Daily Current Affairs : 10/5/2019

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. Appointment of SC Judges
2. Lucy Wills
3. India-China Protocol for export of Chilli
4. Indian Staffing Federation Report on employment in Tech industry
5. Barn owls

1 . Appointment of SC Judges

Context : At one stroke, the Supreme Court Collegium, led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, has recommended two judges’ names for elevation to the apex court and rejected the Union government’s disapproval to elevate two others to the top court. If the four judges are elevated without delay, the Supreme Court would reach the full sanctioned strength of 31 judges by the time it reopens in July after the summer vacation.

What is the Collegium system?

• The Collegium system is one where the Chief Justice of India and a forum of four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court recommend appointments and transfers of judges.
• However, it has no place in the Indian Constitution. The system was evolved through Supreme Court judgments in the Three Judges Case.

About Three Judges Case – Must Read

Selection procedure of judges in SC

• The selection of the judges in the top court comes when there is any vacancy. If a judge is about to retire or retires, then the CJI initiates the proposal and sends the recommendation to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Company affairs to fill up the seat.
• The recommendation of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) for the appointment of a Judge of the Apex Court should be formed in consultation with a collegium of the four seniormost Judges of the Supreme Court.
• After acknowledging the views of the four judges, the CJI sends the proposal for appointment to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Company affairs, which forwards it to the Prime Minister who further moves the proposal to the President of India for the final approval.
• After the assent of the President, the Secretary to the Department of Justice is set to announce the appointment and issue the circular in the Gazette of India.

Is the collegium’s recommendation final and binding?

• The collegium sends its final recommendation to the President of India for approval.
• The President can either accept it or reject it.
• In the case it is rejected, the recommendation comes back to the collegium.
• If the collegium reiterates its recommendation to the President, then he/she is bound by that recommendation.

2 . Lucy Wills

About Lucy Wills

• Lucy Wills was a leading English haematologist.
• She conducted seminal work in India in the late 1920s and early 1930s on macrocytic anemia of pregnancy.
• Lucy Wills observed an apparent correlation between the dietary habits of different classes of Bombay women and the likelihood of their becoming anaemic during pregnancy. Poor Muslim women were the ones with both the most deficient diets and the greatest susceptibility to anemia
• This anemia was then known as ‘pernicious anemia of pregnancy’. However, Lucy Wills was able to demonstrate that the anemia she observed differed from true pernicious anemia, as the patients did not have achlorhydria, an inability to produce gastric acid.
• Furthermore, while patients responded to crude liver extracts, they did not respond to the ‘pure’ liver extracts (vitamin B₁₂) which had been shown to treat true pernicious anemia.
  She postulated that there must have been another nutritional factor responsible for this macrocytic anemia other than vitamin B₁₂ deficiency.
• Her observations led to her discovery of a nutritional factor in yeast which both prevents and cures this disorder.
• Macrocytic anaemia is characterized by enlarged red blood cells and is life-threatening. Poor pregnant women in the tropics with inadequate diets are particularly susceptible.
• For some years this nutritional factor was known as the ‘Wills Factor and was subsequently shown to be folate, the naturally occurring form of folic acid.

3 . India-China Protocol for export of Chilli

Context : India on Thursday signed a protocol for the export of chilli meal to China, as part of a move to promote “more balanced trade” between the two Asian countries.

About the Protocol

• Chilli meal is the residue left after oil is extracted from chillies. It is widely used as an industry input in manufacturing chilli sauce and other similar products.
• Chilli is the largest exported spice from India, and China has become one of the major buyers over the last few years. India is the world’s largest producer, consumer and exporter of chillies.
• This is the eighth agricultural product since 2003 for which India and China have signed a protocol for trade.
• India has been pushing for market access for agricultural and processed food products to China. Beijing is now committed to provide market access to India after a gap of more than 13 years. Last year, the country allowed market access to three Indian food products – mangoes, grapes and rice.

Protocols Signed between India and China on Agricultural Commodities

• Mango
• Bitter Gourd
• Grapes
• Rapeseed meal
• Basmati Rice
• Basmati Rice and Non Basmati Rice
• Fish meal / Fish oil
• Tobacco leaves
• Chilli meal

4 . Indian Staffing Federation Report on employment in Tech industry

Context : The Indian tech industry will add another three million new jobs in the next five years, said Indian Staffing Federation (ISF), the apex body for the ‘flexi’ working industry.

Details of the Report

• These new jobs would come up in digital technology areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, Internet of things (IOT), data science, analytics, big data, blockchain and augmented reality.
• Jobs would also be created in newer technology areas that are presently unknown but are expected to emerge and evolve in the next few years.

5 . Barn Owls

Context : Three pairs of barn owls have been taken from Kerala to Kavaratti under a rodent management programme.

About the News

• Lakshadweep have ‘recruited’ three pairs of barn owls from Kerala to fight battle against the rodents.
• For the time being, the three males and three females are getting acclimatised in specially built cages. “They will gradually be released into the coconut plantations under a closely monitored breeding and rodent management programme
• Bar owls are selected due to the fact that the rats in the Lakshadweep Islands practically live on treetops. Coconut is an important money-spinner for the islands, but the rodents account for 30-40% of the yield loss
• Similar attempts were reportedly made in the 1960s as well

About Barn owls

• The barn owl is the most widely distributed species of owl and one of the most widespread of all birds.
• The Barn Owl has excellent low-light vision, and can easily find prey at night by sight. But its ability to locate prey by sound alone is the best of any animal that has ever been tested. It can catch mice in complete darkness in the lab, or hidden by vegetation or snow out in the real world.
• The barn owl is found almost everywhere in the world except polar and desert regions