Current Affair 1:

Infringement of Right to Life of rape victim outweighs Right to Life of a child in the womb.

 

The Telangana high court permitted a minor rape victim to terminate her 26-week-old pregnancy and observed that the life of the foetus (or unborn-born child) cannot be placed on a higher pedestal than that of the life of the mother.

The high court was hearing a petition moved by a 16-year-old minor victim (through her parents) seeking permission for medical termination of pregnancy as per the provisions of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971 (MTP Act), as amended in 2021. The 2021 amendment extended the upper limit for medical termination of pregnancy to 24 weeks, from the present stipulation of 20 weeks, for certain categories of women.

The petitioner’s counsel argued that a woman’s right to make a reproductive choice is a facet of personal liberty as enshrined under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.

The high court noted that if the minor victim is not allowed an abortion then there exists every possibility of her undergoing severe physical and mental stress, which may have an adverse effect on her future health and prospects.

In conclusion, the high court held that although there exists restriction under the MTP (Amendment) Act 2021 for terminating pregnancy older than 24 weeks, it is settled law that the Constitutional Courts are empowered to direct termination of pregnancy even if the foetus is more than 24 weeks old.

The high court directed the concerned hospital to take all appropriate precautions and medically terminate the pregnancy of the minor victim.

Current Affair 2:

India’s Sundarbans among 5 sites with highest ‘blue carbon’ globally

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India’s Sundarbans National Park is among five sites that have the highest blue carbon stocks globally, according to a new assessment of greenhouse gas volumes emitted from and absorbed by forests in UNESCO World Heritage sites.

1. Researchers at UNESCO, the World Resources Institute and the International Union for Conservation of Nature estimated the gross and net carbon absorbed and emitted by UNESCO World Heritage forests between 2001 and 2020.
2. They did this by combining satellite-derived data with monitoring information at the site level, according to a statement by the organisation. They found that UNESCO World Heritage forests in 257 sites absorbed approximately 190 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere each year.
3. The total carbon stored till now by these forests is approximately 13 billion tonnes of carbon. If all this stored carbon were to be released into the atmosphere as CO2, it would be akin to emitting 1.3 times the world’s total annual CO2 emissions from fossil fuels.
4. The study described blue carbon as organic carbon that is mainly obtained from decaying plant leaves, wood, roots and animals. It is captured and stored by coastal and marine ecosystems.
5. The other four sites besides the Sundarbans National Park in India are the Bangladeshi portion of the Sundarbans (110 Mt C), Great Barrier Reef in Australia (502 Mt C), Everglades National Park in the United States (400 Mt C) and the Banc d’Arguin National Park in Mauritania (110 Mt C).

Current Affair 3:

National Food Security Act, 2013

 

Don’t read just two three headings of any important Act. Questions are asked now from deep inside topics. Go through all provisions.

The National Food Security Act, 2013 was notified on 10th September, 2013 with the objective to provide for food and nutritional security in human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity.

1. Priority households are entitled to 5 kgs of food grains per person per month, and Antyodaya households to 35 kgs per household per month. The combined coverage of Priority and Antyodaya households (called “eligible households”) shall extend “up to 75% of the rural population and up to 50% of the urban population”.

2. For children in the age group of 6 months to 6 years, the Bill guarantees an age-appropriate meal, free of charge, through the local anganwadi. For children aged 6-14 years, one free mid-day meal shall be provided every day (except on school holidays) in all schools run by local bodies, government and government aided schools, up to Class VIII. For children below six months, “exclusive breastfeeding shall be promoted”.

3. Every pregnant and lactating mother is entitled to a free meal at the local anganwadi (during pregnancy and six months after childbirth) as well as maternity benefits of Rs 6,000, in instalments.

4.The Central Government is to determine the state-wise coverage of the PDS, in terms of proportion of the rural/urban population. Then numbers of eligible persons will be calculated from Census population figures.

5. The identification of eligible households is left to state governments, subject to the scheme’s guidelines for Antyodaya, and subject to guidelines to be “specified” by the state government for Priority households.

6. The Act provides for the creation of State Food Commissions. Each Commission shall consist of a chairperson, five other members and a member-secretary (including at least two women and one member each from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes).

The main function of the State Commission is to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the act, give advice to the states governments and their agencies, and inquire into violations of entitlements (either suo motu or on receipt of a complaint, and with “all the powers of a civil court while trying a suit under the Code of Civil Procedure 1908”). State Commissions also have to hear appeals against orders of the District Grievance Redressal Officer and prepare annual reports to be laid before the state legislature.

7. The Centre should provide all possible resource and funds to prevent scarcity.

8. Obligation of Local Authorities:

9. Food security to people living in hilly areas:

Current Affair 4:

CERT-In authorized as CVE Numbering Authority

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In the direction to strengthen trust in “Make in India” as well as to nurture responsible vulnerability research in the country, CERT-In has partnered with the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) Program.

In this regard, Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has been authorized by the CVE Program, as a CVE Numbering Authority (CNA) for vulnerabilities impacting all products designed, developed and manufactured in India.

CVE is an international, community-based effort and relies on the community to discover vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities are discovered then assigned and published to the CVE List.  Information technology and cybersecurity professionals use CVE Records to ensure they are discussing the same issue, and to coordinate their efforts to prioritize and address the vulnerabilities.

The mission of the CVE Program is to identify, define, and catalog publicly disclosed cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

CNAs are organizations responsible for the regular assignment of CVE IDs to vulnerabilities, and for creating and publishing information about the Vulnerability in the associated CVE Record.

The CVE List is built by CVE Numbering Authorities (CNAs).

The CVE Records published in the catalog enable program stakeholders to rapidly discover and correlate vulnerability information used to protect systems against attacks. Each CNA has a specific Scope of responsibility for vulnerability identification and publishing.

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