Insights Daily Current Events, 20 July 2015 · 7/20/2015 · refers to elongated pectoral fin. The...

7/20/2015 Insights Daily Current Events, 20 July 2015 | INSIGHTS

http://www.insightsonindia.com/2015/07/20/insightsdailycurrentevents20july2015/ 1/14

insightsonindia.com http://www.insightsonindia.com/2015/07/20/insightsdailycurrentevents20july2015/

By INSIGHTS

INSIGHTS Simplifying UPSC IAS Exam Preparation

Insights Daily Current Events, 20 July 2015

Insights Daily Current Events, 20 July 2015

Archives

‘Changes in law needed to ban eucalyptus plantations’

In reply to a petition, the Karnataka Forest Department recently said that it would be impossible to ban eucalyptus plantations across the State withoutchanges in the legal framework to allow for Forest Department to crackdown on planting of trees in private land.

The Forest Department has prohibited the planting of the highwaterconsuming tree in forest land since 2011, but not in private land.

Background:

The Karnataka High Court had asked the forest department to consider banning eucalyptus plantations across the State.

The move came after a petitioner said the nonnative eucalyptus tree was responsible for the lowering groundwater levels in the region.

Some facts:

A eucalyptus tree consumes 90 litres of water a day

During summers and times of drought, its roots can go down up to 30ft

It was introduced in Karnataka in 1960s. In the 1970’s, eucalyptus plantations were spread across 2.1 lakh hectares. Now, after reduction of use by the

http://www.insightsonindia.com/2015/07/20/insights-daily-current-events-20-july-2015/

http://www.insightsonindia.com/current-events-2/

http://www.insightsonindia.com/



Forest Department, it is on around 70,000 hectares

90% of plantations are in Kolar, Chickballapur and Bengaluru Rural in Karnataka.

There are more than 700 species of eucalyptus and most of them are native to Australia.

Previous legal action:

On February 27, 2014: Madras High Court (Madurai) Bench orders the Tamil Nadu Forest Department to take action to “annihilate” eucalyptusplantations along the Western Ghats.

February 2011: Karnataka Forest Department bans plantation of eucalyptus in Western Ghats and surrounding districts.

Sources: The Hindu.

New fish species discovered in Kerala

A new cyprinid fish, Puntius dolichopterus has been discovered in Kerala’s Kayamkulam city.

Details:

The fish is characterised by the longer pectoral fin, shorter dorsal fin, unusually elongated dorsal spine, longer head, lesser number of lateral line scalesand predorsal scales.

It can be further differentiated from its relative species in having 34 longitudinal lines present below lateral line.

The name of the new fish “dolichopterus” has been coined from two Greek words ‘dolikhos’ meaning elongated and ‘pteron’ meaning wing or fin, asrefers to elongated pectoral fin.

The body of the fish is silvery, dorsal fin is light orange red, pectoral and anal fin greenish yellow, ventral fin yellow, caudal fin dusky and aninconspicuous dusky spot present on 21 and 22 scales.

The spine of dorsal fin in this fish is rigid, strong and long. They have a pair of small barbels. They are between 7.3 and 8.7 cm in length.

The fish, found in small and shallow water channels, is edible and can be utilised as ornamental fish. The fish is included in the fish family Cyprinidae.

Its congeners (relative species) are Puntius nigronotus, Puntius viridis, Puntius nelsoni and Puntius parrah found in Kerala, Puntius dorsalis found inChennai and Puntius chola and Puntius sophore residing in the water bodies of the Ganga river.

Sources: The Hindu.

GSLV Mk III engine completes ‘full endurance test’



The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully conducted the muchawaited ‘fullendurance test’ of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk III’s indigenous cryogenic CE20engine recently.

The CE20 was ignited and tested for 800 seconds to study the performance of the engine though theactual required duration was only 635 seconds.

During the actual flight of the GSLV, the engine will be ignited for only 635 seconds.

The successful conduct of ‘full endurance test’ is being termed as another milestone in developing abigger and more powerful indigenously built high thrust cryogenic upper stage for the 43metretallGSLV Mk III that would position heavier payloads (satellites weighing about 4,000 kg) in thegeostationary orbit.

http://i2.wp.com/www.insightsonindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/fish20.jpg



Source: Offoindia

About GSLV Mk III:

The GSLVIII or Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III, is a launch vehicle developed by the Indian Space Research Organization.

GSLV Mk III is conceived and designed to make ISRO fully self reliant in launching heavier communication satellites of INSAT4 class, which weigh4500 to 5000 kg.

It would also enhance the capability of the country to be a competitive player in the multimillion dollar commercial launch market. The vehicle envisages

http://i0.wp.com/www.insightsonindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/evolution-of-launch-vehicle-till-GSLV-3-1024x682.jpg



multimission launch capability for GTO, LEO, Polar and intermediate circular orbits.

GSLVMk III is designed to be a three stage vehicle, with 42.4 m tall with a lift off weight of 630 tonnes. First stage comprises two identical S200 LargeSolid Booster (LSB) with 200 tonne solid propellant, that are strapped on to the second stage, the L110 restartable liquid stage. The third stage is theC25 LOX/LH2 cryo stage. The large payload fairing measures 5 m in diameter and can accommodate a payload volume of 100 cu m.

The GSLVIII features an Indian cryogenic third stage and a higher payload capacity than the current GSLV.

Sources: The Hindu, ISRO.

Child labour Bill likely this session

The government will push a Bill amending the law on child labour in the coming session of Parliament. It was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in December2012 and then sent to a standing committee for scrutiny. The final shape was cleared by the Cabinet in May.

Details of the Bill:

The new bill proposes a full ban on employment of children below 14 years of age across all industries and processes. However, a child will be allowedto “help” her family in their own businesses after school hours or during vacations, and also work as a child artist. Ban on children working in a circuswill continue.

According to the provisions of the bill the district magistrate will be made responsible for enforcement of the law. At present, state or centralgovernments can appoint inspectors. However, if a district magistrate is empowered, the quality of enforcement will improve dramatically.

The bill also proposes for the constitution of a child and adolescent labour rehabilitation fund. For every rescued child or adolescent, state governmentswill contribute Rs 15,000 towards the fund. Apart from this, fine collections from an employer will be added.

Offenders would face imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of up to Rs 50,000 for an offence under the new law. Parents or guardians would notbe punished for the first offence. The penalty would be a maximum of Rs 10,000 for second and subsequent offences.

To bring the child labour law in tune with international standards, the government has also defined ‘adolescents’ in the new Bill. Children in the agegroup of 1418 years will be prohibited from work in hazardous occupations and processes. International Labour Organization conventions prohibitemployment of persons below 18 years in work likely to harm health, safety and morals.

Present Laws:

The present law — Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986 — prohibits employment of children below the age of 14 years in 18 occupations and 65processes. These include working in an automobile workshop, restaurants, hotels, ports, a circus and some other industrial activities.

Current scenario:



In India, there are an estimated 4.3 million children working in factories or processes, according to the Census of 2011. However, this has declined sharplyfrom 12.6 million employed as labourers in 2001.

Sources: The Hindu, pib.

Centre yet to notify crucial FEMA amendments

The Union government has not yet notified the amendments to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) that were incorporated into the legislation afterPresident Pranab Mukherjee’s assent in May.

The delay may have implications for the pending cases of foreign exchange violations, including those allegedly involving the former IPL chief, LalitModi.

Background:

In March, the government proposed amendments to the FEMA and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The Special Investigation Team on blackmoney had also come up with similar suggestions. After being passed by Parliament, the Finance Act received the President’s assent on May 14. However, asprovided in the law itself, the amendments to the FEMA do not come into force automatically.

Details of the amendments:

The amendments have been made to Sections 2, 6, 13, 18, 46, and 47 and introduction of Section 37A of the FEMA. An important introduction is that ofSection 37A, which empowers an authorised officer to seize assets equivalent in value to the foreign exchange, foreign security or immovable propertyheld abroad in violation of the law.

The amended Section 13 empowers the investigation agency to levy a penalty of up to three times the sum involved in contravention of the law andconfiscate property equivalent to the assets created abroad. The adjudicating authority may recommend prosecution against the accused in fit cases.

Under the above provision, the Enforcement Director may also, after recording reasons, order prosecution by filing a criminal complaint against theguilty person. In case of violation, the guilty can be, in addition to the penalty, punished with imprisonment of up to five years and a fine.

Sources: The Hindu.

Experts bat for space law

Indian space industry experts recently opined that there is a need to have a space law to protect sovereign, public or commercial interests in India.

Why such a law is needed?

To ensure that space assets and applications are used for the right causes.



Current scenario:

Currently, space activities are guided by a handful of international space agreements, the Constitution, national laws, the Satellite Communications(SatCom) Policy of 2000 and the revised Remote sensing policy or 2011.

India is among the five countries that do not have a space law; while 15 others including the US, Russia, Japan, China, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, havelaws based broadly on the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.

Provisions related to space in the Indian constitution:

Space and spacerelated matters in India are regulated by legal rules belonging to different areas of the Indian domestic law, since there is no special spacelegislation. The legal position of the space industry is largely determined by the Constitution of India. The constitutional provisions relating to generalinternational law are also relevant to the aerospace law.

They include the following:

Article 51 of the Constitution imposes on the state the obligation to strive for the promotion of international peace and security, including maintainingjust and honourable relations between nations, respect for international law and treaty obligations, and settlement of international disputes byarbitration.

Under Article 73 the executive power of the Union extends (a) to the matters with respect to which Parliament has power to make laws, and (b) to theexercise of such rights, authority and jurisdiction as are exercisable by the government of India by virtue of any treaty or agreement.

Article 245 empowers Parliament and state legislatures to enact laws. The Constitution enumerates three lists of subjects – the Union list, the State listand the Concurrent list – in respect of which the legislative power may be exercised, provided that the legislative power of Parliament overrides that ofthe state legislature in respect of the concurrent list.

The “space” as a subject is not mentioned in the Union List. The reason was that the Constitution was adopted in 1950, but the space activitiesstarted in India in the early Sixties; a number of items on the Union list related to the aerospace activities in India.

They include the items relating to defence and armed forces of India; foreign affairs, UNO; participation in international conferences, associationsand other bodies and implementing decisions made thereat; entering into treaties and agreements with foreign countries and implementing oftreaties, agreements and conventions with foreign countries etc.

By virtue of item 97 read with article 248, Parliament retains residuary legislative power in respect of “any matter not enumerated” in any of thethree lists.

Article 253 empowers Parliament to make any law for the whole or any part of the territory of India for implementing treaties, international agreementsand conventions. It enables the Government of India to implement all international obligations and commitments. Following the commonwealth practicetreaties are not required to be ratified by Parliament in India. They are, however, not selfexecutory. Parliamentary legislation is necessary for



implementing the provisions of a treaty within the country. Parliament has passed many Acts to implement international treaties and conventions(including environment civil aviation etc.) but not in outer space activities.

Sources: The Hindu, Wiki.

Insights Secure Prelims 2015

Time limit: 0

Quizsummary

0 of 4 questions completed

Questions:

1. 1

2. 2

3. 3

4. 4

Information

Welcome to Insights Secure Prelims – 2015 initiative. The following questions are based on current events that appear in PIB (Public Information Bureau) andfrom some important newspapers. For more challenging question papers (Full Length), please join our Preliminary Exam – 2015 Test Series (Please ClickHere for Reviews)

To view Solutions, follow these instructions:

1. Click on – ‘Start Quiz’ button

2. Solve Questions

3. Click on ‘Quiz Summary’ button

4. Click on ‘Finish Quiz’ button

http://forumias.com/discussion/5051/insights-test-series-review-needed

https://www.instamojo.com/insightsonindia/insights-on-india-test-series-for-upsc-civil/

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/efeatures.aspx



5. Now click on ‘View Questions’ button – here you will see solutions and links.

You have already completed the quiz before. Hence you can not start it again.

Quiz is loading...

You must sign in or sign up to start the quiz.

You have to finish following quiz, to start this quiz:

Results

0 of 4 questions answered correctly

Your time:

Time has elapsed

You have reached 0 of 0 points, (0)

Categories

1. Not categorized 0%

Your result has been entered into leaderboardLoading

maximum of 4 points

Pos. Name Entered on Points Result

Table is loading

No data available

1 Shruthi 2015/07/20 1:11 PM 4 100 %

2 Gauri 2015/07/20 1:19 PM 4 100 %



2 Gauri 2015/07/20 1:19 PM 4 100 %

3 lokesh 2015/07/20 2:08 PM 4 100 %

4 Thripura 2015/07/20 2:09 PM 4 100 %

5 REHAN HUSAIN 2015/07/20 2:52 PM 4 100 %

6 ATUL isBAHUBALI 2015/07/20 3:21 PM 4 100 %

7 Dhrumil Soni 2015/07/20 3:26 PM 4 100 %

8 srinivas 2015/07/20 3:26 PM 4 100 %

9 alok panigrahi 2015/07/20 4:06 PM 4 100 %

10 Subhash Jha 2015/07/20 4:47 PM 4 100 %

11 Prithwi 2015/07/20 5:21 PM 4 100 %

12 naman 2015/07/20 5:30 PM 4 100 %

13 Moni 2015/07/20 5:54 PM 4 100 %

14 puja 2015/07/20 6:33 PM 4 100 %

15 Shasya 2015/07/20 7:09 PM 4 100 %

16 Deepak kamati 2015/07/20 7:34 PM 4 100 %

17 murali 2015/07/20 7:39 PM 4 100 %

18 ashish 2015/07/20 7:48 PM 4 100 %

19 Sri Charan Das 2015/07/20 1:05 PM 3 75 %

20 Bhanu P J 2015/07/20 3:20 PM 3 75 %

21 sanjivani patil 2015/07/20 3:22 PM 3 75 %



22 Ankur 2015/07/20 5:00 PM 3 75 %

23 batman 2015/07/20 5:55 PM 3 75 %

24 sairam 2015/07/20 5:59 PM 3 75 %

25 Shiva 2015/07/20 7:05 PM 3 75 %

26 kalyani 2015/07/20 7:25 PM 3 75 %

27 vibhu 2015/07/20 7:28 PM 3 75 %

28 sudheer reddy 2015/07/20 7:37 PM 3 75 %

29 sarvesh 2015/07/20 7:48 PM 3 75 %

30 k lakshmi kanth 2015/07/20 7:54 PM 3 75 %

31 vikas sherawat 2015/07/20 1:05 PM 2 50 %

32 chinchu 2015/07/20 3:29 PM 2 50 %

33 anuja 2015/07/20 4:29 PM 2 50 %

34 junaid 2015/07/20 7:01 PM 2 50 %

35 narbeer 2015/07/20 7:08 PM 2 50 %

36 sumit 2015/07/20 7:09 PM 2 50 %

37 Ravi Kumar 2015/07/20 2:16 PM 1 25 %

38 Neeru 2015/07/20 4:49 PM 1 25 %

1. 1

2. 2



3. 3

4. 4

1. Answered

2. Review

1. Question 1 of 4

1. Question

Consider the following statements regarding the Bonalu Festival:

1. It has been declared as the State festival of Telangana.

2. It is celebrated during ashada masam.

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

Correct

Solution: c)

Incorrect

Solution: c)

2. Question 2 of 4

2. Question

Consider the following statements regarding the GSLV Mk III launch vehicle:



1. It was jointly develped by ISRO and the European space Agency.

2. It will be used to launch heavier communication satellites of INSAT4 class, which weigh 4500 to 5000 kg.

3. It features an Indian cryogenic third stage.


Correct

Solution: c)

Incorrect

Solution: c)

3. Question 3 of 4

3. Question

With reference to Puntius Dolichopterus, a newly found fish in India, consider the following statements:

1. It was found in Kerala.

2. The fish is included in the fish family Cyprinidae.

3. The fish is found in small and shallow water channels.


Correct

Solution: d)

Incorrect

Solution: d)

4. Question 4 of 4



4. Question

Consider the following statements:

1. More than 50% of eucalyptus species are native to Australia.

2. Karnataka is the only state to have banned eucalyptus plantation in urban areas.


Correct

Solution: a)

Incorrect

Solution: a)

Copyright (C) INSIGHTS ACTIVE LEARNING

Insights Daily Current Events, 20 July 2015 · 7/20/2015 · refers to elongated pectoral fin. The...

Documents

Transcript of Insights Daily Current Events, 20 July 2015 · 7/20/2015 · refers to elongated pectoral fin. The...