ART AND CULTURE                                                                         

1. Indian Culture web portal                                                                  

2. Gandhi Encyclopedia                                                                        

GEOGRAPHY                                                                                     

1. New Zealand volcano eruption:White Island                                       

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE                                                       

1. Supreme Court flags delay in appointment of judges                          

ECONOMY                                                                                          

1. Data Bank of Farmers                                                                      

2. World economy is slowing down, UNCTAD’s new statistics say           

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY                                                    

1. Isro successfully launches PSLV-C48 with Indian 'spy' satellite, 9 others                                                                                             

SECURITY                                                                                           

1. Parliament passes the Arms (Amendment) Bill, 2019                         

ART AND CULTURE

Indian Culture web portal

GS PAPER - 01 ART AND CULTURE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• The Union Minister of State for Culture and Tourism (IC), launched the Indian Culture web portal.

Indian Culture portal :

• It was envisioned by the Ministry of Culture and was developed by a team from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay while the curation of the data has been done by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).

• This is the first government authorized portal where knowledge and cultural resources of various organizations of Ministry of Culture are now available in public domain on a single platform.

• The  project is a part of the Prime Minister’s Digital India initiative to showcase information about the rich tangible and intangible cultural heritage of India both at home and abroad.

• This portal hosts documents, images, audio-video files and other data from archives, museums, academies and libraries across the nation.

• The content available on the portal comprises mainly of rare books, e-books, manuscripts, artefacts from museum, virtual galleries, archives, photo archives, gazetteers, Indian National Bibliography, videos, images, cuisine, UNESCO, Musical Instruments of India among others.

• The portal also contains write-ups and beautiful pictures on cuisines, festivals, paintings, folk art and classical art from different states of India. Rich information about rare books, manuscripts and research papers on our cultural heritage is also available on this portal.

                                                                                                                              Source :- PIB

Gandhi Encyclopedia

GS PAPER - 01 HISTORY - Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present- significant events, personalities, issues

Context :

• The Government is developing ‘Gandhi Encyclopedia’ to spread awareness in the society.

Gandhi Encyclopedia :

• The Ministry of Culture has approved a project for the development of ‘Gandhi Paedia’ by the National Council of Science Museums, Kolkata for the promotion of appropriate Gandhian philosophy and thoughts through social media platforms under the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi commemoration.

                                                                                                                                                                   Source :- PIB

GEOGRAPHY

New Zealand volcano eruption:White Island

GS PAPER - 01 GEOGRAPHY - Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc.,

Context :

• A volcano off the New Zealand coast erupted with a towering blast of ash and scalding steam as dozens of tourists were exploring the moon-like surface.

White Island:

• White Island has been classified as New Zealand’s most active volcano since 1976.

• The Island is also called as Whakaari.

• The island is located in the Bay of Plenty, about 48km (29 miles) from the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island.

• About 70% of the volcano is underwater.After including it’s underwater base,White Island is the largest volcanic structure in New Zealand.

• The Island is privately owned and a tourist destination with frequent day tours and scenic flights.

                                                                                                                       Source :- The Hindu

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

Supreme Court flags delay in appointment of judges

GS PAPER - 02 POLITY - Appointment to various Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies.

Context :

• In a recent order, the Supreme Court raised a concern related to the appointment of Judges to various High Courts. The Apex Court Stated that the recommendation of Candidates is pending with the government/Supreme Court Collegium.

SC Order :

• The Supreme Court in its judicial order has said that the 213 names recommended for appointment to various High Courts are pending with the government.

  • The number of judges appointed to the High Court has steadily decreased since 2017.Only 65 judges have been appointed to High Courts in 2019.

  • The High Courts are functioning at nearly 50% of their sanctioned judicial strength.Of a total 1,079 judges sanctioned in the High Courts,there are 410 vacancies.

• The court has said that at least the names on which the Supreme Court Collegium, the High Courts and the governments had agreed upon should be appointed within six months.

• Stressed on the speedy appointment of HC judges.

• Emphasized that the appointments required “a continuous, collaborative and integrated process, where the government is an important consultee”.

Why such delay In appointment ?

• The Supreme Court in its three previous judgements had said that the government has to make the appointments if the collegium reiterated them after the government returned the names with objections.

• On the Supreme Court collegium clearing the recommendees, the Union Law Ministry has to put up within three weeks the recommendations to the Prime Minister who would advise the President on the appointment.

• However,no time limit has been prescribed for action by the Prime Minister and the President.

Impact of Delayed appointment  :

• Nearly 1.65 Lakhs cases are pending in High Courts which are older than five years.

• Erosion of faith of the general citizenry in the due process of justice delivery mechanisms.

• increased burden on judiciary would affect the quality of justice delivery.

• It have created an unnecessary burden on courts along with negatively impacting the lives of innocents caught under trials.

• slow justice negatively impacts foreign investments and overall economic development of the country.

Conclusion :

• The inordinate delays in the appointment of HC judges and declining numbers of appointments in the higher judiciary are a threat to the justice delivery mechanism. To avoid further delay in justice delivery, it is imperative that appointments should be made in time.

                                                                                                                      Source :- The Hindu

ECONOMY

Data Bank of Farmers

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential

Context :

• The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare has constituted a Task Force to develop a comprehensive Farmers’ Database for better planning, monitoring, strategy formulation and smooth implementation of schemes for the entire country.

More in the news :

• This Centralised Farmers Database shall be useful for various activities like issuing soil health cards, dissemination of crop advisories to the farmers, precision farming, smart cards for farmers to facilitate e-governance, crop insurance, settlement of compensation claims, grant of agricultural subsidies, community/village resource centres etc.

                                                                                                                                Source :- PIB

World economy is slowing down, UNCTAD’s new statistics say

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - growth, development and employment.

Context :

• United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) has released its  2019 - Handbook of Statistics report.

  • The report provides a wide range of statistics and indicators relevant to the analysis of international trade, investment, maritime transport and development.

Key Highlights :

• The report has predicted that the World gross domestic product(GDP) is expected to grow by 2.3% which is 0.7% points less as compared to last year.

• Global trade and economic output have stagnated this year after a continued surge till last year

• The report predicts that merchandise trade will drop by 2.4 per cent to $19 trillion for 2019-2020. The drop is significant when compared to the growth in the last few years — 9.7 per cent in 2018 and 10.7 per cent in 2017.

• Trade in services is also predicted to slow. It will increase only by 2.7 per cent to $6 trillion, a considerable deceleration from 7.7 per cent in 2018. In 2017, it was 7.9 per cent.

• According to the report,the values of the goods exported exceeds the value of the goods imported especially for developing and transition economies.

• At the same time developed economies are on average net importers.

• Further the report says ,over the last few years,the trade surplus of developing countries has also decreased. It was $455 billion in 2014 and has reduced to $335 billion in 2018.

                                                                                                                 Source :- Down To Earth

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Isro successfully launches PSLV-C48 with Indian 'spy' satellite, 9 others

GS PAPER - 03 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - Achievement of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

Context :

• India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its fiftieth flight (PSLV-C48), successfully launched RISAT-2BR1, an earth observation satellite, and nine commercial satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.

More about the Launch :

• PSLV-C48 was the 75th launch vehicle mission from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota. This is the 2nd flight of PSLV in 'QL' configuration (with 4 solid strap-on motors).

• PSLV -C48 launches RISAT-2BR1 along with nine foreign satellites from the USA (multi-mission Lemur-4  satellites, technology demonstration Tyvak-0129, earth imaging 1HOPSAT), Israel (remote sensing Duchifat-3) Italy (search and rescue Tyvak-0092) and Japan (QPS-SAR - aradar imaging earth observation satellite).

RISAT-2BR1 :

• RISAT-2BR1 is a Radar imaging earth observation satellite weighing about 628 kg.

• It will be launched aboard PSLV-C48.

•  It has a synthetic aperture radar to provide all-weather surveillance.

• It will enhance India’s defence capabilities to monitor cross border activities.

• The RISAT-2BR1 is the second satellite in the RISAT-2B series and along with the CARTOSAT-3 is part of 'spy' satellites that will boost defence forces' ability to carry out Earth surveillance from the space.

  • The first satellite in the RISAT-2B series was launched earlier this year to replace the ageing RISAT-2, which went out of commission.

                                                                                                                                  Source :- PIB

SECURITY

Parliament passes the Arms (Amendment) Bill, 2019

GS PAPER - 03 SECURITY - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• Parliament passed the Arms (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

Arms (Amendment) Bill, 2019 :

• The Bill seeks to amend the Arms Act, 1959. 

• It seeks to decrease the number of licensed firearms allowed per person and increase penalties for certain offences under the Act.

Key Features :

• License for acquiring firearms:

  • The Bill reduces the number of permitted firearms from three to one.

  • It also increases the duration of the validity of a firearm license from three years to five years

• Ban on unlicensed firearms: The bill prohibits obtaining or procuring un-licensed firearms, and the conversion of one category of firearms to another without a license.

• Increase in punishment: It provides for enhanced punishment for illegally possessing and making prohibited arms.

• New offences added: The bill adds two new offences:

  • Forcefully taking a firearm from police or armed forces

  • Using firearms in celebratory gunfire which endangers human life

• Tracking of firearms: The bill states that the central government may make rules to track firearms and ammunition from manufacturer to purchaser

                                                                                                                                                 Source :- The Hindu ; PIB

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