Daily Current Affairs : 1st, 2nd and 3rd November

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. National Health Profile (NHP) 2019
2. DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019
3. Article 36 of the Vienna Convention
4. Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority / CPCB
5. CERT-IN
6. AFSPA
7. East Asia Summit
8. International Civil Aviation Organisation
9. Astrosat & Jelly Fish Galaxies
10. CMIE report on unemployment
11. Facts for Prelims : New Map of India, Cotton Leaf Worm

1 . National Health Profile 2019

Context : India has registered an improved sex ratio and a decline in birth and death rates with non-communicable diseases dominating over communicable in the total disease burden of the country, according to the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence’s (CBHI) National Health Profile (NHP) 2019.

About National Health Profile

• The National Health Profile (NHP) is an annual stocktaking exercise on the health of the health sector.
• The NHP covers demographic, socio-economic, health status and health finance indicators, human resources in the health sector and health infrastructure.
• It is also an important source of information on various communicable and non-communicable diseases that are not covered under any other major programmes.

Key Findings

• As per the NHP, sex ratio (number of females per 1,000 males) in the country has improved from 933 in 2001 to 943 in 2011. In rural areas the sex ratio has increased from 946 to 949. In urban areas has been of 29 points from 900 to 929.
• Kerala has recorded the highest sex ratio in respect of total population (1,084), rural population (1,078) and urban (1,091). The lowest sex ratio in rural areas has been recorded in Chandigarh (690),” the report said.
• The report also showed that the estimated birth rate, death rate and natural growth rate are declining. The estimated birth rate reduced from 25.8 in 2000 to 20.4 in 2016 while the death rate declined from 8.5 to 6.4 per 1,000 population over the same period. The natural growth rate declined from 17.3 in 2000 to 14 in 2016 as per the latest available information.
• Total fertility rate (average number of children that will be born to a woman during her lifetime) in 12 States has fallen below two children per woman and nine States have reached replacement levels of 2.1 and above. Delhi, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have the lowest fertility rate among other States.
• It was also observed that non-communicable diseases dominated over the communicable in the total disease burden of the country.

2 . DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill

Context : A parliamentary panel headed by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh began hearing the contentious DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019 with members grilling officials from the Department of Biotechnology on scope for violations of privacy in the proposed DNA data bank.

About the Bill

• The Bill regulates the use of DNA technology for establishing the identity of persons in respect of matters listed in a Schedule.  These include criminal matters (such as offences under the Indian Penal Code, 1860), and civil matters such as parentage disputes, emigration or immigration, and transplantation of human organs.   
• The Bill establishes a National DNA Data Bank and Regional DNA Data Banks.  Every Data Bank will maintain the following indices: (i) crime scene index, (ii) suspects’ or undertrials’ index, (iii) offenders’ index, (iv) missing persons’ index, and (v) unknown deceased persons’ index.  
• The Bill establishes a DNA Regulatory Board.  Every DNA laboratory that analyses a DNA sample to establish the identity of an individual, has to be accredited by the Board.  
• Written consent by individuals is required to collect DNA samples from them.  Consent is not required for offences with punishment of more than seven years of imprisonment or death.   
• The Bill provides for the removal of DNA profiles of suspects on filing of a police report or court order, and of undertrials on the basis of a court order.  Profiles in the crime scene and missing persons’ index will be removed on a written request.   

Process

• According to the provisions of the proposed law, police can ask for DNA samples of the person accused of an offence to facilitate their investigation. But unless the offence is of a very serious nature, punishable by death or by imprisonment for at least seven years, the DNA sample can be obtained only on the written consent of the accused. It can be also be obtained if an authorised magistrate is satisfied that a DNA test is absolutely necessary for investigation of the crime.
• People who are witness to a crime, or want to locate their missing relatives, or in similar other circumstances, can volunteer to give their DNA samples, again through written consent.
• The samples, collected by an authorised technician or medical practitioner, would have to be sent to an accredited laboratory for tests and analysis. The information generated from these tests would have to be mandatorily shared with the nearest DNA data bank, which in turn, would be required to share it with the national data bank.
• Under the provisions, the data banks are required to store the information under one of the five indices — a crime scene index, a suspect or undertrial index, an offenders’ index, a missing persons’ index, and an unknown deceased persons’ index.
• People whose DNA samples have been collected, either from the crime scene, or through voluntary written consent, can also request the removal of their information from the index. DNA samples of people who are not suspects or undertrials cannot be matched with already stored information in the suspects/undertrial index or the offenders’ index.

Benefits

• The Bill will add value in empowering the criminal justice delivery system by enabling the application of DNA evidence, which is considered the gold standard in crime investigations.

Concerns

• The main debate over the proposed law has been around three issues — whether the DNA technology is foolproof, whether the provisions adequately address the possibility of abuse of DNA information, and whether the privacy of the individual is protected.
• DNA information can be extremely revelatory. It can not only establish a person’s identity but also reveal a lot about physical and biological attributes of the person like eye, hair or skin colour, susceptibility to diseases, possible medical history, and possible clues to biological relatives.
• For years, critics of the Bill have been claiming that collecting and storing such intrusive information could lead to abuse, besides being violative of a person’s privacy.

3 . Article 36 of Vienna Convention

Context : Pakistan violated its obligations under the Vienna Convention in the case of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, International Court of Justice (ICJ) President Judge Abduylqawi Yusuf told the UN General Assembly

About Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963

• The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963 is an international treaty that defines a framework for consular relations between independent states.
• A consul normally operates out of an embassy in another country, and performs two functions:
  • Protecting in the host country the interests of their countrymen
  • Furthering the commercial and economic relations between the two states.

Article 36 of the Convention

• Article 36 addresses communications between consular officers and nationals of the sending state.
• The Convention provides that “consular officers shall be free to communicate with nationals of the sending State and to have access to them.”
• Foreign nationals who are arrested or detained be given notice “without delay” of their right to have their embassy or consulate notified of that arrest, and “consular officers shall have the right to visit a national of the sending State who is in prison, custody or detention, to converse and correspond with him and to arrange for his legal representation.”
• Pakistan has, however, outrightly denied India access to Jadhav on the ground that it was not applicable in cases related to spies

4 . Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority

Context : The Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority declared a public health emergency in the Capital as pollution levels entered the ‘severe plus’ category in the early hours

About EPCA

• In 1998 Supreme Court directed Environment Ministry to constitute the EPCA for the National Capital Territory region under section 3 (3) of Environment Protection Act, 1986.
• EPCA over the years have worked as a advisory and fact finding authority and also an implementation agency to ensure seamless implementation of orders of the court

Objective

• The EPCA was constituted with the objective of protecting and improving the quality of the environment and preventing and controlling the environmental pollution in the National Capital Region.
• The EPCA is also mandated to enforce Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in the city as per the pollution levels.

Composition

• EPCA consists of a Chairman and 20 members

Powers

5 . CERT-IN

About CERT IN

• CERT-In is an acronym for ‘Indian Computer Emergency Response Team’. CERT-In is the National Incident Response Centre for major computer security incidents in its constituency i.e. Indian cyber community.
• A computer security incident is any real or suspected adverse event in relation to the security of computer systems or networks. It is an act of violating explicit or implied security policy resulting in, unauthorised access, denial of service/disruption, unauthorised use of a system for processing or storage of data or changes to system software, hardware, firmware characteristics without the owner’s knowledge.
• CERT-in has been established by, and runs under the aegis of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India.

Role of CERT In

• CERT-In’s primary role is to raise security awareness among Indian cyber community and to provide technical assistance and advice them to help them recover form computer security incidents.
• CERT-In provides technical advice to System Administrators and users to respond to computer security incidents. It also identifies trends in intruder activity, works with other similar institutions & organisations to resolve major security issues, and disseminates information to the Indian cyber community.
• CERT-In also enlightens its constituents about the security awareness and best practices for various systems & networks by publishing advisories, guidelines and other technical documents.

6 . Armed Forces Special Powers Act

Context : Central government has bestowed on itself the authority to declare any area in the newly created Union Territories (UTs) of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh as “disturbed” under the controversial AFSPA

Background

• Till the bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the state government through district magistrates were empowered to declare a particular district or police station area “disturbed” under the AFSPA
• Now administration of the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 (21 of 1990) in both the Union Territories is vested with the Department of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh Affairs under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
• The AFSPA has been applicable to the erstwhile state since 1990. However, Leh and Kargil areas under the new UT of Ladakh were never declared as disturbed.
• With the bifurcation of the state, the police and law and order of both the UTs would be managed by the MHA through the respective Lieutenant Governors of the two UTs.
• The nomenclature of the MHA wing, Department of Jammu and Kashmir Affairs has also been changed to Department of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh Affairs (Jammu, Kashmir aur Ladakh Vibhag) with the bifurcation of the state and creation of the two UTs.

About AFSPA

• AFSPA gives armed forces the power to maintain public order in “disturbed areas”.
• They have the authority to prohibit a gathering of five or more persons in an area, can use force or even open fire after giving due warning if they feel a person is in contravention of the law.
• If reasonable suspicion exists, the army can also arrest a person without a warrant; enter or search a premises without a warrant; and ban the possession of firearms.
• Any person arrested or taken into custody may be handed over to the officer in charge of the nearest police station along with a report detailing the circumstances that led to the arrest.

What is a disturbed area and who has the power to declare it?

• A disturbed area is one which is declared by notification under Section 3 of the AFSPA. An area can be disturbed due to differences or disputes between members of different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities.
• The Central Government, or the Governor of the State or administrator of the Union Territory can declare the whole or part of the State or Union Territory as a disturbed area.
• A suitable notification would have to be made in the Official Gazette. As per Section 3 , it can be invoked in places where “the use of armed forces in aid of the civil power is necessary”.
• The Ministry of Home Affairs would usually enforce this Act where necessary, but there have been exceptions where the Centre decided to forego its power and leave the decision to the State governments.

What’s the origin of AFSPA?

• The Act came into force in the context of increasing violence in the Northeastern States decades ago, which the State governments found difficult to control. The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Bill was passed by both the Houses of Parliament and it was approved by the President on September 11, 1958. It became known as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958.

Currently AFSPA is applicable in following states:–

• Jammu & Kashmir & Ladakh
• Assam
• Nagaland
• Manipur (except Imphal Municipal Area)
• Three districts of Arunachal Pradesh and its eight police station areas bordering Assam 

7 . East Asia Summit

About East Asia Summit

• The East Asia Summit (EAS) is the Indo-Pacific’s premier forum for strategic dialogue.
• It is the only leader-led forum at which all key partners meet to discuss the full range of political, security and economic challenges facing the Indo-Pacific, and has an important role to play in advancing closer regional cooperation.
• The EAS has 18 members – the ten ASEAN countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) along with Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, the United States and Russia.
• This represents 54 per cent of the world’s population and accounts for around 58 per cent of global GDP worth an estimated US$49.4 trillion. In 2017-18, Australia’s two-way trade with EAS countries was worth around A$564 billion, 71 per cent of Australia’s total two-way trade.
• The centrepiece of the EAS calendar is the annual Leaders’ Summit, usually held alongside ASEAN Leaders’ meetings in the fourth quarter every year.
• The EAS Summit is supported through the annual EAS Foreign Ministers Meeting (FMM) and EAS Senior Officials’ Meetings (SOM), which meet throughout the year to take forward leaders’ initiatives.
• The EAS Economic Ministers’ Meeting (EMM) has been held annually since 2014. 

Priority Areas

• There are six priority areas of regional cooperation within the framework of the EAS. India endorses regional collaboration in all six priority areas. These are –
  • Environment and Energy
  • Education
  • Finance
  • Global Health Issues and Pandemic Diseases
  • Natural Disaster Management
  • ASEAN Connectivity
  • India endorses regional collaboration in all six priority areas.

EAS Chair

• The chair of ASEAN is also the chair of the EAS. The role of ASEAN chair rotates annually between the ten ASEAN member states. The chair sets EAS priorities for the year, in consultation with EAS participating countries, and hosts most EAS meetings.
• Current chair: 2019 Thailand

8 . International Civil Aviation Organisation

Context : The United Nations aviation watchdog, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), is “not empowered to intervene” in the affairs of a country and will examine inputs from both India and Pakistan before it takes a decision to pursue the issue of denial of overflight to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aircraft during his recent visit to Saudi Arabia,

About ICAO

• The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is a UN specialized agency, established by States in 1944 to manage the administration and governance of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention).
• ICAO works with the Convention’s 193 Member States and industry groups to reach consensus on international civil aviation Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) and policies in support of a safe, efficient, secure, economically sustainable and environmentally responsible civil aviation sector.
• These SARPs and policies are used by ICAO Member States to ensure that their local civil aviation operations and regulations conform to global norms, which in turn permits more than 100,000 daily flights in aviation’s global network to operate safely and reliably in every region of the world. 
• In addition to its core work resolving consensus-driven international SARPs and policies among its Member States and industry, and among many other priorities and programmes, ICAO also coordinates assistance and capacity building for States in support of numerous aviation development objectives; produces global plans to coordinate multilateral strategic progress for safety and air navigation; monitors and reports on numerous air transport sector performance metrics; and audits States’ civil aviation oversight capabilities in the areas of safety and security.

Rules

• Article 3 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation signed at Chicago clearly states that the treaty “shall be applicable only to civil aircraft, and shall not be applicable to State aircraft.” The treaty also underlines in Article 1 that signatories to the convention have to recognise that “every State has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory.” 
• Pakistan’s Air Navigation Order of 2016 on procedures for issuing of flight permissions, which is an essential reference for any country or airline seeking to fly to or via Pakistan’s skies, clearly lays down that the protocol for applying for permission for a VVIP aircraft is to make a request through diplomatic channels before every flight, unless a blanket permission has been provided. 

Why does India approach Pakistan for flying through its skies only to have its request turned down? 

• “India is trying to build a pattern of behaviour to show that Pakistan is being unreasonable and given that we have had some success at the International Court of Justice (for counsellor access to Kulbhushan Jadhav) it is clear that the international community is receptive to India’s concerns

9 . Astrosat & Jelly Fish Galaxies

Context : Observations of a jelly fish galaxy, JW100, by Astrosat using its Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope have thrown up interesting puzzles. These puzzles involve star formation in hostile environments containing X-ray-emitting hot plasma. 

About Astrosat

• ASTROSAT is India’s first dedicated multi wavelength space observatory.
• This scientific satellite mission endeavours for a more detailed understanding of our universe. 
• One of the unique features of ASTROSAT mission is that enables the simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of various astronomical objects with a single satellite.
• ASTROSAT observes universe in the optical, Ultraviolet, low and high energy X-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, whereas most other scientific satellites are capable of observing a narrow range of wavelength band.
• The scientific objectives of ASTROSAT mission are:
  • To understand high energy processes in binary star systems containing neutron stars and black holes
  • Estimate magnetic fields of neutron stars
  • Study star birth regions and high energy processes in star systems lying beyond our galaxy
  • Detect new briefly bright X-ray sources in the sky
  • Perform a limited deep field survey of the Universe in the Ultraviolet region

Payloads of ASTROSAT

• The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT), capable of observing the sky in the Visible, Near Ultraviolet and Far Ultraviolet regions of the electromagnetic spectrum
• Large Area X-ray Proportional Counter (LAXPC), is designed for study the variations in the emission of X-rays from sources like X-ray binaries, Active Galactic Nuclei and other cosmic sources.
• Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) is designed for studying how the X-ray spectrum of 0.3-8 keV range coming from distant celestial bodies varies with time.
• Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI), functioning in the X-ray region, extends the capability of the satellite to sense X-rays of high energy in 10-100 keV range.
• Scanning Sky Monitor(SSM), is intended to scan the sky for long term monitoring of bright X-ray sources in binary stars, and for the detection and location of sources that become bright in X-rays for a short duration of time.

Jellyfish Galaxies

• Jellyfish galaxies are shaped like discs that have many tentacle-like arms streaming away from the disc.
• They are formed when a disc-shaped galaxy rams into a galaxy cluster, which is a dense region containing many hundreds or thousands of galaxies packed into a small region.
• This can happen when the galaxy is attracted by the gravitational attraction of the cluster. As the individual galaxy rams into the galaxy cluster, the cold gas in its disc interacts with the hot plasma in the cluster.
• Acting like a strong wind, the plasma in the cluster strips away the cold molecular gas of the disc, causing it to stream behind like tentacles. Unlike usual galaxies that have stars forming in the disc, the jellyfish galaxies have star formation in the tentacles also.

GASP

• The European Southern Observatory has an international programme to observe 100 gas-stripping jellyfish candidates using the MUSE Integral Field Spectrograph Chile.
• This programme is called GASP (Gas Stripping Phenomena in galaxies with MUSE).

10 . CMIE Report on unemployment

Context : India’s unemployment rate in October rose to 8.5%, the highest level since August 2016, according to data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) 

Key Findings

• Urban unemployment rate for October 2019 stood at 8.9%, slightly higher than the rural unemployment rate of 8.3%.
• Among States, Tripura and Haryana saw unemployment levels of more than 20% (the highest), while the unemployment was the lowest in Tamil Nadu at 1.1%. Rajasthan saw its unemployment rate double between September and October 2019.

Importance

• The CMIE’s figures are in line with the findings of the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey, which had estimated an unemployment rate of 6.1% between July 2017 and June 2018, the worst in 45 years.
• The data also comes on the back of other indicators showing a downturn in the economy, including the core sector output in September posting its worst contraction in at least 14 years. Earlier, August’s industrial output shrank at its fastest rate in more than six years.

Recommendations

• Falling manufacturing employment and decelerating construction employment growth are “bad news for the economy”, the paper notes, adding,
• “To sustain the growth of income, improve standard of living, and to reduce poverty, employment opportunities in manufacturing and construction (although a transitory sector) is necessary.”

11 . Facts for Prelims

New Map of India

• The Survey of India has redrawn the map of India to depict the newly formed Union Territories (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Ladakh. Areas such as Gilgit, Gilgit Wazarat, Chilhas and the Tribal Territory of 1947 that have been occupied by Pakistan are included in the Ladakh UT.

Cotton Leaf Worm