POLITY AND GOVERNANCE                                                                                       

1. Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA)                                                    

ECONOMY                                                                                                                     

1. National Centre for Clean Coal Research & Development inaugurated at Bengaluru                                                                                                           

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY                                                                                 

1. Jaldoot rolls out with water conservation messages                                          

2. India’s mountain of grain is set to implode                                                         

SECURITY                                                                                                                     

1. Air-to-Air missile Astra successfully flight tested from Su-30 MKI                      

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY                                                                                    

1. NASA Probe to Fly Over India's Moon-Landing Site                                          

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA) 

GS PAPER - 02 - POLITY - Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive

Context :

•  The former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah has been detained under the state’s Public Safety Act (PSA).

Public Safety Act :

• The Jammu & Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978 is a preventive detention law, under which a person is taken into custody to prevent him or her from acting in any manner that is prejudicial to “the security of the state or the maintenance of the public order”.

• It is very similar to the National Security Act that is used by other state governments for preventive detention.

• The law allows the government to detain any person above the age of 16 without trial for a period of two years.

• The PSA allows for administrative detention for up to two years “in the case of persons acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the State”, and for administrative detention up to one year where “any person is acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order”.

• Detention orders under PSA can be issued by Divisional Commissioners or District Magistrates.

• Section 22 of the Act provides protection for any action taken “in good faith” under the Act: “No suit, prosecution or any other legal proceeding shall lie against any person for anything done or intended to be done in good faith in pursuance of the provisions of this Act.”

• Under Section 23 of the Act, the government is empowered to “make such Rules consistent with the provisions of this Act, as may be necessary for carrying out the objects of this Act”.

Period Of Detention :

• The maximum period of detention in the case of persons acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the State is two years.

• In case of a person acting prejudicial to the maintenance of public order, the maximum period of detention is 12 months.

• Within four weeks of passing a detention order, the Government has to refer the case to an Advisory Board, which consists of a Chairpersons, who is or has been a Judge of the High Court, and two other members who are, or have been, or are qualified to be appointed as Judges of the High Court.

• The Advisory Board has to give its opinion within 8 weeks of detention order.

Can detention be challenged ?

• The Advisory Board is supposed to examine if there are sufficient reasons for preventive detention.

  • It is pertinent to note that the the detenu has no right to engage a legal practitioner before the Advisory Board.

  • The Advisory Board can also decide if the disclosure of grounds of detention to the detenu will affect public interest.

• The detention can be challenged in habeas corpus petitions filed before High Court under Article 226.

  • However, the scope of challenge is limited to grounds of procedural violations.

                                                                                                                                                         Source :- The Hindu

ECONOMY

National Centre for Clean Coal Research & Development inaugurated at Bengaluru

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

Context :

• Union Minister of Science & Technology, inaugurated the National Centre for Clean Coal Research and Development at Indian Institute of Science (IISc)-Bengaluru.

• Union Minister of Science & Technology also dedicated an Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research(ICER).

National Centre for Clean Coal Research and Development :

• Government of India through Department of Science & Technology, has set up the National Centre for Clean Coal Research and Development (NCCCR&D) as a national level consortium on clean coal R&D, led by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc)-Bengaluru.

• The primary goal is to address several critical R&D challenges towards the development of clean coal technologies, in tandem with developing supercritical power plant technologies, both at the materials and system level.

Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research(ICER) :

• ICER is India’s first of its kind centre equipped with state-of-art facilities for conducting wide spectrum of energy research by knowledge network of elite researchers.

• Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research (ICER) is one of the youngest centres at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

• It was conceived to take up socially relevant research in line with national-level missions of the Government of India, which will directly benefit the people of the nation and the world.

  • The Centre hosts faculty members from different departments having diverse engineering and science backgrounds, pursuing cutting-edge research in the broad area of energy.

  • Translational research carried out by ICER faculty members has resulted in technology transfers in India and abroad.

• ICER has so focused on research breakthroughs and developing sustainable technologies for renewable energy, combustion, concentrated solar power (CSP), next-generation solar photovoltaic (PV), novel energy storage technologies, hydrogen, biofuels and bio-mass.

Need of such initiative :

• In order to achieve international targets on climate change by minimizing anthropogenic emissions

• Also to address the ever-growing energy demand of India, development of clean coal technologies to reduce carbon emissions from coal-based power plants has become a prime necessity for India.

• The pathways identified for lowering the carbon footprint of coal-based thermal power plants is by shifting towards high efficiency advanced ultra-supercritical (AUSC) steam power plants as well as supercritical carbon dioxide (s-CO2) based Brayton cycle power plants, along with exploration of new combustion and gasification technologies.

Significance :

• The breakthrough research being pursued at IISc in clean coal domain could potentially be game changer for meeting the energy needs of the country in terms of higher efficiency and capacity at lower operating costs and size.

• This would result in research, development and demonstration of state-of-art tools, products and processes which are of critical importance for our energy security.

• These intense scientific efforts and collective endeavors would enable us to realise the vision of an affordable, efficient, compact reliable Clean Energy systems which will be robust and suitable in diverse geographic conditions.

                                                                                                                             Source :- PIB

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

Jaldoot rolls out with water conservation messages

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context :

• Regional Outreach Bureau (ROB under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting), Pune in association with MSRTC (Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation)flagged off  the Jaldoot campaign.

Jaldoot :

• Jaldoot is a unique initiative that is designed to take the message of water conservation to masses.

• The Regional Outreach Bureau (ROB)  has designed a bus to create the Jaldoot: A Travelling Exhibition on Jalshakti Abhiyan.

  • The exhibition consists of various information display panels and audio-visual components.

  • The Song & Drama Division cultural troupes and artists will travel along the bus to create awareness about the Government’s initiative.

  • The bus will visit 8 districts of Maharashtra in the next 2 months.

  • The field units at those locations will conduct different activities like competitions, rallies, cultural programmes, on the sidelines of the visit of the bus, in order to create awareness on water conservation efforts.

                                                                                                                                                    Source :- Times of India

India’s mountain of grain is set to implode

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY - Awareness in the fields of bio-technology

Context :

• A new hybrid wheat variety Karan Vandana is soon to be launched across the country.

Karan Vandana :

• It is also known as DBW-187.

• It has been developed by the Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR) under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

• It possesses better resistance against the important diseases  yellow rust and wheat blast

• It is rich in protein and iron.

• It has high heat tolerance across the country.

• It will reduce unit costs for farmers as well as return higher yield than normal varieties.

• It can be cultivated only in areas under full irrigation support.           

                                                                                                                                      Source :- The Hindu Business Line

SECURITY

Air-to-Air missile Astra successfully flight tested from Su-30 MKI

GS PAPER - 03 SECURITY - indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

Context :

• India successfully flight-tested its indigenously developed air-to-air missile Astra.

• The missile was launched from Su-30 MKI as a part of User trials.

Astra :

• The Astra missile has been developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation along with 50 other public and private organisations.

• Astra is an indigenous Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Astra missile with a range of over 70 km.

• The missile can fly towards its target at a speed of over 5,555 kilometres per hour.

• It has a 15-kilogramme high-explosive pre-fragmented warhead.

                                                                                                                                                                     Source :- PIB

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

NASA Probe to Fly Over India's Moon-Landing Site

GS PAPER - 03 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - Awareness in the field of Space.

Context :

• An orbiter operated by the United States is set to fly over the part of the Moon where the Chandrayaan-2 lander Vikram lies after having lost contact with Earth during its attempt to land on the lunar surface.

• Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will fly over Vikram's landing site and attempt to take pictures of the lander in the hopes of determining the spacecraft's fate.

Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter :

• Launched in 2009.

• Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is part of an exploration-cum-science mission.

• The LRO has spent a large part of its mission mapping the lunar surface to identify sites for future robot and human missions to the Moon.

• one of the key focus areas for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is exploring the Moon's polar regions, which are home to permanently-shadowed craters thought to contain iced water.

                                                                                                          Source :- Indian Express

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