Current Affair 1:

How light pollution affects plants?

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Light pollution is an unwanted consequence of outdoor lighting and usually occurs due to excessive and inappropriate artificial light. There are five overlapping components of light pollution: Urban sky glow, light trespass, glare, uplight and clutter.

Urban sky glow refers to the brightening of the night sky over urban inhabited areas. The falling of light in an area where it is not intended or needed is called light trespass. Glare is the excessive brightness of light, causing visual discomfort and disability. An uplight is directed toward the open sky, causing a very strong, localised form of light pollution. Clutter refers to an excessive grouping of lights, commonly found in over-lit areas.

Poor placement of signage and streetlights, excessive and inappropriate use of light, high population density and a higher road density and traffic density contribute significantly to light pollution.

Impact of light pollution on plants.

Light pollution interferes with living organisms’ biological activities, rather the timing of it. Living beings depend on the Earth’s daily cycle of light and dark that governs behaviours such as reproduction, sleep and migration. Artificial light at night has negative effects on these behaviours.

1. Plants are affected by three characteristics of light: Quantity, quality and duration. Quantity of light refers to the total concentration or intensity of the light.
2. Light quality indicates the wavelength of the light and duration refers to the total period for which light is present. Light pollution has the potential to alter one or more of these characteristics.
3. Light pollution affects plants by interfering with photoperiodism. Based on their sensitivity to light, plants are classified as long-day plants, short-day plants and day-neutral plants. The presence of artificial light, beyond natural light hours, can disturb the photoperiods of these plants.
4. Many plant species (such as night-blooming cacti, for example, Queen of the Night Epiphyllum Oxypetalum) bloom only at night and depend on nocturnal pollinators for pollination. Increasing lighting can prevent flowering and pollination in such plants and hamper reproduction.

 

Current Affair 2:

What is the procedure to arrest a cabinet minister in India?

 

Narayan Rane, a member of the Rajya Sabha and the Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, has become only the third Union minister to be arrested in the country.

Procedure:

According to the rules set out in Rules of Procedures and Conduct of Business of the Rajya Sabha, there is nothing to prevent the arrest of a Rajya Sabha member whether they are a union minister or not.

While the Parliament is not in session, law enforcement agencies are not restricted from arresting members of the Upper House of the Parliament.

However, according to Section 22 (A) of the above-mentioned rules, the police, or presiding judge or magistrate must convey to the chairman of the Rajya Sabha certain details regarding the arrest. These details include the reason for the arrest, the time of the arrest, the location of the arrest and the place of detention in an appropriate form and timely manner.

The chairman will then inform the council if the House is in session. If the House is not in session, then the chairman is compelled to publish the information regarding the arrest in a bulletin or gazette for the information of the other members of the House.

Currently, the Parliament is not in session. The last date of its session was August 19, which is less than a week earlier.

Arrests cannot be made on the floors or premises of either House of the Parliament unless express permission from the presiding authority of the House — the speaker of Lok Sabha or the chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Immunity from arrest?

Members of both the houses of the Parliament enjoy some immunity from arrests in certain cases. Under Section 135 of the Civil Procedural Code, members of Parliament have protection from being arrested up to 40 days before, 40 days after, and during the period when the Parliament is in session. With three parliamentary sessions being around 70 days each, the immunity against arrest extends to nearly 300 days in a single year.

However, the protection only extends to civil cases. In matters of criminal nature or arrests on preventive grounds, there is no protection afforded to any member of the Rajya Sabha or Lok Sabha.

The only protection from arrests afforded to a governmental figure through the Constitution is the President of the Republic, who is immune from civil and criminal proceedings until their term is over. In the eyes of the law, every Indian citizen is an ordinary man, at least in theory.

In India, even the Prime Minister can be arrested if a criminal matter is registered against them as there are no rules to prevent such an action.

 

Current Affair 3:

What is India’s trade with Afghanistan like?

 

Four graphs to explain you the trade relation between India and Afghanistan.

 

 

 

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