UPSC 2017 Weekly Current Affairs Quiz: Mar 12 - 18

• The National Groundwater Management Improvement Scheme (NGMIS), supported by the World Bank, is under active consideration of the Government.
• The Scheme envisages sustainable ground water management through suitable supply/demand side interventions with stakeholder participation in identified priority areas of seven States viz. Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
• The estimated cost of the Scheme is Rs. 6,000 crore and it will be implemented over a period of six years.
• Half of the total cost of the scheme, called National Groundwater Management Improvement Scheme (NGMIS), will be supported by the World Bank as loan while the remaining half (Rs 3,000 crore) will be funded by the government through budgetary support.
• Infrastructure development includes building recharge structure\facilities for utilising rain water directly from roof top, creating rain water harvesting structures for conserving surplus run-off and recharging ground water in aquifers.
• Program is being designed in coordination with existing programmes and activities including MGNREGA, the Pradhan Mantri Krishi SinchayeeYojana (PMKSY) as well as the National Hydrology Project (NHP).
• The programme will also have a ‘performance-based incentive’ system as its key component to reward states and local authorities for improvement in groundwater management. The NGMIS will also look after the policy aspects of irrigation efficiency, crop diversification and artificial recharge in the areas which witnessed uncontrolled and unplanned groundwater extraction over the last 50 years.

The water resources ministry will coordinate implementation of the programme which includes clear targets for groundwater recharge, water use efficiency and aquifer protection by participating states.

• G4 countries: Brazil, India, Germany and Japan
• United Nations Security council has five permanent members who can exercise the power of veto to prevent the adoption of any “substantive” resolution.

• The primary object of an adjournment motion is to draw the attention of Lok Sabha to a recent matter of urgent public importance having serious consequences and in regard to which a motion or a resolution with proper notice will be too late.
• Adjournment motion is allowed only in Lok Sabha {or in state legislative assembly} and NOT in Rajya Sabha {or in state legislative council} because it has an element of censure against the government.
• Motion needs support of at least 50 members.

• The Bill amends the Enemy Property Act, 1968, to vest all rights, titles and interests over enemy property in the Custodian
• The Bill declares transfer of enemy property by the enemy, conducted under the Act, to be void. This applies retrospectively to transfers that have occurred before or after 1968.
• The Bill prohibits civil courts and other authorities from entertaining disputes related to enemy property.

Article 148:- Comptroller and Auditor General of India

(1) There shall be a Comptroller and Auditor General of India who shall be appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal and shall only be removed from office in like manner and on the like grounds as a Judge of the Supreme Court

(2) Every person appointed to be the Comptroller and Auditor General of India shall, before he enters upon his office, make and subscribe before the President, or some person appointed in that behalf by him, an oath or affirmation according to the form set out for the purpose in the Third Schedule

(3) The salary and other conditions of service of the Comptroller and Auditor General shall be such as may be determined by Parliament by law and, until they are so determined, shall be as specified in the Second Schedule: Provided that neither the salary of a Comptroller and Auditor General nor his rights in respect of leave of absence, pension or age of retirement shall be varied to his disadvantage after his appointment

(4) The Comptroller and Auditor General shall not be eligible for further office either under the Government of India or under the Government of any State after he has ceased to hold his office

(5) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution and of any law made by Parliament, the conditions of service of persons serving in the Indian Audit and Accounts Department and the administrative powers of the Comptroller and Auditor General shall be such as may be prescribed by rules made by the President after consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor General

(6) The Administrative expenses of the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, including all salaries, allowances and pensions payable to or in respect of pensions serving in that office, shall be charged upon the Consolidated Fund of India.

Warmer water temperatures can result in coral bleaching. When water is too warm, corals will expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. This is called coral bleaching. When a coral bleaches, it is not dead. Corals can survive a bleaching event, but they are under more stress and are subject to mortality.

Many of the world’s top coral reef scientists met at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Hawaii to discuss the challenges facing coral reefs. Sunscreen and other personal care product ingredients were hot topics. Of particular concern to scientists was oxybenzone, a chemical used in sunscreens to protect our skin from damaging UV light. Oxybenzone is bad news for corals, harming them by;

1. Increasing a coral’s susceptibility to bleaching
2. Damaging coral DNA which interferes with reproduction
3. Causing deformities and growth anomalies
4. Disrupting a coral’s hormonal processes for growth and reproduction

Border road Organisation: Ministry of Defence

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) develops and maintains road networks in India’s border areas and friendly neighbouring countries. It is staffed by officers and troops drawn from the Indian Army’s Corps of Engineers, Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Army Service Corps, Military Police and army personnel on extra regimental employment. Officers from the Border Roads Engineering Service and personnel from the General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF) form the parent cadre of the Border Roads Organisation.

Currently, the organisation maintains operations in twenty-one states, one UT (Andaman and Nicobar Islands), and neighbouring countries such as Afghanistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.

Maternity Benefits Bill

The Bill seeks to amend the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 to provide for the following:

1. Maternity leave available to the working women to be increased from 12 weeks to 26 weeks for the first two children.
2. Maternity leave for children beyond the first two will continue to be 12 weeks.

• Maternity leave of 12 weeks to be available to mothers adopting a child below the age of three months as well as to the “commissioning mothers”. The commissioning mother has been defined as biological mother who uses her egg to create an embryo planted in any other woman.
• Every establishment with more than 50 employees to provide for crèche facilities for working mothers and such mothers will be permitted to make four visits during working hours to look after and feed the child in the crèche.
• The employer may permit a woman to work from home if it is possible to do so. Every establishment will be required to make these benefits available to the women from the time of her appointment.

Narcotics Control Bureau

• The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) is the nodal drug law enforcement and intelligence agency of India responsible for fighting drug trafficking and the abuse of illegal substances. The Director General of NCB is an officer of the Indian Police Service (IPS) or the Indian Revenue Service(IRS).
• NCB is affiliated to Home Ministry, which was made responsible for administering The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.

The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Act, 2014

Relaxes restrictions placed by the Act on Essential Narcotic Drugs (Morphine, Fentanyl and Methadone), making them more accessible for use in pain relief and palliative care.

The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016 {focus on broad aspects}

1. Regulation of surrogacy: The Bill prohibits commercial surrogacy, but allows altruistic surrogacy.  Altruistic surrogacy involves no monetary compensation to the surrogate mother other than the medical expenses and insurance coverage during the pregnancy.  Commercial surrogacy includes surrogacy or its related procedures undertaken for a monetary benefit or reward (in cash or kind) exceeding the basic medical expenses and insurance coverage.
2. Purposes for which surrogacy is permitted: Surrogacy is permitted when it is, (i) for intending couples who suffer from proven infertility; and (ii) altruistic; and (iii) not for commercial purposes; and (iv) not for producing children for sale, prostitution or other forms of exploitation.
3. Eligibility criteria for intending couple: The intending couple should have a ‘certificate of essentiality’ and a ‘certificate of eligibility’ issued by the appropriate authority.
4. A certificate of essentiality will be issued upon fulfilment of the following conditions: (i) a certificate of proven infertility of one or both members of the intending couple from a District Medical Board; (ii) an order of parentage and custody of the surrogate child passed by a Magistrate’s court; and (iii) insurance coverage for the surrogate mother.
5. The certificate of eligibility is issued upon fulfilment of the following conditions by the intending couple: (i) Indian citizens and are married for at least five years; (ii) between 23 to 50 years old female and 26 to 55 years old male; (iii) they do not have any surviving child (biological, adopted or surrogate); this would not include a child who is mentally or physically challenged or suffers from life threatening disorder or fatal illness.
6. Eligibility criteria for surrogate mother: To obtain a certificate of eligibility from the appropriate authority, the surrogate mother has to: (i) be a close relative of the intending couple; (ii) be an ever married woman having a child of her own; (iii) be 25 to 35 years old; (iv) be a surrogate only once in her lifetime; and (iv) possess a certificate of medical and psychological fitness for surrogacy.
7. Appropriate authority: The central and state governments shall appoint one or more appropriate authorities within 90 days of the Bill becoming an Act.  The functions of the appropriate authority include; (i) granting, suspending or cancelling registration of surrogacy clinics; (ii) enforcing standards for surrogacy clinics; (iii) investigating and taking action against breach of the provisions of the Bill; (iv) recommending modifications to the rules and regulations.
8. Registration of surrogacy clinics: Surrogacy clinics cannot undertake surrogacy related procedures unless they are registered by the appropriate authority
9. National and State Surrogacy Boards: The central and the state governments shall constitute the National Surrogacy Board (NSB) and the State Surrogacy Boards (SSB), respectively.  Functions of the NSB include, (i) advising the central government on policy matters relating to surrogacy; (ii) laying down the code of conduct of surrogacy clinics; and (iii) supervising the functioning of SSBs.
10. Offences and penalties: The Bill states the following offences: (i) undertaking or advertising commercial surrogacy; (ii) exploiting the surrogate mother; (iii) abandoning, exploiting or disowning a surrogate child; and (iv) selling or importing human embryo or gametes for surrogacy.  These offences will attract a minimum penalty of 10 years and a fine up to 10 lakh rupees.

The people of Burzahom buried domesticated dogs with their masters in the graves.

India today successfully test-fired the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile

• The missile is capable of carrying a warhead of 300 kg
• The two-stage missile, one being solid and the second one ramjet liquid propellant, has already been inducted into the Army and Navy, while the Air Force version is in final stage of trial.

Facts and advantages of the project

• Trucks won’t be battery operated but powered by electricity from overhead cables on a dedicated lane.
• Project for running electric trucks are aimed at halving the cost of transportation.
• This will help reduce both pollution and import dependency for fuels, given India’s energy import bill of around $150 billion—expected to reach $300 billion by 2030.
• This step would also reduce the logistic costs as electricity all kind are available for the need now.
• Finally this project would also help in competing Chinese products.

Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana

• It is an amnesty scheme launched in December 2016 on the lines of the Income declaration scheme, 2016 (IDS) launched earlier in the year.
• A part of the Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Act, 2016, the scheme provides an opportunity to declare unaccounted wealth and black money in a confidential manner and avoid prosecution after paying a fine of 50% on the undisclosed income.
• An additional 25% of the undisclosed income is invested in the scheme which can be refunded after four years

Salient features of Scheme

• Declaration under it can be made by any person in respect of undisclosed income in the form of cash or deposits in an account with bank or post office or specified entity.
• Declarant of undisclosed income needs to pay 30% tax, 10% penalty and 33% Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Cess on the tax, all of which add up to around 50%.
• Besides, declarant must make mandatory deposit of 25% of undisclosed income in the zero-interest Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Deposit Scheme, 2016 with lock-in period of 4 years. The income declared under it will not be included in the total income of the declarant under the Income-tax (IT) Act for any assessment year.
• Besides, declarations made under it will be kept confidential and shall not be admissible as evidence under any Act (ex. Wealth-tax Act, Central Excise Act, Companies Act etc.). However, declarant will have no immunity under Criminal Acts under prevention of Money laundering act, Narcotics Act or for holding benami property and smuggling offences of the Scheme.

Non declaration of undisclosed cash or deposit in accounts under this Scheme will render tax, surcharge and cess totalling to 77.25% of such income, if declared in the return of income. In case the same is not shown in the return of income a further penalty @10% of tax shall also be levied followed by prosecution.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is an autonomous agency of the Government of India, responsible for management of a network of over 70,000 km of National Highways in India.It is a nodal agency of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. NHAI has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Space Research Organisation for satellite mapping of highways

The NHAI was created through the promulgation of the National Highways Authority of India Act, 1988. In February 1995, the Authority was formally made an autonomous body. It is responsible for the development, maintenance and management of National Highways, totaling over 92,851.05 km (57,694.97 mi) in length. 

No monetary authority in the world backs crypto-currency and most are trying to find ways to regulate the market.RBI does not recognize bitcoin or any crypto-currency as a legitimate form of currency and hence do not regulate.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released a white paper on crypto-currencies and blockchain to understand them better.The government does not have any formal guidelines governing the crypto-currency trade happening in India. In February, the central bank put out a cautionary note warning the public of the same and said anyone indulging in purchase or trade of crypto-currencies shall be doing so at their own risk.

Article 61:- Procedure for impeachment of the President

(1) When a President is to be impeached for violation of the Constitution, the charge shall be preferred by either House of Parliament

(2) No such charge shall be preferred unless

        (a) the proposal to prefer such charge is contained in a resolution which has been moved after at least fourteen days notice in writing signed by not less than one fourth of the total number of members of the House has been given of their intention to move the resolution, and
         (b) Such resolution has been passed by a majority of not less than two thirds of the total membership of the House

(3) When a charge has been so preferred by either House of Parliament, the other House shall investigate the charge or cause the charge to be investigated and the President shall have the right to appear and to be represented as such investigation

(4) If as a result of the investigation a resolution is passed by a majority of not less than two thirds of the total membership of the House by which the charge was investigated or cause to be investigated, declaring that the charge preferred against the President has been sustained, such resolution shall have the effect of removing the President from his office as from the date on which the resolution is so passed

Explanation:

The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) forms the core of the legal framework put in place by India to combat money laundering. It came into force in 2005.

Objectives

The PMLA seeks to combat money laundering in India and has three main objectives:

1. To prevent and control money laundering
2. To confiscate and seize the property obtained from the laundered money; and
3. To deal with any other issue connected with money laundering in India

PMLA defines money laundering offence and provides for the freezing, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds of crime.

Salient Features:

• RBI, SEBI and IRDA have been brought under the PMLA, and therefore the provisions of this act are applicable to all financial institutions, banks, mutual funds, insurance companies, and their financial intermediaries.
• The agency monitoring the anti-Money laundering activities in India is the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-IND). This unit is responsible for receiving, processing, analysing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions. FIU-IND is also responsible for coordinating and strengthening efforts of national and international intelligence, investigation and enforcement agencies in pursuing the global efforts against money laundering and related crimes.
• FIU-IND is an independent body reporting directly to the Economic Intelligence Council (EIC) headed by the Finance Minister.
• Punishment for offence of money laundering: There can be punishment of imprisonment upto 3-7 years with fine upto 5 lakh rupees. But in case of offences done under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act 1985, maximum punishment is extent to 10 years rather than 7 years.

Obligation of banking companies, financial Institutions and Intermediaries: Banking companies have to follow the procedure of KYC Norms (Know your customer) .Maintain records for Nature and value of the transaction to be transacted. Whether such transaction was singly transacted or series of transaction taken place in a month. Maintain record for a period of 10 years from the date of cessation of transaction between the clients and the banking company or financial institution or intermediary as the case may be. Furnish information of above transaction to director within the prescribed time. Verify and maintain the records of identity of all clients in respect of such transactions to Director within the prescribed time.

• A green building is one which uses less water, optimizes energy efficiency, conserves natural resources, generates less waste and provides healthier spaces for occupants, as compared to a conventional building. IGBC is leading green building movement in the country.
• The Indian Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) launched the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC).
• The code is set for energy efficiency standards for design and construction with any building of minimum conditioned area of 1000 Sq mts and a connected demand of power of 500 KW or 600 KVA.
• The energy performance index of the code is set from 90 kW·h/sqm/year to 200 kW·h/sqm/year where any buildings that fall under the index can be termed as “ECBC Compliant Building”

World’s first fluorescent frog found in Argentina – polka dot tree frog.

Under normal light- Sports a muted palette of greens, yellows and reds, in the dark gives off a bright blue and green glow.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization which regulates international trade. The WTO officially commenced on January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948. The WTO deals with regulation of trade between participating countries by providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants’ adherence to WTO agreements, which are signed by representatives of member governments and ratified by their parliaments. Most of the issues that the WTO focuses on derive from previous trade negotiations, especially from the Uruguay Round (1986–1994).

National Green Tribunal

• Statutory body established by Government under the aegis of the NGT Act 2010.
• It draws inspiration from the India’s constitutional provision of Article 21, which assures the citizens of India the right to a healthy environment.
• It replaced the National Environment Appellate Authority.

Objectives:

1. To provide effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources including enforcement of any legal right relating to environment.
2. Giving relief and compensation for damages to persons and property Other Related Matters.

• Kisan Suvidha app for farmers to provide agricultural relevant basic information by government of India
• App connects directly to Kisan call center for agricultural information.

• International Conference on VISION ZERO.
• It is relevant to Occupational Safety and Health.

A Non-performing asset (NPA) is defined as a credit facility in respect of which the interest and/or installment of principal has remained ‘past due’ for a specified period of time.

Afghanistan is an observer in SCO