Draft NEP proposes formal education from the age of three                                   

All States, Union Territories can now set up Foreigners Tribunals                        

‘Nirbhaya squad’ to curb crime against women’                                                       

ISRO gears up for Chandrayaan-2 mission                                                               

Dismissed teacher can file writ plea for her rights: SC                                            

SIAM, CII call for practical road map for electric vehicles                                       

Pakistan faces FATF blacklist                                                                                     

Draft NEP proposes formal education from the age of three

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues or Developments related to education

Context :

• Three years of preschool is recommended by the draft National Education Policy.

More about the news :

Issues with Anganawadi :

To strengthen and expand ECCE, the draft policy recommends:

                                                                                                                      Source :- The Hindu

All States, Union Territories can now set up Foreigners Tribunals

GS PAPER - 01 SOCIAL ISSUES - Population and its asscociated issues.

Context :

• The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued Foreigners (Tribunals) Amendment Order, 2019. The order amends the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964.

Changes in Proposed Amendments :

• The new amendments has empowered district magistrates in all States and Union Territories to set up foreigner tribunals (FTs) to identify suspected foreigners illegally residing in India. Earlier only the Centre had the power to set up FTs.

• The amended order (Foreigners (Tribunal) Order, 2019) also empowers individuals to approach the Tribunals. Earlier, only the State administration could move the Tribunal against a suspect.

• The amended order also allows District Magistrates to refer individuals who haven’t filed claims against their exclusion from NRC to the Tribunals to decide if they are foreigners or not.

Procedure being followed at present:

• The 1964 order on Constitution of Tribunals says: “The Central Governmentmay by order, refer the question as to whether a person is not a foreigner within meaning of the Foreigners Act, 1946 (31 of 1946) to a Tribunal to be constituted for the purpose, for its opinion.”

• The tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies, unique to Assam, to determine if a person staying illegally is a “foreigner” or not.

• In other parts, once a ‘foreigner’ has been apprehended by the police for staying illegally, he or she is produced before a local court under the Passport Act, 1920, or the Foreigners Act, 1946, with the punishment ranging three months to eight years in jail.

• Once the accused have served the sentence, the court orders their deportation, and they are moved to detention centres till the country of origin accepts them.

                                                                                                                                                          Source :- The Hindu

‘Nirbhaya squad’ to curb crime against women’

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.

Context :

• Nashik police in Maharashtra have set up a 'Nirbhaya squad' to check incidents of eve-teasing and harassment of women.

Nirbhaya Squad :

• The newly formed 10-member squad, comprising both men and women security personnel.

• The squad members will maintain a strict vigil in crowded areas like bus stands, railway stations and malls to ensure the safety and security of women.

• Citizens, especially women, can also complain to the police on its toll free number ‘1091’ about any incident of eve-teasing, molestation and other such offences.

                                                                                                                       Source :- The Hindu

ISRO gears up for Chandrayaan-2 mission

GS PAPER - 03 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

Context :

• The Indian Space Research Organisation has scheduled the launch of Chandrayaan 2 mission between 9th and 16th July.

Chandrayaan 2 Mission :

• Chandrayaan 2 is India’s second lunar mission which will be launched aboard a GSLV-Mk III rocket.

• Chandrayaan 2 will comprise of an Orbiter, Lander named ‘Vikram’ and Rover named ‘Pragyan’. The orbiter will circle the moon and provide information about its surface, while the lander will make a soft landing on the surface and send out the rover. The rover will be used mostly for in situ experiments.

• According to ISRO Chandrayaan-2 will be the most complex mission undertaken by ISRO. It is because the landing on moon involves multiple challenges.

Challenges in landing on Moon :

• Firstly, ensuring trajectory accuracy is a major challenge. Since, the distance between the moon and earth is large, navigating such a large distance poses many challenges as trajectory is influenced by the non-uniform gravity of the earth and moon, the gravitational pull of other astronomical bodies, solar radiation pressure, and the moons true orbital motion.

• Secondly, deep space communication is a challenge, as owing to the large distance from earth and limited on- board power, radio signals used for communication are weak with heavy background noise.

• Thirdly, Trans Lunar Injection (TLI) and Lunar capture is a major challenge. As the moon’s location is continually changing due to orbital motion, the intersection of Chandrayaan 2 and the Moon’s path has to be predicted sufficiently in advance with a high level of accuracy.

• Fourthly, while soft landing on the moon, the on-board NGC and propulsion system has to work in union, autonomously, and automatically for a successful landing. Further, the landing site landscape features should not result in a communication shadow area.

• Fifthly, orbiting around the moon is a challenge. This is because, lunar gravity is ‘lumpy’ due to uneven mass distribution under its surface and the influences the orbit of the spacecraft.

• Sixthly, lunar dust is a major issue. The lunar dust stick to most surfaces, causing a disruption in deployment mechanisms, solar panel performance, and NGC sensor performances.

• Finally, the extreme temperature and hard vacuum (caused by the ambient pressure) makes the lunar surface extremely hostile environment for lander and rover operations.

                                                                                                                      Source :- The Hindu

Dismissed teacher can file writ plea for her rights: SC

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.

Context :

• The Supreme Court has held that A teacher whose service is illegally terminated can file a writ petition in a constitutional court to protect her fundamental rights against a private unaided school.

Background :

• A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court, acting on a writ petition filed by the teacher, had in 2009 ordered the institution to pay Ms. Srivastava her back wages.

• But the school reneged, contending that a writ petition would not be maintainable against a private unaided institution.

• But the apex court disagreed with the argument of the school.

More about the news:

• A Bench led by Justice Arun Mishra made the observations while dismissing an appeal filed by Marwari Balika Vidyalaya, a private unaided educational institution, against its former teacher, Asha Srivastava.

• “Whether government or private school, both perform public functions i.e. providing education to children in their institutions throughout India.”, it said.

• “While the functioning of both aided and unaided educational institutions must be free from unnecessary governmental interference, the same needs to be reconciled with the conditions of employment of the employees of these institutions and provision of adequate precautions to safeguard their interests,” the Supreme Court said.

• “A public duty does not necessarily have to be one imposed by statute. It may be sufficient for the duty to have been imposed by charter, common law, custom or even contract,” the court observed.

• While the bench acknowledged that a school discharges public functions and is therefore an “authority” amenable to writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, it said that all actions of the authority cannot be reviewed under writ jurisdiction.

                                                                                                                                                         Source :- The Hindu

SIAM, CII call for practical road map for electric vehicles

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

Context :

• Automotive industry has opposed the government’s proposal to ban sales of non-electric three-wheelers by 2023 and two-wheelers of less than 150cc by 2025 terming it as an impractical and untimely move.

Background:

• Recently,Union Ministry of road and transport in consultations with NITI Aayog had proposed that all three-wheelers and two-wheelers below 150cc will need to go electric by 2023 and 2025 respectively.

More about the news:

• Society of Indian Automobile Association (SIAM) has opposed the idea by terming it as impractical and untimely as that would only adversely affect the world’s number one two/three-wheeler industry but may not help in making EVs acceptable to the customer and the market.

• The automotive industry is currently facing multiple challenges, including leapfrogging to BS-VI emission norms in the shortest time-frame ever with investments of close to Rs 80,000 crore.

• It stated that the government should carry out wider consultations before finalisation of goals and timelines for electric mobility.

                                                                                                                                                         Source :- The Hindu

Pakistan faces FATF blacklist

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.

Context :

• The Asia Pacific Group(APG) has conveyed to Pakistan that its action plans on terrorist groups were inadequate after it was grey-listed by the Financial Action Task Force(FATF) for terror financing.

More about the news:

• APG has said that Pakistan has time until September,2019 to either comply with the demands made by FATF members or it could be blacklisted.

• The blacklisting will prevent institutions like IMF from financially supporting Pakistan which is anticipating a financial crisis.

Background :      

• In June 2018,FATF had decided to keep Pakistan on its grey list.

• Pakistan at a three-day plenary meeting in June 2018 in Paris submitted a list of 26 actions that it will take over the next 15 months.

• Pakistan promised to initiate investigations into the finances of terrorist groups and their members designated by UN Security Council resolution 1267 and 1373.

• Besides these, it also said that it would update the list of terrorist entities and persons banned under its own Anti-Terrorism Act and those designated by the UN.

                                                                                                           Source :- The Indian Express

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