit for smaller and marginal rural dairy farmers.

More on the Topic:

Prakash, PhD scholar of ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Bangalore, was a part of a 21-member delegation sent to Brazil by the Department of Science and Technology for the 4th BRICS-Young Scientist Forum (YSF), 2019.
About the milk chilling technology: The technology can be used for chilling milk from the point of production by bringing down the temperature of raw milk from 37C to 7C within 30 minutes using nano-fluid based phase change materials.
This innovation is of great socio-economic importance for all the developing countries by preserving the quality and safety of milk just after production.

About BRICS Young Innovator Prize:

The BRICS Young Innovator Prize aims to recognise and reward the best results related to research, development and innovation projects that represent technological innovation and a potential contribution to the science and technology sector of the BRICS countries.
It is in special recognition of young talented entrepreneurs and researchers, whose outstanding innovations will make a profound impact on the socio-economic environment and conditions of life in BRICS societies.

Source: Indian Express

Cancer Care facilities

Topic: Health

In News: A report by a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science, Technology and Environment has found out that India’s cancer care infrastructure is “highly inadequate” and forces a majority of patients to travel “thousands of kilometres” for treatment.

More on the Topic:

The “systematic failure” to address the needs of patients contributes to a 20% higher mortality among Indian cancer patients than in countries with a “high” Human Development Index.
Mortality to incidence ratio of 0.68 in India is higher than that in very high human development index (HDI) countries (0.38) and high HDI countries (0.57).
The committee was constituted to examine an expanded role for the Department of Atomic Energy, through the Tata Memorial Centre (TMC), to address India’s rising cancer burden.
The committee recommended t a ‘Hub and Spoke Model’(already in practice in Punjab) proposed by the TMC to better reach out to cancer patients nationally.

Facts and Figures:

The incidence, or the number of newly diagnosed cases of cancer annually, is about 16 lakh in India.
The disease kills 8 lakh people annually in India.
India’s cancer burden is expected to increase from an estimated 13 lakh cases in 2018 to about 17 lakh in 2035, and cancer deaths are expected to rise from 8.8 lakh in 2018 to 13 lakh in 2035.
Two-thirds of India’s cancer patients were treated in the private sector and this forced 6 crore Indians below the poverty line because of “catastrophic healthcare related expenditure on cancer”.

About Hub and Spoke Model:

TMC, considered the country’s premier cancer hospital and research centre, has proposed that it wants to create cancer hospitals that will serve as around “30 hubs and between 100 and 130 spokes in various parts of the country”.
Each “hub” (a large hospital with advanced facilities) should cover approximate population of 40 million, and a “spoke” (a smaller hospital connected to the hub) should cover a population of between 5-10 million. The hubs and spokes will see an estimated intake of 40,000 and spokes of 8,000 new patients annually.

Source: Hindu

The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act

Topic: Economy

In News: More than 1,800 NGOs and academic institutes found to be violating laws pertaining to foreign funding have been banned by the government from receiving overseas funds this year.

More on the Topic:

The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 and rules framed under it (the “FCRA” or “Act”) regulate the receipt and usage of foreign contribution by non-governmental organisations (“NGOs”) in India.
Since the Act is internal security legislation, despite being a law related to financial legislation, it falls into the purview of Home Ministry and not the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Objective of FCRA:

The intent of the Act is to prevent use of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality for any activity detrimental to the national interest.
It has a very wide scope and is applicable to a natural person, body corporate, all other types of Indian entities (whether incorporated or not) as well as NRIs and overseas branches/subsidiaries of Indian companies and other entities formed or registered in India. It is implemented by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.
The act prohibits acceptance and use of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality by a certain specified category of persons such as a candidate for election, judge, journalist, columnist, newspaper publication, cartoonist and others.
Regulates the inflow to and usage of foreign contribution by NGOs by prescribing a mechanism to accept, use and report usage of the same.
The Act permits only NGOs having a definite cultural, economic, educational, religious or social programme to accept foreign contribution, that too after such NGOs either obtain a certificate of registration or prior permission under the Act.

How to ensure transparency?

There should be better coordination between Ministries of Home Affairs and Finance in terms of monitoring and regulating illicit and unaccounted funds.
A regulatory mechanism to keep a watch on the financial activities of NGOs and voluntary organizations is the need of the hour.

Source: Hindu

Project Zero

Topic: Economy

In News: Project zero was initiated by Amazon.

More on the Topic:

The aim of the initiative is to block selling of counterfeit goods on its platform.
The aim is to ensure that customers receive authentic goods when shopping on Amazon.
It introduces additional proactive mechanisms and powerful tools to identify, block and remove counterfeits.

Source: Hindu

The Asia-Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association

Topic: Organisations in news

In News: Recently APRACA co-hosted 6th World Congress on Rural and Agricultural Finance along with NABARD in New Delhi.

More on the Topic:

The Asia-Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (APRACA) aims to promote the efficiency and effectiveness of rural finance and access to sustainable financial services for small farmers in its member countries.
Currently, APRACA has members in over 23 countries, and it acts to promote the exchange of information and expertise on rural finance between them.
It also provides rural finance-related training, consultancy, and research publications to assist them.
They were established to provide financial services to small farmers and rural people in general.
The two other regional agricultural credit associations are
NENARACA (Near East – North Africa Agricultural Credit Association).
AFRACA (African Rural and Agricultural Credit Association)
All the three credit associations were established, with the help of FAO, following the 1975 World Conference on Agricultural Credit.