National Current Affairs – UPSC/KAS Exams- 20th December 2018

LS passes Bill banning commercial surrogacy

Topic: Social Justice

IN NEWS: The Lok Sabha passed a Bill banning commercial surrogacy with penal provisions of jail term of up to 10 years and fine of up to ₹10 lakh.

More on the Topic:

• The Bill, which will become law once the Rajya Sabha approves it, allows only close Indian relatives to be surrogate mothers and purely for “altruistic” reasons. It states an Indian infertile couple, married for five years or more, can go in for ‘altruistic surrogacy’ where the surrogate mother will not be paid any compensation except medical expenses and insurance.
• The draft law has a provision for a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine of ₹10 lakh for violations such as abandoning a child and choosing commercial surrogacy.
• The definition of a close relative will be clearly given in the rules of the Bill. only a defined mother and family can avail of surrogacy and it won’t be permitted for live-in partners or single parents.
• Experts claim that the stringent rules and regulations may encourage couples to turn toward adoption.
• As commercial surrogacy will not be an option in the near future, intended single parents or couples willing to have a baby will look at adoption to fulfil the need. This may possibly boost the dismal adoption figures in India

Back Ground:

• India had become a hub of commercial surrogacy and surrogate mothers were being exploited.
• The Bill comes against the backdrop of reports of unethical practices, exploitation of surrogate mothers, abandonment of children born out of surrogacy and rackets around intermediaries importing human embryos and gametes were reported.

Criticism:

• Surrogacy is a moral, social and emotional issue concerning parenthood. There must not be a 5-year clause to prove infertility, when science and technology has progressed so much, why should the couple wait for that long a while to have a child through surrogacy?”
• “Bill must mould itself in a more modern shape by considering cases of potential single parents, widows, same sex couples who want to have children as well, especially after recent progressive judgments.

Source: The Hindu

Evidence of water discovered in 17 asteroids

Topic: Science and Technology

IN NEWS:  Japanese scientists have detected evidence of water in 17 asteroids for the first time using data from the infrared satellite AKARI.

More on the Topic:

• This discovery will contribute to our understanding of the distribution of water in our solar system, the evolution of asteroids, and the origin of water on Earth.
• Our Earth is the only planet in our solar system where the presence of water on the planet surface has been confirmed. However, scientists are not yet sure how our Earth acquired its water. Recent studies have shown that other celestial bodies in our solar system have, or used to have, water in some form. Asteroids are considered to be one of the candidates that brought water to Earth.
• Researchers from Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and University of Tokyo found that water is retained in asteroids as hydrated minerals, which were produced by chemical reactions of water and anhydrous rocks that occurred inside the asteroids.
• Hydrated minerals are stable even above the sublimation temperature of water ice. By looking for hydrated minerals, scientists can investigate whether asteroids have water.

Infrared observations:

• Infrared wavelengths contain characteristic spectral features of various substances, such as molecules, ice, and minerals, which cannot be observed at visible wavelength Therefore, it is indispensable to observe at infrared wavelengths for the study of solar system objects.
• Hydrated minerals exhibit diagnostic absorption features at around 7 micrometres.
• The Japanese infrared satellite AKARI, which was launched in February 2006 and ended operations in 2011, was equipped with the Infrared Camera (IRC) that allowed the researchers to obtain spectra at near-infrared wavelengths from two to five micrometres.
• The observations detected absorption, which were attributed to hydrated minerals for 17 C-type asteroids.

C-type asteroids:

• C-type asteroids, which appear dark at visible wavelengths, were believed to be rich in water and organic material, but the present observations with AKARI are the first to directly confirm the presence of hydrated minerals in these asteroids.
• The heating energy could be supplied by the solar wind plasma, micrometeorite impacts, or the decay heat from radioactive isotopes in the rocks. This trend had been predicted by meteorite measurements, but this is the first time that it has been confirmed in asteroids.
• Many C-type asteroids display this trend, suggesting that C-type asteroids were formed by the agglomeration of rocks and water ice, then aqueous alteration occurred in the interior of asteroids to form hydrated minerals, and finally C-type asteroids were heated and dehydrated.

Source:The Hindu

Packaging of foodgrain in jute bags made mandatory

Topic: Government Policies

In news:  CThe Centre has mandated the packaging of 100% of foodgrain and 20% of sugar in jute bags for 2018-19 but has also left the window open for the dilution of the order. This includes a stipulation on placing 10% of the orders through reverse auction on the government e-marketplace.

More on the Topic:

• The order follows the Jute Packaging Materials (Compulsory Use in Packing Commodities) Act (JPM), which was enacted in 1987 to protect the jute sector from the plastic packaging segment.
• While West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh are the two largest jute goods producers, Punjab is the largest procuring State. It plans to initiate the procurement on a trial basis for 10% of the indents.
• Gunny bags now account for about 63% of raw jute consumption, according to official statistics. The sector employs about 3.7 lakh mill workers directly besides supporting several lakh farmer families. Since 1987, the JPM Act has been mandating compulsory use of sacks in certain areas to bring buoyancy to the raw jute market.

Jute bags auction

• For quite sometime, the government has been keen to introduce a system for auction or reverse auction for selling jute bags through the national e- procurement portal of the government. However, these attempts have not been very successful as jute bags are under an administrative price control system and mills do not quote below the declared price.
• Keen to roll out the auction system, the government has said to the extent that jute mills fail to supply through the government e-marketplace portal, the Union Textiles Ministry (the industry’s parent Ministry) will allow dilution if the mandatory packaging norm, modifying it to incentivise jute mills’ participation in the government e-market place
• Dilution would also be made if there is disruption in supply of jute packaging material. Similarly, jute mills will also get relief if there is bunching of orders .
• The Ministry has also kept outside the purview of the order export consignments, small consumer packs of 10 kg and below for foodgrain and 25 kg and below for sugar, bigger packs of more than 100 kg and sugar fortified with vitamins.

Source: The Hindu

River Ganga lacks adequate water flow

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In news:  While the whole focus of the Clean Ganga project has been on setting up sewage treatments plants and cleaning ghats and banks, the main issue, which is that the river does not have adequate flow of water, has been ignored. With severe pollution destroying the river, and developmental projects critically affecting its flow, the Ganga is in a dire strait.

More on the Topic:

• Today, several hydropower projects are mushrooming at the source of the river, which is the Garhwal range of the Himalayas. Unlike other ranges, the Garhwal is narrow.
• It is from here that many rivers and tributaries of the Ganga basin emerge. These spring- or glacier-fed rivers join one another at different points to form an intricate riverine ecosystem in the Himalayas. The entire basin falls in the seismic zone 4-5, and is highly prone to landslides and land subsidence.
• The understanding that hydropower projects mean development needs to change. To construct a hydropower project, large sections of land are cleared of forests.
• The immediate impacts of these projects have been loss of agriculture, drying of water sources, and landslips. As construction in such projects progresses, there is also dumping of muck, which can pose severe threats. Muck dumping during construction of the Alaknanda hydropower project caused devastation downstream in Srinagar in the 2013 flash floods.
• Such muck is dumped either into the river or in forest areas. After all the massive deforestation, muck dumping, blasting and tunnelling, the hydropower projects thus constructed eventually dry up the river bed as the water is diverted into tunnels.
• This causes severe distress to aquatic life, and the river bed is no longer even wet in certain stretches. As the Ganga is diverted into long tunnels, de-silted, and directed to powerhouses to churn turbines and generate power, the barren landscape, dried water sources and the obscene muck slopes narrate a story of destruction. This is a far cry from the promise of development.
• The irony is that even after all this devastation, electricity is not generated as per the intended capacity. For example, the installed capacity of the Maneri dam is 90 MW but it only works at below 40% of its capacity.
• This is because there is too much silt during the monsoon and reduced flow of water in winters. As glaciers continue to retreat, the silt in the rivers is only going to increase.
• As the reason for diminished output is natural and not technical, and therefore cannot be remedied, this is only going to cause more problems for future projects. For example, the flow of debris was stopped by barrages in the Alaknanda hydropower project. This escalated the impact of the 2013 disaster, according to the expert committee of the Supreme Court.
• In the case of the Ganga, these projects also prevent sediments from going downstream. This affects the fertility of the delta downstream and also destroys the unique self-purifying properties of the Ganga.

Governments e flow notification:

• The government proposed an e-flow notification for the Upper Ganga River Basin. It specified that during the dry season (November-March), 20% of monthly average flow has to be maintained, and during the monsoon season, 30% has to be maintained. The notification stated that existing hydel projects that do not meet e-flow norms must comply within three years. The 20% recommendation is less than the scientific recommendation of 50% (only for existing projects).

Way Forward:

• There is need for strong political will and scientific managements to save Ganga from further deterioration and bringing back the lost past.

Source: The Hindu

Archaeological Excavations at Pamba Basin:

Topic: Art and Culture

In news: The Archaeology Department launched on an excavation on the banks of the Pampa river at Edayaranmula, near Aranmula, Kerala exploring the ancient Pampa Valley civilisation. In September, a few fishers had sighted terracotta figurines along a caved-in portion of the river bank near Anjilimoottilkadavu at Edayaranmula.

More on the Topic:

• The figurines pointed to a centuries-old rich civilisation that prevailed in the Pampa river basin. It was a first of a kind discovery from the banks of Pampa and invited deeper studies.
• The pieces include male and female figurines, snake heads, bust of a man and a twin female terracotta statue.

Source: The Hindu                                     

States’ Startup Ranking 2018

Topic: Indian Economy

In news: The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) announced results of the first ever States’ Start-up Ranking 2018

 More on the Topic:

• States have been identified as leaders across various categories such as Start-up policy leaders, incubation hubs, seeding innovation, scaling innovation, regulatory change champions, procurement leaders, communication champions, North-Eastern leader, and hill state leader.
• On the basis of performance in these categories, the States have been recognised as the Best Performer, Top Performers, Leaders, Aspiring Leaders, Emerging States and Beginners.
• The key objective of the exercise was to encourage States and Union Territories to take proactive steps towards strengthening the Start-upecosystems in their states. The methodology has been aimed at creating a healthy competition among States to further learn, share and adopt good practices.
• The entire exercise was conducted for capacity development and to further the spirit of cooperative federalism.
• Awareness workshops in all States, knowledge workshops in leading incubators, pairing of States for intensive mentoring, international exposure visits to US and Israel and intensive engagement between the States with Start-up India team, and video conferencing have helped many States initiate effective measures to support Start-ups

• Best Performer:Gujarat
• Top Performers:Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, and Rajasthan
• Leaders:Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana
• Aspiring Leaders:Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal
• Emerging States:Assam, Delhi, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand
• Beginners:Chandigarh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim, and Tripura

Source: The Hindu

Gender gap index 2018

Topic: Women Related Issues

In news: World economic forum has released the 2018 gender gap index.

More on the Topic:

• Global gender gap index measures gender equality across four pillars– they are economic opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment and health and survival.
• Iceland has been ranked as Number 1. It is followed by Norway, Sweden and Finland.

India Indices:

• India has been ranked at
• It has recorded improvement in wage equality for similar work and has fully closed its tertiary education gender gap for the first time.
• It ranks 142nd out of 149 countries in the economic opportunity and participation subindex.
• India continues to rank third-lowest in the world on health and survival, remaining the world’s least-improved country on this subindex over the past decade.
• India has slightly improved in WEF’s wage equality for similar work indicator, where it stood at 72nd place. The country has also closed its tertiary education enrolment gap for the first time in 2018 and has managed to keep its primary and secondary gaps closed for the third year running.
• Interestingly, India has the second-largest artificial intelligence (AI) workforce but one of the largest AI gender gaps, with only 22% of roles filled by women.

Source: PIB

High value graphene from recycled dry cells batteries

Topic:Science and Technology

In news:A group of researchers at Nagpur-based Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology have developed a new technique which promises to help produce high value graphene from discarded dry cells batteries. As of now, researchers have achieved 88% yield of graphene from a single graphite rod. It can be scaled up to the industrial level.

 More on the Topic:

• Graphene is a form of carbon that can be used to develop smaller, slimmer batteries but with higher capacity.
• Its thin composition and high conductivity means it is used in applications ranging from miniaturised electronics to biomedical devices. These properties also enable thinner wire connections; providing extensive benefits for computers, solar panels, batteries, sensors and other devices.
• Graphene super capacitors serve as energy storage devices with a capacity for faster charging and longer life span than traditional electrolytic batteries.

Source: The Hindu