Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 23th April 2022

NEWS

The Supreme Court asked Attorney General for assistance to institutionalise a mechanism by which information crucial to decide whether a person should be condemned to death or not can be gathered and placed on record before trial judges.

WHAT DID THE COURT SAY

• In some cases, trial courts sentence a person to death merely hours after conviction
• No effort is ever made to dig deeper into a convict’s childhood experiences, multi-generational history of physical and mental health issues, exposure to traumatic events and other familial, social and cultural factors crucial in order to undertake an individualised sentencing enquiry
• SC said this ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach while considering mitigating factors during sentencing should end. A more enlightened approach has to be evolved
• A “mitigation expert”, a qualified professional with unhindered access to the convict’s past, ought to be at the centre of this change in outlook
• Mitigating investigators would be experts in fields as varied as social work, sociology, anthropology, criminology, psychology and other social sciences. They could interview the convicts, their families, friends and other associated with the prisoners and their past to draw a complete picture. The information could then be placed before a trial judge

DEATH PENALTY

WHAT

• Also called Capital Punishment
• Legal punishment
• Permissible for some crimes under the country’s main substantive penal legislation, the Indian Penal Code, 1860, as well as other laws.

IN INDIA

• Prior to the Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Act [Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr PC)] of 1955, the death penalty was the rule and life imprisonment an exception in India.
• As per official statistics, 720 executions have taken place in India since it became independent in the year 1947.
• As per Section 354 (3) of the Cr PC, 1973 the courts are required to state reasons in writing for awarding the maximum penalty.

ARGUMENTS FOR

• The punishment must be equivalent to the severity of the crime. Real justice requires people to suffer for their wrongdoing and to suffer in a way appropriate for the crime. Each criminal should get what their crime deserves and in the case of a murderer what their crime deserves is death.
• Any criminal must be punished as per the crime committed by them so that justice is granted to the victim
• It is also believed that the death penalty or capital punishment may provide closure and justice to the victim’s family
• It is also believed that the death penalty can lead to some form of rehabilitation and escape punishment in the next life.
• Capital punishment is often justified with the argument that capital punishment causes deterrence.

ARGUMENTS AGAINST

• There is a probability that an innocent may get punished or the crime may have been committed in unfavourable conditions.
• It may cause emotional or mental breakdown for the accused’s family.
• The anticipatory suffering of the criminal, who may be kept on death row for many years, makes the punishment more severe than just depriving the criminal of life.
• The statistical evidence doesn’t confirm that deterrence reduced the crime rate.
• There are some examples of persons who were condemned to death taking the opportunity of the time before execution to repent, express remorse, and very often experience profound spiritual rehabilitation

NEWS

Ajay Kumar Sood, an eminent physicist has been appointed as the central government’s principal scientific advisor

PRINCIPAL SCIENTIFIC ADVISER(PSA)

• Set up in 1999 by the Cabinet Secretariat
• Secretary level position.
• Chief advisor to the government on matters related to scientific policy. The policies focus on critical infrastructure, economic and social sectors.

Role

• Science and technology fundamentals with applied research in collaboration with multiple stakeholders, both in central and state governments
• Enabling future preparedness in emerging domains of science and technology
• Formulating and coordinating major inter-ministerial science and technology missions
• Providing an enabling ecosystem for technology led innovations and techno-entrepreneurship
• Driving innovation and technology delivery towards solving socio-economic challenges for sustainable growth
• Fostering effective public-private linkages for driving research and innovation

Initiatives Undertaken by PSA

• The Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC)
• Empowered Technology Group (ETG)
• Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2020 (STIP 2020)

NEWS

The Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) gets Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration, 2020 for the ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme

THE SCHEME

• Aimed at enabling migrant workers and their family members to buy subsidised ration from any fair price shop anywhere in the country under the National Food Security Act, 2013.
• To promote this reform in the archaic Public Distribution System (PDS), the government has provided incentives to states.

HOW DOES ONORC WORK?

• Based on technology that involves details of beneficiaries’ ration card, Aadhaar number, and electronic Points of Sale (ePoS)
• Identifies a beneficiary through biometric authentication on ePoS devices at fair price shops
• Runs with the support of two portals —Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IM-PDS) (impds.nic.in) and Annavitran (annavitran.nic.in), which host all the relevant data.
• When a ration card holder goes to a fair price shop, he or she identifies himself or herself through biometric authentication on ePoS, which is matched real time with details on the Annavitaran portal. Once the ration card details are verified, the dealer hands out the beneficiary’s entitlements.
• While the Annavitaran portal maintains a record of intra-state transactions — inter-district and intra-district — the IM-PDS portal records the inter-state transactions

NEWS

Recently, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has announced that all 100 smart cities will have Integrated Command and Control Centers (ICCCs), under Smart Cities Mission (SCM)

INTEGRATED COMMAND AND CONTROL CENTRE

WHAT - Nerve center for operations management in the city with day-to-day exception handling and disaster management

WHAT IT PROVIDES

• Aggregate information across multiple applications and sensors deployed across the city and provide actionable information with appropriate visualization for decision-maker
• Provide smart solutions to the city's municipal corporation and help manage safety and surveillance of the city
• Comprise video walls for real-time monitoring, emergency response system, operations planning to include critical ones and 24x7 manual maintenance
• Being established to enable smart living, smart environment, smart economy, smart governance, smart population and smart mobility
• PProvide valuable insights by processing complex data sets at an aggregated level to derive intelligence for improved planning and policymaking
• Linked to the CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Networks and Systems) network under the Ministry of Home Affairs

SMART CITIES MISSION

• Under Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
• Launched in 2015
• Developing citizen-friendly and self-sustainable urban settlements
• First Target – 100 cities being developed between January 2016 to June 2018
• Minimum of five years is given for a city to be completed
• Aims to focus on innovative digital technologies interlinked with its ‘Digital India’, providing technology solutions such as surveillance systems to reduce crime and improve safety of residents
• Projects related to e-governance, mobility, integrated traffic management and solid waste management have been envisaged.
• process starts with the formation of an implementing agency, a special purpose vehicle (SPV), promoted by the state/Union Territory and the urban local body, with a 50% equity shareholding each. The SPV, formed as a limited company, is governed by the Companies Act, 2013.
• With the Centre preparing a 60-point action plan MoHUA has also begun work to finalise its recommendation for providing Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs) as a service to states and smaller cities

NEWS

India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) launched the Fincluvation Platform

FINCLUVATION

• Platform to promote innovative solutions in collaboration with fintech startups to accelerate financial inclusion among the underserved and unserved population
• Co-create inclusive financial solutions with participating start-up
• Industry first initiative to create a powerful platform to mobilize the start-up community towards building meaningful financial products aimed at financial inclusion

INDIA POST PAYMENTS BANK

• Launched in 2018
• 100% equity owned by the Government of India.
• Payments bank of the Indian postal department
• Works through a network of post offices and nearly 4 lakh postmen
• Governed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
• Set up with the vision to build the most accessible, affordable and trusted bank for the common man in India
• Providing a fillip to a less cash economy and contribute to the vision of Digital India

NEWS

A long-term people’s campaign to document the worsening tidal flooding in Ernakulam district of Kerala was launched in 14 coastal villages earlier this week

DETAILS

• People were asked to take photos and one-minute videos capturing the severity of tidal flooding and the hardships faced by them
• Visuals are meant for the creation of a larger database to bring the seriousness of the issue to the attention of the State
• Tidal forecasts with expected timing of severe flooding were provided to the people in all 14 panchayats
• The evidence collected will be first shared with the local bodies and then with the District Disaster Management Authority.

TIDAL FLOODING

• Also known as sunny day flooding, king tide flooding, and nuisance flooding
• Temporary flooding of low-lying areas near a coast
• Occurs through the combination of winds, offshore storms, and full moon cycles during high tide events such as full moons and new moons
• At-risk areas can experience this flooding multiple times a year

NEWS

Defence Minister launched Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) Prime and the sixth Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC–6) meant to encourage defence start–ups during DefConnect 2.0

DETAILS

• iDEX-Prime aims to support projects, requiring support beyond ₹1.5 crore up to ₹10 crore, to help the ever-growing start-ups in the sector
• The iDEX has provided an opportunity to our science and technology professionals to understand futuristic technologies such as AI, Augmented Reality, block-chain and space technologies
• The DISC–6 with 38 problem statements was also launched which relate to Artificial Intelligence (AI), advanced imaging, sensor systems, among others

IDEX

• Launched by the Government of India in 2018
• Aim
  • Create an ecosystem to promote innovation and technology development in Defence and Aerospace
  • Attract industries including MSMEs, start-ups, individual innovators, R&D institutes & academia
  • Provide grants/funding and other support to them to carry out R&D. However, R&D should have a good potential for future adoption for Indian defence and aerospace needs
• Objectives of IDEX
  • Facilitate rapid development of new, indigenized, and innovative technologies for the Indian defence and aerospace sector in shorter timelines.
  • Create a culture of engagement with innovative startups, to encourage co-creation for defence and aerospace sectors.
  • Empower a culture of technology co-creation and co-innovation within the defence and aerospace sectors.
• Nodal Body: iDEX will be funded and managed by Defence Innovation Organisation

• The Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) and Hospital has become the first government medical college in the State to successfully conduct live kidney transplant and it is ready to take up cadaver transplant.