22 FEBRAURY 2023

Topic 1: Sansad Ratna award

Context: Eight Lok Sabha members and five Rajya Sabha members have been nominated for the Sansad Ratna Awards, based on performance in questions, private members’ Bills and participation in debate.

About the award:

• Sansad Ratna Award (“Gem of Parliament”) is a private award established in 2010 by the Prime Point Foundation and e-magazine PreSense.
• Its aim is to honour top performing Members of the Indian Parliament.
• It was formed on the suggestions given by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Former President of India.

Sansad Ratna Award
Best Parliamentarian Award
Awarded for	Top performing Indian Lok Sabha Members
Sponsored by	Prime Point Foundation and PreSense
First awarded	2010

• It is not related to the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award given by the Indian Parliamentary Group.
  • The Outstanding Parliamentarian Award is an award given by the Indian Parliamentary Group to an outstanding sitting Member of the Indian Parliament for overall contribution in the Indian Parliament.
  • It was instituted in 1995 by Shivraj Patil, who was the Speaker of Lok Sabha.
• Sansad Ratna Awards are given on behalf of civil society through a transparent selection process by a Jury committee of eminent Parliamentarians, based on the data on various performance parameters.

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Topic 2: New START agreement

Context: Russian President announced that Russia is suspending its participation in the New START, the last remaining major military agreement with the United States.

About New START

• START I:
  • START stands for the original “Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty”, known as START-I, which was signed between the US and the erstwhile USSR in 1991, and came into force in 1994.
  • START-I capped the numbers of nuclear warheads and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that each side could deploy at 6,000 and 1,600 respectively.
  • This agreement lapsed in 2009, and was replaced first by the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT, also known as the Treaty of Moscow), and then by the New START treaty.
• The New START:
  • The New START, officially, the “Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms”, entered into force on February 5, 2011.
  • It placed new verifiable limits on intercontinental-range nuclear weapons.
  • The US and Russia Federation subsequently agreed to extend the treaty through February 4, 2026.
• How is compliance with the treaty ensured?
• The treaty provides for 18 on-site inspections per year for US and Russian inspection teams.

Intercontinental ballistic missileAn intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than 5,500 kilometres.It is primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery.The only known countries to have operational ICBMs are:RussiaThe United StatesChinaFranceIndiathe United KingdomIsraelNorth KoreaIndia’s ICBM:Agni-V is an Indian nuclear capable intercontinental ballistic missile developed by the Defence Research and Development Organization.The missile have a range of around 5,000 to 5,500 kilometers.

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Topic 3: Whale stranding

Context: Many pilot whales were stranded near the shore of Kalpitiya, a town located on Sri Lanka’s west coast. 

What is whale stranding?

• Whale stranding is a phenomenon in which whales are stuck on land, usually on a beach.
• Reasons for mass stranding:
  •  topography of the region,
  • illness,
  • human activities
  • increasing noise pollution in the oceans.
• Human activities as a cause
  • Noise pollution:
    • Noise pollution in the oceans impacts whales’ and other marine animals’ ability to use sound to navigate, find food and protect themselves.
    • This can drive them ashore by deafening, disorienting, or frightening them.
  • Changes in predator distribution:
    • Rising temperatures of the oceans cause changes in prey and predator distribution, resulting in whales coming closer to shore.
    • Changes in prey movements due to environmental changes like sea temperature and currents may play a role in where whale and dolphin food is located.

Pilot whales:

• Pilot whales are cetaceans belonging to the genus Globicephala.
• Two species:
  • The long-finned pilot whale
  • The short-finned pilot whale
• The long-finned pilot whales live in colder waters and short-finned pilot whales live in tropical and subtropical waters.
• Pilot whales are among the largest of the oceanic dolphins, exceeded in size only by the orca.
• IUCN status: Least concern.

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Topic 4: Suposhit Maa initiative

Context: The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has praised the initiative of ‘Suposhit Maa’ launched by the current Lok Sabha speaker.

Key details:

• The Lok Sabha speaker launched Suposhit Maa Abhiyan in Ramganjmandi area of Kota, Rajasthan.
• The goal of this initiative to keep every mother and child healthy.
• Suposhit Maa Abhiyan was launched to preserve the health of future generations.
• The pregnant women have to registered, following which they will be ‘adopted’.
• More than 1000 women are to be given food for 1 month.
• It is applicable only to one pregnant woman per family.
• Each of the 1,000 women will be given a kit of 17kg balanced diet.

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Topic 5: Vostro accounts

Context: 20 Russian banks have opened Special Rupee Vostro Accounts (SRVA) with partner banks in India.

Key details:

• What is a vostro account?
  • A Vostro account is an account that a domestic bank holds on the behalf of a foreign bank in the former’s domestic currency, in this case, the rupee.
  • In a Vostro account, a local currency account can be managed and held by a domestic bank on behalf of a foreign correspondent bank.
• The SRVA arrangement:
  • The SRVA is an additional arrangement to the existing system that uses freely convertible currencies and works as a complimentary system.
    • Freely convertible currencies refer to currencies permitted by rules and regulations of the concerned country to be converted to major reserve currencies (like U.S. dollar or pound sterling) and for which a fairly active market exists for dealings against major currencies.
    • The existing systems thus require maintaining balances and position in such currencies.

• Who can have such accounts?
  • Vostro accounts are not restricted to banks, they can be used by other entities such as insurance companies and business entities to keep funds with another entity.
• What facilities are provided?
  • When Vostro accounts are used by corresponding banks, the domestic bank can execute transfers, deposits, and withdrawals on behalf of the corresponding bank.
• How does it function?
  • The framework entails threeimportant components, namely, invoicing, exchangerate and settlement.
    • Invoicing entails that all exports and imports must be denominated and invoiced in INR.
    • The exchange rate between the currencies of the trading partner countries would be market-determined.
    • The final settlement also takes place in Indian National Rupee (INR).
  • Domestic importers are required to make payment in INR into the SRVA account of the correspondent bank against the invoices.
  • Domestic exporters are to be paid the export proceeds in INR from the balances in the designated account of the correspondent bank of the partner country.
• Legal framework:
  • All reporting of cross-border transactions are to be done in accordance with the extant guidelines under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999.
• Eligibility criteria of banks
  • Banks from partner countries are required to approach an authorised domestic dealer bank for opening the SRVA.
  • The domestic bank would then seek approval from the apex banking regulator providing details of the arrangement.
  • Domestic banks should ensure that the correspondent bank is not from a country mentioned in the updated Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Public Statement on High Risk & Non-Co-operative jurisdictions.
  • Authorised banks can open multiple SRV accounts for different banks from the same country.
  • Balances in the account can be repatriated in freely convertible currency and/or currency of the beneficiary partner country depending on the underlying transaction, that is, for which the account was credited.
• Significance:
  • It helps domestic banks gain wider access to foreign financial markets and serve international clients without having to be physically present abroad.
  • The framework could largely reduce the net demand for foreign exchange, the U.S. dollar in particular, for the settlement of current account related trade flows.
  • The framework would also reduce the need for holding foreign exchange reserves and dependence on foreign currencies, making the country less vulnerable to external shocks.
  • In the long-term it can promote INR as an international currency once the rupee settlement mechanism gains traction.
    • As per the Bureau for International (BIS) Settlements’ Triennial Central Bank Survey 2022, the U.S. dollar was the most dominant vehicle currency accounting for 88% of all trades.
    • The INR accounted for 1.6%.

Vostro, Nostro and Loro Accounts

• Vostro accounts are maintained in the domestic currency.
• Nostro accounts are maintained in foreign currency.
• A Loro account is a current account that is maintained by one domestic bank for another domestic bank in the form of a third party account, unlike nostro and vostro which is bilateral correspondence.

The Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA)It is a civil law dealing with foreign exchange market in India.Under it the Central Government can regulate the flow of payments to and from a person situated outside the country.Financial transactions concerning foreign securities or exchange cannot be carried out without the approval of FEMA.The Act empowers RBI to place restrictions on transactions from capital Account even if it is carried out via an authorized individual.

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Topic 6: El Niño and La Nina

Context: India is experiencing a colder than normal winter due to the north-south winter flow set up by the climate phenomenon known as La Niña. There is a 50% possibility for its companion phenomenon, the El Niño to occur.

Key details:

• El Niño
  • El Niño refers to a band of warm water spreading from west to east in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
  • The years in which an El Niño occur are called ‘El Niño years’, and global weather patterns in that year tend to be anomalous in certain ways.
  • During El Niño, surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific rise, and trade winds — east-west winds that blow near the Equator — weaken.
  • Normally, easterly trade winds blow from the Americas towards Asia.
  • Due to El Niño, they falter and change direction to turn into westerlies, bringing warm water from the western Pacific towards the Americas.
  • Impact of El-Nino:
• Disruption of marine species:
  • The phenomena of upwelling, where nutrient-rich waters rise towards the surface, is reduced under El Niño.
  • This in turn reduces phytoplankton.
  • Thus, fish that eat phytoplankton are affected, followed by other organisms higher up the food chain.
  • Warm waters also carry tropical species towards colder areas, disrupting multiple ecosystems.
• Disruption in weather patterns:

• Since the Pacific covers almost one-third of the earth, changes in its temperature and subsequent alteration of wind patterns disrupt global weather patterns.
• El Niño causes dry, warm winter in Northern U.S. and Canada and increases the risk of flooding in the U.S. gulf coast and southeastern U.S.
• It also brings drought to Indonesia and Australia.

• La Nina:
  • A La Niña occurs when the band of water spreads east-west and is cooler.
  • La Niña sees cooler than average sea surface temperature (SST) in the equatorial Pacific region.
  • Trade winds are stronger than usual, pushing warmer water towards Asia.
  • Two successive La Niña events in the last two years caused intense flooding in Australia.

Transition between the two phenomena and its impact

• Both phenomena can have drastic effects on economies that depend on rainfall.
• El Niño forecasts before spring tend to be notoriously unreliable because the climate system is quite noisy in spring creating noise in predictions:
  • For eg. the Sun transitions across the equator, from one hemisphere to the other.
• Earth has had three straight La Niña years, which means the Pacific’s warm-water volume is fully loaded and likely to birth an El Niño soon.
• An El Niño year creates a miniature global-warming crisis, since the warm water spreading across the tropical Pacific releases a large amount of heat into the atmosphere.
• A transition from a La Niña winter to an El Niño summer historically tends to produce a large monsoon deficit, on the order of 15%.
• Pre-monsoon and monsoon circulations tend to be weaker in an El Niño year.
• The vertical shear (change in the intensity of winds from the surface to the upper atmosphere) tends to be weaker as well.
• This in turn can favour enhanced cyclone formation.
• Effect on India’s monsoons
• In India, El Niño causes weak rainfall and more heat, while La Niña intensifies rainfall across South Asia, particularly in India’s northwest and Bangladesh during the monsoon.

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Topic 7: AstroSat

Context: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has made an announcement of opportunity (AO) to allow scientists and researchers to analyse data from the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission, AstroSat.

About AstroSat:

• Astrosat is India’s first dedicated multi-wavelength space telescope.
• Aim:
  • studying celestial sources in X-ray, optical and UV spectral bands simultaneously.
  • To understand high energy processes in binary star systems containing neutron stars and black holes;
  • Estimate magnetic fields of neutron stars;
  • Study star birth regions and high energy processes in star systems lying beyond our galaxy;
  • Detect new briefly bright X-ray sources in the sky;
  • Perform a limited deep field survey of the Universe in the Ultraviolet region.
• The ASTROSAT carries the following five payloads:
  • The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) – capable of observing the sky in the Visible, Near Ultraviolet and Far Ultraviolet regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
  • Large Area X-ray Proportional Counter (LAXPC), – designed for study the variations in the emission of X-rays from sources like X-ray binaries, Active Galactic Nuclei and other cosmic sources.
  • Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) – designed for studying the X-ray spectrum range coming from distant celestial bodies varies with time.
  • Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI) – extends the capability of the satellite to sense X-rays of high energy.
  • Scanning Sky Monitor (SSM) – intended to scan the sky for long term monitoring of bright X-ray sources in binary stars.

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Topic 8: A corrupt act under the RPA, 1951

Context: The Supreme Court observed that providing false information about an electoral candidate’s qualifications cannot be considered a “corrupt practice” under Sections 123 (2) and Section 123 (4) of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951.

Corrupt practices under the RPA, 1951

• Section 123 of the Act defines ‘corrupt practices’ to include:
  • bribery
  • undue influence:
    • any direct or indirect interference or attempt to interfere with the free exercise of any electoral right.
  • false information
  • promotion or attempted promotion of feelings of enmity or hatred between different classes of the citizens of India on grounds of religion, race, caste, community, or language
• An elected representative can be disqualified if:
  • convicted of certain offenses;
  • on grounds of corrupt practices;
  • for failing to declare election expenses;
  • for interests in government contracts or works.

Representation of People Act, 1950 And Representation of People Act, 1951.

Representation of People Act, 1950	Representation of People Act, 1951
The Act makes provisions relating to the allocation of seats in the House of the People, the State Legislative Assemblies and the State Legislative Councils.	The Act makes provisions relating to qualifications and disqualifications for membership of Parliament and State Legislatures.
The Act makes provisions relating to delimitation of Parliamentary, Assembly and Council Constituencies.	The Act makes provisions relating to notification of general elections.
The Act makes provisions relating to election officers like chief electoral officers, district election officers, electoral registration officers and so on.	The Act makes provision relating to administrative machinery for the conduct of elections.
The Act makes provisions relating to electoral rolls for Parliamentary, Assembly and Council constituencies.	The Act makes provisions relating to registration of political parties.
The Act makes provisions relating to manner of filling seats in the Council of States to be filled by representatives of union territories.	The Act makes provisions relating to conduct of elections.
The Act makes provisions relating to local authorities for purposes of elections to the State Legislative Councils.	The Act makes provisions relating to disputes regarding elections.
The Act makes provisions relating to barring the jurisdiction of civil courts.	The Act makes provisions relating to bye-elections and time limit for filling vacancies.

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Topic 9: Feed Back Unit

Context: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has given the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) its nod to prosecute Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi in a prevention of corruption case related to a ‘Feed Back Unit’ (FBU) created in 2015.

About the Feed Back Unit

• Established:
  • It was setup in 2015.
• Aim:
  • Gatheringrelevant information and actionable feedback regarding the working of
    • government departments, autonomous bodies, institutions and entities under the jurisdiction of the Delhi government.
  • Its mandate also included conducting sting operations, or trap cases.
• Organizational set-up:
  • It is under the charge of the Secretary of the Delhi government’s vigilance department.
  • The FBU is supposed to have been under the direct control of the Chief Minister’s Office through individuals appointed as advisors to the Chief Minister.
• The Secret Service Fund

• A ‘Secret Service Fund’ was kept in a chest that could only be opened by turning two keys simultaneously.
• Disbursals from this fund were supposed to be made only after the approval of ‘an advisor’ attached to Chief Minister’s office.
  • This was in addition to requiring the concurrence of a Deputy Director in charge of finance and administration of the FBU.

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Topic 10: Child Marriage in India

Context: Activists working on ground suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic combined with poverty may have worsened the phenomenon of child marriage in India. 

Meaning of child marriage:

• Child marriage can be described as a formal marriage or an informal union entered into by an individual before attaining the prescribed eligible age.
• The legally prescribed marriageable age in some jurisdictions is below 18 years, including India.

Prevalence of Child marriage in India:

• Child marriage prevalence is generally defined as the percentage of women 20-24 years old who were married or in union before age 18.
• India is estimated to have over 24 million child brides.
• 40% of the world’s 60 million child marriages take place in India according to the National Family Health Survey.
• India has the 14th highest rate of child marriage in the world, according to the International Center for Research on Women.
• Eight States have a higher prevalence of child marriage than the national average —
  • West Bengal, Bihar and Tripura top the list with more than 40% of women aged 20-24 years married below 18, according to NFHS data.
• States with a large population of tribal poor have a higher prevalence of child marriage.
• States with high literacy levels and better health and social indices have fared much better on this score.
  • In Kerala, women who got married before the age of 18 stood at 6.3% in 2019-20, from 7.6% in 2015-16.
  • Tamil Nadu too has shown improved figures with 12.8% of women in the age group 20-24 years getting married before 18 compared to 16.3% in 2015-16.

Factors leading to child marriage:

• Poverty
• Low level of education of girls
• Lower status given to the girls and considering them as financial burden
• Social customs and traditions
• Insecurity
• Political and financial reasons
• Patriarchy and gender inequalities
• Inadequate implementation of the law

Consequences:

• It violates children’s rights
• Results in more infant and maternal deaths
• Children born to adolescent mothers have a greater possibility of seeing stunted growth as they have low weight at birth.
  • According to NFHS-5, prevalence of child stunting is 35.5% in 2019-21.

Laws and policy interventions against child marriage in India:

• Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929
  • The first law was the ‘Child Marriage Restraint Act’ of 1929.
  • According to the law, if a marriage occurs between a boy who is aged between 18-21 years and a girl below the age of 18 years, it implies an imprisonment up to 15 days along with a fine of one thousand rupees.
  • The act was again amended in the year 1940 to raise the ages of male and female children.
• Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006
  • Under this law, the children have the choice to declare their marriage as worthless up to two years of reaching adulthood.
  • This law does not stick out to the Muslim community.
• Besides centralised schemes like the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, States have launched many initiatives to improve the factors linked to child marriage, from education to health care and awareness programmes.
  • For instance, West Bengal’s Kanyashree scheme offers financial aid to girls wanting to pursue higher studies. B
  • Bihar and other States have been implementing a cycle scheme to ensure girls reach safely to school;
  • U.P. has a scheme to encourage girls to go back to school.

Way forward

• The solution lies in empowering girls, creating proper public infrastructure and addressing societal norms.
• It should be ensured that Child Protection Committees and Child Marriage Prohibition officers are doing the job and community support groups should be activated.
• Such efforts can lead to Child Marriage Free Villages like in Odisha which now has over 12,000 such villages.
• Local gram panchayat members should be oriented to spread awareness on child marriage, not only that it is illegal to get a child married off before 18, but also the dangers to the child’s health and her offspring.
• There has been a rise in child marriages during the pandemic, but many have been prevented as well.