TNPSC Current Affairs February 10, 2020

www.tnpsc.academy – TNPSC Current Affairs February 10, 2020 (10/02/2020)

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Topic: Profile of States

Disha law

The Andhra Pradesh state government is preparing to implement the Disha Bill once it gets the nod of the President. As per the law, the state has to equip itself with facilities like forensic laboratories, special courts, and public prosecutors.

Background:

Last year, the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly had passed the Andhra Pradesh Disha Bill, 2019 (Andhra Pradesh Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2019).

Key features of the Bill:

It envisages the completion of investigation in seven days and trial in 14 working days, where there is adequate conclusive evidence, and reducing the total judgment time to 21 days from the existing four months.

It prescribes life imprisonment for other sexual offences against children and includes Section 354 F and 354 G in IPC.

In cases of harassment of women through social or digital media, the Act states two years imprisonment for the first conviction and four years for second and subsequent convictions. For this, a new Section 354 E will be added in IPC, 1860.

As per the Bill, the Andhra Pradesh government will establish, operate and maintain a register in electronic form, to be called the ‘Women & Children Offenders Registry’. This registry will be made public and will be available to law enforcement agencies.

The government will establish exclusive special courts in each district to ensure speedy trial.

These courts will exclusively deal with cases of offences against women and children including rape, acid attacks, stalking, voyeurism, social media harassment of women, sexual harassment and all cases under the POCSO Act.

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Topic: Profile of States

Vigilance wing for Health in Kerala

Kerala government has proposed to set up a Vigilance Wing in the Health Department to monitor private practice by doctors and crackdown on quackery.

Composition and functions:

A police officer of the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police is likely to head the Vigilance Wing.

The Vigilance Wing will detect private practice by medical education service doctors, the crackdown on quackery and unearth ethically dubious financial relationships between State doctors and diagnostic clinics, pharmacies and health care firms in the private sector.

It will also monitor healthcare advertising and flag false claims aired by healthcare companies to mass-market pharmaceutical and Ayurveda drugs without doctor’s prescription as off-the-shelf cures for a wide range of ailments.

Need: There were complaints against doctors regarding the violation of private practice ban and matters involving medico-legal issues.

Concerns: Many in the medical community have objected to intrusive vigilance inspections.

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Topic: New Inventions on Science and Technology

Muktoshri- arsenic-resistant rice

West Bengal government’s rice research centre has come up with a new variety of rice called Muktoshri that can be grown in arsenic prone areas.

It was developed jointly by the Rice Research Station at Chinsurah, coming under West Bengal’s Agriculture Department and the National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow.

Background:

West Bengal has a high concentration of arsenic in groundwater, with 83 blocks across seven districts having higher arsenic levels than permissible limits.

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Topic: Places in News

Mt. Aconcagua

A 12-year old Mumbai student, Kaamya Karthikeyan has set a record of becoming the youngest in the world to summit Mt. Aconcagua.

About Mt. Aconcagua:

It is the highest peak of the Andes Mountains in Argentina, South America. It is the highest mountain outside of Asia, with a summit elevation of 6,960.8 metres. The mountain is one of the so-called Seven Summits of the seven continents.

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Topic: Latest Diary of Events

Parth: World’s Cheapest Gun Shot Locator developed by Indian Army

The Indian Army’s College of Military Engineering with a private firm developed the gun shot locators called “Parth”. These are much cheaper than the ones imported. The device was showcased at DefExpo 2020.

Key faccts:

The cost of the device developed is around 3 lakhs. When these devices are replaced with the imported ones, the costs are around Rs 65 lakhs. The device is capable of locating a bullet from a distance of 400 metres and will help to neutralize in a faster way.

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Topic: Profile of States, Welfare Oriented Govt schemes and their Utilities

Cauvery Delta of Tamil Nadu declared Protected Agricultural Zone

Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu announced that Cauvery Delta is to be declared as Protected Special Agricultural Zone.

In 2019, the Central Government had awarded the oil and gas exploration projects in the Cauvery basin. This invoked large protests amid water crisis in the state. Extraction of hydro carbon requires excess amount of fresh water.

Key facts:

With the zone being Agricultural Protected Zone, the permission of State government is required to undertake projects. This infers that oil exploration projects cannot be undertaken by the private firms without the permission of state government.

Agricultural Protection Zone: When a land is announced as Protected Agricultural Zone, it cannot be used for any other non-agricultural activities.

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Topic: Sports

National Snooker championship

Aditya Mehta from Mumbai, Maharashtra won the National Snooker championship held at Pune. He defeated multiple time world champion Pankaj Advani. In Women’s Snooker Finals, Vidya Pillai from Madhya Pradesh won the title.

Key facts:

Snooker is a game played on Billiard board. It originated among the British army officers stationed in India. The World Snooker Championship is the leading tournament that is being held since 1927.

Aditya Mehta ranks 49 in the world ranking of Snooker players. He has so far won gold medals at world level and Asian level games.