Latest News
Jan 08, 2022
HC’s LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH, SPEAK ONLY ENGLISH: CJ
A Division Bench of the Gujarat High Court has asked to speak only in English as that was the language in the higher judiciary.
Languages in courts of India:
Highlights of guidelines
Global Scenario of Immunization in 2020:
TB vaccine
Application of drones By the Indian Government
Urban Development
Highlights of the Scheme:
FAO Food Price Index (FFPI)
What is bond?
Anaimalai Tiger Reserve:
Oriental Darter
Clouded leopard
India-Spain
Languages in courts of India:
- Hindi and English are the official languages of the Government of India.
- As per Article 348, the Supreme Court of India uses “English” as its working language until the parliament by law specifically provides some other language.
- After the enactment of Article 349, the parliament has been restricted to enact any kind of provision regarding the change in language.
- As per Article 348 (1), the language used in the High Courts shall be
- Article 348 (2) states that the governor can authorize the use of Hindi or any other language with the consent of the President for the proceedings of the High Court.
- As per further provisions, the judgments shall be pronounced in the English language only.
- In the case of judgments, orders or decree is passed in Hindi or any other language, it shall be accompanied with English translation of the same.
- Section 272 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973, states that the State government shall determine the language of all courts other than the High Courts.
- Broadly, it means that the language used in the district courts shall be in the regional language as the state government directs.
- The state government has the power to invoke any language by promulgating an act if it feels necessary for the litigants.
- Most of the pleaders practicing, along with staff and the courtroom clerks in the subordinate courts are not well acquainted with English as they are having their regional languages as their mother tongue.
- The parties are not acquainted with English as they use their regional languages.
- In Southern Indian states, the parties are even not familiar with the Hindi language.
- The recording of evidence is also done in the regional language.
- The litigant has the fundamental right to understand and participate in the courtroom proceedings, under Article 19 and Article 21.
- The litigant has the right to speak in the language he/she understands before the magistrate.
- Similarly, “right to justice” is also recognized under Article 21 of the Constitution.
- The constitution has conferred the right to justice on the litigant which further encompasses that he shall have the right to understand the whole proceedings and the judgment delivered.
- Subordinate courts are the place which is occupied by non-English speaking lawyers.
- The inclusive system where regional language is used provides such local lawyers to have their own identity and space.
- In order to bring uniformity in the whole judicial system, English should be allowed to be used in the courts subordinate to the High courts in respective states.
- The regional language creates a monopoly in the system hampering the right of lawyers from other states willing to settle and practice.
- The use of regional language in the subordinate courts shall deprive the candidates coming from outside the state to participate in the judicial service examination.
Highlights of guidelines
- No universal default passwords
- All IoT device default passwords shall be unique per device.
- The passwords must not be resettable to any universal default value.
- Manage reports of vulnerabilities
- IoT device manufacturers, IoT service providers/ System integrators and Mobile application developers should provide a dedicated public point of contact as part of a vulnerability disclosure policy for security researchers and others to report security issues.
- Keep software updated
- Software components in IoT devices should be securely updateable.
- Updates shall be timely and should not adversely impact the functioning of the device.
- For constrained devices that cannot physically be updated, the product should be isolatable and replaceable.
- Securely store sensitive security parameters
- IoT devices may need to store security parameters such as keys & credentials, certificates, device identity etc. which are critical for the secure operation of the device.
- Credentials (e.g. user names, passwords) should not be hard-coded in the source code as they can be discovered via reverse engineering.
- Communicate securely
- Security-sensitive data, including any remote management and control, should be encrypted in transit, appropriate to the properties of the technology.
- Ensure software integrity
- Software (including firmware) on IoT devices should be verified using secure boot mechanisms wherever applicable.
- Ensure that personal data is secure
- If the device collects or transmits personal data, such data should be securely stored.
- The confidentiality of personal data transiting between a device and a service, especially associated services, should be protected, with best practice cryptography.
- Make systems resilient to outages
- Resilience should be built into IoT devices and services where required by their usage or by other relying systems.
- IoT devices should remain operating and locally functional in the case of a loss of network, without compromising security or safety.
- Examine system telemetry data
- If telemetry data is collected from IoT devices and services, such as usage and measurement data, it should be monitored for security anomalies.
- Make it easy for users to delete user data
- Devices and services should have mechanisms such that personal data can easily be removed when there is a transfer of ownership, when the consumer wishes to delete it.
- A ‘factory reset’ function must fully remove all user data/credentials stored on a device.
- Make installation and maintenance of devices easy
- Installation and maintenance of IoT devices should employ minimal steps and should follow security best practice on usability.
- Consumers should also be provided with guidance on how to securely set up their device and also to check whether the device is securely set up.
- Validate input data
- The consumer IoT device software shall validate data input via user interfaces or transferred via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) or between networks in services and devices.
- In view of the anticipated growth of IoT devices, it is important to ensure that the IoT end points comply to the safety and security standards to protect the users and the networks that connect these IoT devices.
- IoT devices, services & software are at risk of attack by a variety of malicious parties, from novice hackers to professional criminals and even state actors.
- The hacking of the devices/networks being used in daily life would harm companies, organisations, nations and more importantly people, therefore securing the IoT eco-system end-to-end is important.
- The privacy of the data of the individuals is another very important thing that should be protected.
- The Internet of Things (IoT) describes the network of physical objects “things” that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the internet.
- These devices range from ordinary household objects to sophisticated industrial tools.
- Smart home
- Elder care
- Health
- Transportation
- Communication
- Agriculture
- Manufacturing
Global Scenario of Immunization in 2020:
TB vaccine
- Among the major economies, India was behind Mexico, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates in terms of the drop in TB vaccine.
- India also fared worse than all South Asia nations with even Pakistan and Afghanistan increasing coverage during 2020.
- Best Performers: Bangladesh and Sri Lanka continued to administer TB vaccine.
- India was behind Brazil and Indonesia.
- Only Pakistan and Nepal fared worse than India in the South Asian region.
- Decline in Polio Vaccine:
- India sees a sharpest drop in polio vaccination since 1990s.
- The administration of the third dose of polio vaccine for children aged 12-23 months declined five percentage points in 2020, compared to 2019.
- DPT vaccine: First dose for children aged 12-23 months fell by seven percentage points.
- Tuberculosis (TB) vaccine: It was also down by seven percentage points compared to last year.
- Rotavirus Vaccine: The rotavirus vaccine coverage for children aged 12-23 months went up 29 percentage points from 53 per cent to 82 per cent.
- Pneumococcal Vaccine: Pneumococcal uptake increased from 15 percent to 21 per cent between 2019 and 2020.
- Rural Health Manpower: One of the primary reasons for the decline seems to be set backs to rural health manpower and its impact on rural health programmes, including the government’s vaccination drives.
- Health and Nutrition Days: The total number of health and nutrition days (HNDs) held in thousands of villages declined drastically in 2020 as compared to 2019.
- Asha (Accredited Social Health Activist) Workers: There was a fall in the number of ASHA workers in Indian villages.
- Immunization Programme in India was introduced in 1978 as ‘Expanded Programme of Immunization’ (EPI) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
- In 1985, the programme was modified as ‘Universal Immunization Programme’ (UIP)
- Government of India provides several vaccines to infants, children and pregnant women through UIP.
- BCG stands for Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine.
- It is given to infants to protect them from tubercular meningitis and disseminated TB.
- OPV stands for Oral Polio Vaccine.
- It protects children from poliomyelitis.
- Pentavalent is a combined vaccine to protect children from five diseases:
- Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Haemophiles influenza type b infection and Hepatitis B.
- PCV stands for Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine.
- It protects infants and young children against disease caused by the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae.
- It stands for Fractional Inactivated Poliomyelitis Vaccine.
- It is used to boost the protection against poliomyelitis.
- It is used to protect children from measles.
- In some cases, Measles and Rubella, a combined vaccine is given to protect from Measles and Rubella infection.
- JE stands for Japanese encephalitis vaccine.
- It gives protection against Japanese Encephalitis disease.
- TT vaccine has been replaced with Td vaccine in UIP to limit the waning immunity against diphtheria in older age groups.
Application of drones By the Indian Government
Urban Development
- The Andhra Pradesh Government is using drones to monitor the development activities of the capital city region Amaravati, through drone-based outputs.
- As a pilot project, the Karnataka Government is using drones for property tax estimation.
- Indian Railways has used drones for monitoring the 25-km long Seawoods-Belapur-Uran15 corridor.
- The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has deployed drones in the Salem-Chennai green corridor expressway project to ensure accuracy concerning the extent of land.
- As a pilot project, the Government of Maharashtra has deployed two drones to monitor weekend rush hour traffic and accidents.
- The Maharashtra Government has used drones over fields in the Marathwada region for carrying out crop loss assessments due to deficit rainfall.
- The individual farmers of Andhra Pradesh’s capital region are deploying drones to spray crop pesticide/fertilizer in limited crop areas.
- The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) deployed drones to scan areas where search and rescue teams could not access in flood-hit Uttarakhand.
- The Andhra Pradesh Government used a drone for monitoring stockpile storage, 3D mapping, and volumetric analysis of limestone over some time.
- In Jharkhand, drones are deployed for boundary and safety zone inspection of coal and iron mines, counting of vegetation in reclaimed areas.
- The Karnataka Police Department has deployed drones to detect illegal sand mining.
Highlights of the Scheme:
- It will focus on addition of 10,750 circuit kilometers of transmission lines and 27,500 Mega Volt-Amperes (MVA) transformation capacity of substations.
- The scheme will have central financial assistance (CFA) at 33% of the project cost of Rs 3,970 crore.
- CFA will help in offsetting the Intra-State transmission charges and thus keep the power costs down.
- It will also focus on the creation of transmission systems.
- This scheme is in addition to GEC-Phase-I.
- The target of the project is to install 9700 circuit kilometres transmission lines and substations of a total capacity of approx. 22600 MVA.
- It will evacuate over 20,000 MW of large-scale renewable power and improvement of the grid in the implementing states.
- It will help in achieving the target of 450 Gw installed RE capacity by 2030.
- It will also contribute to long term energy security of the country and promote ecologically sustainable growth by reducing carbon footprint.
- It will generate employment opportunities for both skilled and unskilled personnel in power and other related sectors.
- For evacuation of large-scale renewable energy, ISTS project was sanctioned in 2015-16.
- Aim: Synchronizing electricity produced from renewable sources with conventional power stations in the grid.
- Implemented in eight renewable-rich states: Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.
- The project is being implemented by respective State Transmission Utilities (STUs) allocating the work through a competitive bidding process.
- It consists of 40% Government of India Grant, 20% state equity and 40% loan from Germany.
- 70% advance on the award of contract.
- Balance 30% after successful commissioning and performance testing.
FAO Food Price Index (FFPI)
- Launch by: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1996.
- It is a global indicator of the state of global food markets.
- It measures international price movements of a basket of food commodities over time, in nominal and real terms.
- Current Base period: 2014-2016
- Encompasses 24 basic food commodities that are globally traded.
- These commodities are grouped into five major groups (cereals, dairy products, vegetable oils, sugar and meat), for which a respective price index is calculated.
What is bond?
- Bonds are the debt (loan) instruments of capital market.
- A bond certificate is issued to a buyer by the issuer.
- Certificate contains all the information about the future date of maturity of bond, along with the pre-agreed interest rate.
- A bond can be issued by any entity, including company and government.
- Due to global LPG (Liberalization, Privatization, Globalization) reforms, bonds can be issued in domestic and international market. On the same lines, bond can also be denominated in domestic of foreign currency.
- When a domestic entity issues its bond in foreign market it is called as a foreign bonds or offshore bonds.
- When these foreign bonds are denominated in foreign currency, then it is called as foreign currency bond (FCB).
- FCB can be issued in 3 different currency denominations.
- In the domestic currency denomination of issuer.
- In the domestic currency denomination of buyer.
- In any other globally established currency denomination (other than issuers or buyer’s domestic currency).
- For example:
- The Masala Bonds are the rupee-denominated bonds, issued outside India by domestic Indian entities.
- Here the risk of exchange value of currency lies with the buyer of the bond.
- The Eurobonds are issued in the currency denomination, which does not belong to the country, where it is issued.
- According to countries and their native currency denomination, Eurobonds are named like Eurodollar (USA), Euro yen (Japan), etc.
- The Masala Bonds are the rupee-denominated bonds, issued outside India by domestic Indian entities.
- For example:
- SUN or Senior Unsecured debts are kind of debts which are senior to other type of debts while receiving profit or liquidation.
- All debts other than SUN are secondary in nature and called as Junior Unsecured Notes (JUN) or Junior Unsecured debts.
- SUN/JUN may be secured debt with security of collateral or may not be a secured debt.
- For example:
- In case of liquidation (closer of organization) while paying back debts, SUN holders will get their money first (on priority). Then the left money will move for distribution of JUN, and then to others.
- This priority wise distribution of money in an organization, is called as the waterfall model.
- Waterfall model according to Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.
- The project was finalised based on a systematic need assessment by conduct of focus groups among two tribes namely Malasar and Malai Malasar.
Anaimalai Tiger Reserve:
- It is a protected area in the Anaimalai Hills of Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu.
- It is one of the four Tiger Reserves in Tamil Nadu.
- It was declared as a Tiger reserve in the year 2007.
- It is surrounded by Parambikulum Tiger Reserve on the East, Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary and Eravikulum National Park on the South Western side.
- Fauna: Bengal tiger, Indian elephant, Indian leopard, Dhole, Lion-tailed macaque and Indian brown mongoose.
- Flora: tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests and East Deccan dry evergreen forests and montane shola-grassland.
- The six indigenous tribes living around the area are: Kadars, Malasars, Malaimalasar, Pulaiyars Muduvars and Eravallan (Eravalar).
- Malasar are a designated Scheduled Tribe in the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
- The Malasar are one of the earliest known inhabitants of the Western Ghats, in Anaimalai Hills.
- They are a forest tribe living by hill cultivation and day labour.
- Malasar is an unclassified Southern Dravidian language.
Oriental Darter
- Oriental Darter is a water bird of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia.
- It is also popular as a Snakebird.
- It is found mainly in freshwater lakes and streams.
- It hunts for fish while its body is submerged in water.
- International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) status: Near Threatened.
- Breeding adults have a shiny black body with silvery-white streaks along with the wings.
- Brownish crown and longs lender neck with a straight pointed bill.
- White stripe running from the eye to the side of the neck.
- Oriental darter is mostly found in the fresh waters of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Myanmar.
- Established in:
- Located near the city of Bharatpur in Rajasthan near Gambhir River and Banganga River.
- Park was originated as a royal hunting reserve during the 1850s and was a game reserve for Maharajas and the British.
- It was declared a national park and then later listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985.
- Flora: Tropical dry deciduous forests intermixed with dry grasslands. Mostly found flora are Kadam, Jamun, and Babul.
- Fauna: Chital deer, Rhesus macaque, Blackbuck, and Indian crested porcupine.
- Keoladeo National Park is known as a “bird paradise” since more than 370 bird species have been recorded in the park.
- Mostly found birds are: Herons, Storks, and Cormorants.
Clouded leopard
- It is also called the mainland clouded leopard, is a wild cat.
- The tree-climbing clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), a medium-sized felid (wild cat), is the smallest of the large wild cats.
- It is the state animal of the Indian state of
- Distribution and habitat:
- Occurs from the Himalayan foothills in Nepal, Bhutan and India to Myanmar, southeastern Bangladesh, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, to south of the Yangtze River in China.
- It is regionally extinct in Singapore and Taiwan.
- In India, it occurs in Sikkim, northern West Bengal, Meghalaya subtropical forests, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.
- Both males and females average26 months at first reproduction.
- The clouded leopard's fur is of a dark grey or ochreous ground-color, often largely obliterated by black and dark dusky-grey blotched pattern.
- There are black spots on the head, and the ears are black.
- Females are slightly smaller than males.
- IUCN status: Vulnerable
- CITES: Appendix I
- Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972: Schedule I
India-Spain
- Relations between India and Spain have been cordial since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1956.
- Spain is India 8th largest trade partner in Europe.
- India top exports to Spain are textiles, organic chemicals, iron & steel, seafood, automobiles and leather.
- India major imports are mechanical appliances, electrical machinery, chemicals, plastic and mineral fuels.
- India Procure 56 C295 aircraft from Airbus Spain, 40 of which will be ‘Made in India’ in collaboration with Tata Advanced Systems.
- Turkmenistan, one of the Republics of the former USSR, was proclaimed as an independent State on 27 October 1991.
- Turkmen Gate was built in Delhi in memory of great Turkmen Saint Shams-ul-Arifeen Shan Turkmen Bayabani, who is believed to have lived in India during 13th century.
- TAPI (Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan– India) gas pipeline project remains active since the TAPI Summit was held in Ashgabat in December 2010.
- India was invited to join the ‘Ashgabat Agreement’ which envisages establishment of an International Transport and Transit Corridor between the Governments of Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
- Major items of import from India include electronic and electrical items, machinery and woven apparel and pharmaceuticals, frozen meat and tyres.
- Exports to India comprises of raw hides and inorganic chemicals.
- Central Asia first Yoga and Traditional Medicine Centre was inaugurated by India in Ashgabat in July 2015.
- Hindi language is being taught to about 50 students each year at the Azadi Institute of world languages in Ashgabat.
- An Ayurveda Therapist is conducting classes in Turkmen State Medical University.
POSTED ON 08-01-2022 BY ADMIN
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General Studies
Political Science and International Relations
Some Reference Essays
List of previous year essay topics (1997-2019)
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