Targeting UPSC CSE

The court ruled that  an abandoned wife and children will be entitled to ‘maintenance’ from the date she applies for it  in a court of law. Usually maintenance cases have to be settled in 60 days, but they take years in reality owing to legal loopholes. It outlined specifics, including “reasonable needs” of a wife and dependent children, her educational qualification, whether she has an independent source of income, and if she does, if it is sufficient, to follow for family courts, magistrates and lower courts on alimony cases. Significant  Judgment providing comprehensive Guidelines Court laid down that while women can make a claim for alimony under different laws, including the  Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005  and Section 125 of the CrPC, or under the  Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 , it “would be inequitable to direct the husband to pay maintenance under each of the proceedings”, urging civil and family courts to take note of previous set...

 The WHO established its emergency use listing ( EUL) process to help poorer countries without their own regulatory resources, quickly approve medicines  of new diseases like Covid19,which otherwise could lead to delays. The UN health agency, with the GAVI Vaccine Alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), are spearheading a global effort called COVAX to secure and distribute vaccines to poorer countries , to ensure shots don't go only to wealthy nations. COVAX alliance has agreements for nearly 2 billion doses, with first deliveries due in early 2021.

    Article 15(3), which states ‘nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children’, read together with Article 39, which directs state policy towards equal pay and opportunities for both men and women, and protecting the health of women and children, are two key constitutional safeguards.  

 Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum for cooperation and development aspect of Arctic. It consist of 8 Arctic States, 6 Permanent Participants ( representing indigenous groups), working groups and Observer States. Source About Arctic Home to 40 different indigenous groups , whose economic, cultural and way of life is in danger of being swept away. Increasing Human encroachment will also upset the region. Large parts of it are under the sovereignty of the 5 Littoral states — Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark (Greenland) and the US Issues Navigation conditions are dangerous and restricted to the summer. Lack of deep-water ports, a need for ice-breakers, shortage of workers trained for polar conditions, and high insurance costs add to the difficulties. Mining and deep-sea drilling carry massive costs and environmental risks. Unlike Antarctica, Arctic isn't a global common and there is no overarching treaty that governs it, only the UN Convention of Law of the Sea(UNCLOS).  C...

 The Satyameva Jayate programme would cover five points -- what is wrong information; why they are spreading fast; what precautions have to be adopted while using the content of social media; how those who spread fake news make profit; and what steps can be initiated by citizens.

 There are only three other occasions when the Rajya Sabha met for fewer than 50 sittings in a year — 48  in 1999 and 46 each in 2004 and 2008.

 The requests came during the exchange of the lists of civilian prisoners and fishermen by both countries on the first day of every calendar year as part of a practice under the framework of a 2008 agreement.

Report is published by BPR&D, annually, since 1986 . Police personnel on duty surpass sanctioned strength by 35% . No. of people getting police protection across India , reduced by 8% in 2019 as compared to 2018. West Bengal, Punjab, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir have the maximum numbers of people getting police protection.

 Comprehensive Action report aims at creating sense of Scientific Social Responsibility. TIFAC, founded in 1988, an Autonomous body under Department of Science and Technology

 Governor can promulgate an ordinance only when State legislation is not in session, and he is satisfied that circumstances exist where he has to take necessary immediate action. However, there is no established practice which required the governor to state the circumstanced required for the promulgation of ordinance. It can be misused by political parties to play the blame game. Therefore it would be better to have a convention wherein  preamble to any ordinance should state the immediacy for promulgating it when the Legislature is not in session. This would greatly enhance transparency in legislation, but, more importantly, enable legislators to understand why they are, in a sense, by-passed and why a debate and discussion in the Legislature could not be awaited. Positive step of providing 4 page justification for immediate action in case of    "Commission of Air Quality Management Ordinance"

 Interconnection Usage Charge (IUC) is charge paid by a telecom operator to another on whose network subscriber's voice was completed. Progressive step that removed the need to monitor call termination data and make IUC payments (6 Paise per minute since 2017). It should spur an expansion of high capacity networks, going beyond 2G and 3G. Indian Telecom market is dense and poised for growth, yet as per Economic Survey 19-20, in Telecom sector, intense competition reduced no. of private players. Telecom providers must focus on reliable call quality and competitive tariffs policy. TRAI, now introduced Bill and Keep Arrangement . Challenges for Telecom Sector Ensuring consumer welfare as well as keeping Telecoms remunerative. Badly prices spectrum, which could lead to auction failures lack of genuine competition and, providing cost effective quality services.

Fighting erupted in 2011 after brutal repression of government protests. Deadliest year was 2014, more than 76K people died. Syria is a unitary republic. Bashar al-Assad - Syrian President.

 The original Special Marriage Act was enacted in 1872 ,  enacted following a campaign launched in 1860  by Brahmo Samaj, especially Keshab Chandra Sen , for simpler marriage ceremonies.      But had one problem: it required two people of different faiths who wish to get married must re nounce their respective religions.  SMA 1954  replaced SMA 1872 and requirement to renounce religion was removed. SMA 1954 provisions and issues: Those going for an interfaith marriage, as well as others, could register under the SMA. A religion's personal laws won't apply on persons with marriage registered under SMA. Gave the right to divorce by mutual consent Section 29 of the SMA, cannot file divorce within 1 year of marriage except in extreme hardships. If marriages are civil contract, and if the married couple thinks they are incompatible and can't live together, then the restriction is meaningless.  SMA is often used when people are going abroad....

MTP Act 1971: It stipulates a ceiling of 20 weeks, for termination of pregnancy. This Law requires amendment to extend the ceiling and scope because of the following issues: In the first 5 months, some women realize with delay, the need for an abortion. Fetal anomaly scan is done during 20 - 21st week of pregnancy and delay in the scan or result, if shows lethal anomaly, could result in spur of industries providing unsafe termination and can lead to mother's death if she chose to opt for unsafe abortion services. Can lead to unnecessary psychological trauma to the mother who has no option to discontinue the pregnancy. If a women takes the legal route to get formal permission of termination after 20th week, it becomes stressful and painful both physically, financially and psychologically, for a mother who is already going distress because the baby's condition. Vulnerable women including rape or incest victims,  differently abled and minors should get the freedom to choose. Legis...

 CrPC was amended in 2018 and the period of investigation was reduced from 90 to 60 days for all cases of rape. Andha pradesh's Disha Bill 2019: temporarily down. clause investigation to be completed within a week. Maharashtra's Shakti Act 2020 : investigation to be completed within 15 days the time of investigation depends on  the severity of the crime,  the number of accused persons and agencies involved.  It includes examination of the scene of crime by the investigating officer IO and forensic expert; recording the statement of the victim (by the IO and the judicial magistrate) and witnesses; medical examination of the victim (at a place where a female doctor is available) and accused persons; collecting documents relating to age from parents, local bodies and school (in case of child victim and delinquents); DNA findings of the forensic science lab (FSL); test identification parade of accused persons (if not initially named); seizing weapons of offence, arr...

Launched, Coordinated by Department of Biotechnology along with MoH&FW , ICMR, CSIR. A im is to monitor the genomic variations in the SARS-CoV-2 on a regular basis through a multi-laboratory network. It is c omprising 10 labs namely DBT-NIBMG Kalyani, DBT-ILS Bhubaneswar, ICMR-NIV Pune, DBT-NCCS Pune, CSIR-CCMB Hyderabad, DBT-CDFD Hyderabad, DBT-InSTEM/ NCBS Bengaluru, NIMHANS Bengaluru, CSIR-IGIB Delhi, and NCDC Delhi. the preliminary  study indicates that the variant is unlikely  to cause increased risk of reinfection,  the new variant might not spread wildly here  due to difficulty in finding susceptible persons since 40-50% of urban India particularly in Tier 1 & 2 cities and about 30% people across India would have already been infected. India has so far sequenced around 6300 genomes of this virus in contrast UK has nearly 157000 genome sequenced even when their cases are around quarter of cases in India. It will help in boosting  India's Defe...