Syllabus subtopic:
Prelims and Mains focus: about the GoM for strengthening legal framework to prevent sexual harassment at workplace; about the 2013 Act and its shortcomings; about NCRB
News: The Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by the Home Minister, which was constituted to strengthen the legal framework to prevent sexual harassment at the workplace, has finalised its recommendations.
Members of the GoM
The members of the GoM (including Home Minister) are Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Human Resource and Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal and Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani.
Background
The GoM was constituted first in October 2018 in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement after many women shared their ordeal on social media. It was reconstituted in July 2019 under the Home Minister.
Mandate of GoM
Changes likely to be made in Indian Penal Code (IPC)
The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013
Shortcomings in the 2013 Act
The MHA in December 2018 had written to all States to ensure that the ICC under the 2013 Act was constituted and notified to the police departments.
NCRB report on sexual harassment incidents at work place
As per National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) the number of sexual harassment incidents at “work or office premises” registered under Section 509 IPC (words, gesture or act to insult the modesty of a woman) were 479 and 401 in the years 2017 and 2018 respectively. Among the cities, the highest number of such cases were registered in Delhi (28), Bengaluru (20), Pune (12) and Mumbai (12) in 2018.
The total number of sexual harassment incidents in 2018 including that in public places, shelter homes and others was 20,962.
Source: The Hindu
Syllabus subtopic: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India's interests, Indian diaspora.
Prelims and Mains focus: about the Libya summit and its goal; about the Libya crisis and its consequences on regional stability
News: World leaders made a fresh push for peace in Libya at a summit in Berlin on Sunday, in a desperate bid to stop the conflict-wracked nation from turning into a “second Syria”.
About the summit and its goal
About the warring factions in Libya
Has Libya become the second Syria?
Why is Turkey so concerned?
Source: The Hindu
Syllabus subtopic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Prelims and Mains focus: about the Drone census and its significance; India’s drone policy; Digital Sky Platform
News: India’s first drone census has seen over 2,500 Ownership Acknowledgment Numbers (OANs) being issued by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) in the last five days.
Aim of the census
The exercise will give the government a picture of who owns what kind of drone in which part of the country and will help in making policy decisions that should ideally become the base for understanding the scale of operations.
Rules for disclosure
Deadline issued
Source: The Hindu
Syllabus subtopic:
Prelims and Mains focus: about the SC judgement and its significance; about EPF Act, EPFO
News: The benefits of the provident fund should be extended to contractual employees, the Supreme Court has held in a recent judgment.
What was the case about?
What did the SC judges say?
A Bench of Justices U.U. Lalit and Indu Malhotra held that employees who draw wages or salaries directly or indirectly from a company are entitled to provident fund benefits under the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Act.
What is EPF scheme?
Employees Provident Funds Organisation (EPFO):
Source: The Hindu
Syllabus subtopic: Important International institutions, agencies and fora, their structure, mandate.
Prelims and Mains focus: about the WEF annual summit: its aim and initiatives likely to be taken
News: As the rich and powerful from across the globe assemble this week in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos to discuss a 'cohesive and sustainable world', over 100 CEOs as also some union ministers and chief ministers from India would also be present.
Aim of the meeting
The WEF has said the 2020 meeting aims to give a concrete meaning to "stakeholder capitalism", assist governments and international institutions in tracking progress towards the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, and facilitate discussions on technology and trade governance.
About the meeting
Initiatives to be taken up
Other attendees
Source: Indian Express
Syllabus subtopic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Prelims and Mains focus: About the delays in implementation of phase-2 and its reasons; about BharatNet project
News: After the inordinate delay in the implementation of phase one of BharatNet, the second phase of the flagship project is also lagging way behind schedule.
Background
The government had aimed to connect all GPs and villages in the country via BharatNet by March 2019. Though the government had initially planned to connect only one lakh GPs under phase one, it later increased its target to nearly 1.3 lakh GPs, which also delayed the completion of phase one, the documents showed.
Targets missed
State-wise progress
Reason for delays
The lack of approved detailed project report, non-existent project implementing agencies, and non-availability of funds has been attributed as the reason for the delay for most of these projects, according to internal documents of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
Source: Indian Express
Syllabus subtopic: indigenization of technology and developing new technology.
Prelims and Mains focus: about the K-4 missiles and their significance, about INS Arihant
News: India on Sunday successfully test-fired the 3,500-km range submarine-launched ballistic missile, K-4. The test was carried out by the Defence Research and Development Organsiation (DRDO) from a submerged pontoon off the Visakhapatnam coast around noon.
About the test
Why is it an achievement for India?
Background
Significance of K-4 missiles
About INS Arihant
Source: The Hindu
Syllabus subtopic: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment
Prelims and Mains focus: about the census and its findings; about Irrawaddy dolphins and why they are important; about Chilika lake
News: Odisha Forest Department officials, wildlife experts and researchers on Sunday sighted 146 endangered Irrawaddy dolphins in Chilika Lake, which boasts of the highest single lagoon population of the aquatic mammal in the world.
About the dolphin census and its findings
[The SOFAR channel (short for Sound Fixing and Ranging channel), or deep sound channel (DSC), is a horizontal layer of water in the ocean at which depth the speed of sound is at its minimum.
The SOFAR channel acts as a waveguide for sound, and low frequency sound waves within the channel may travel thousands of miles before dissipating.
This phenomenon is an important factor in submarine warfare. The deep sound channel was discovered and described independently by Maurice Ewing, Stanley Wong and Leonid Brekhovskikh in the 1940s.]
About Irrawaddy dolphins
Why are they important?
About Chilika Lake
Source: The Hindu
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