Insights Daily Current Events, 16 January 2016
Paper 2 Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 comes into force
The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 has come into force from 15th January, 2016. The new Act repeals the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000.
- The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2015 was passed by Lok Sabha in May, 2015 and by Rajya Sabha in December, 2015 and received Presidential assent on 31st December, 2015.
The JJ Act, 2015 provides for strengthened provisions for both children in need of care and protection and children in conflict with law.
Some of the key provisions include:
- The Act clearly defines and classifies offences as petty, serious and heinous, and defines differentiated processes for each category. Keeping in view the increasing number of serious offences being committed by persons in the age group of 16-18 years and recognizing the rights of the victims as being equally important as the rights of juveniles, special provisions are incorporated in the Act to tackle heinous offences committed by individuals in this age group.
- It establishes a statutory status for the Child Adoption Resources Authority (CARA).
- It also proposes several rehabilitation and social integration measures for institutional and non-institutional children. It provides for sponsorship and foster care as completely new measures.
- Mandatory registration of all institutions engaged in providing child care is required according to the Act.
- New offences including illegal adoption, corporal punishment in child care institutions, the use of children by militant groups, and offences against disabled children are also incorporated in the legislation.
- The new law gives the Juvenile Justice Board the power to assess whether the perpetrator of a heinous crime aged between 16 and 18, had acted as a ‘child’ or as an ‘adult.’ The board will be assisted in this process by psychologists and social experts.
- It strikes a fine balance between the demands of the stakeholders asking for continued protection of rights of juveniles and the popular demand of citizens in the light of increasing incidence of heinous crimes by young boys.
sources: the hindu.
Paper 2 Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Dept of Biotech and BIRAC to Participate in the Bharat Innovation Fund
The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), along with the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), has announced its participation in the Bharat Innovation Fund.
- The DBT will engage with the Bharat Fund, as part of DBT’s efforts under the Startup India initiative, to help commercialize technologies from its labs and facilities.
- The DBT has announced to invest Rs. 50 crore over the next 3 years to support startups through this Fund.
Productive innovations from the department of biotechnology can make a huge impact in people’s lives, as has been seen in the advances of medicine in recent years.
About Bharat Innovation Fund:
- The Bharat Fund is a public-private-academia partnership set up by Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE).
- The Fund was launched by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in September 2015 during the Startup Konnect event in California.
- The Fund will be managed and coordinated by CIIE at the IIM, Ahmedabad.
- It will support innovation and innovative startups in areas of healthcare and life-sciences, sustainability, and digital technologies.
- The Fund will use important tools such as labs, mentorship, funding, and networking to support entrepreneurs who take on hard challenges of an ever-broadening Indian market.
- Since its launch in the Startup Konnect event, the Bharat Fund has received pledges from several government and corporate entities, such as the Department of Industrial Promotion and Policy (DIPP), Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Tata Trusts, and others.
sources: pib.
Paper 3 Topic: pollution.
IMD launches a system to monitor aerosols and black carbon in atmosphere
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has launched a System of Aerosol Monitoring and Research (SAMAR). It will help the country in studying concentration of black carbon in atmosphere due to air pollution and its impact on climate.
- The system was launched by the Union science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan on the IMD’s 141st foundation day.
Aerosols are a subset of air pollution that contains gases, fumes and dust in harmful proportion. Aerosols particles can be both solid and liquid which also affects environmental visibility.
About SAMAR:
The SAMAR, equipped with many sophisticated equipments including 12 sky radiometers, will study aerosols’ different properties and determine how it impact the climate over a longer period of time. At present, country has to depend on other countries’ research for this purpose.
sources: pib.
Paper 3 Topic: pollution.
Center notifies revised standards for CETPs to minimise water pollution
The Center has notified revised standards for Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs), operating at various industrial clusters in the country, to minimise water pollution.
- The revised standards, notified by the Union environment ministry, will help in significantly in improving the performance of CETPs through implementation of design inlet quality and addressing the problems of the coastal pollution due to industrial discharges.
- The new standards also help keep a close watch on the impact of discharge of industrial effluent on soil and ground water quality.
New standards announced include:
- A provision of soil and groundwater quality monitoring twice a year (pre and post-monsoon) to study the impact of disposal of treated effluent on land. This monitoring will be carried out by the respective CETP management.
- The mode of ‘discharge into sea’ (marine outfalls), providing very high dilution, will qualify for a relaxed maximum permissible concentration of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD).
- The maximum permissible concentration of Fixed Dissolved Solids (FDS) by constituent units to CETP has been specified in terms of maximum allowable contribution value.
- Under the new standards, the State Pollution Control Boards are empowered to prescribe standards for inlet quality of effluent in respect of Bio-chemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD). This provision will help in enforcing the norms for treated effluent quality for the CETP constituent industrial units.
These standards were finalised after extensive consultations with industries and other stakeholders and detailed deliberations with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
sources: pib.
Topic: general awareness.
Sania, Martina create world record, win 29th straight match
India’s Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis have broken a 22-year-old world record by winning their 29th women’s doubles match in a row.
