IASbaba Press Information Bureau 19^th June to 25^th June 2017

ARCHIVES

GS-2

Energy Conservation Building Code 2017

(Topics: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.)

What: Developed by Ministry of Power and Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) along with technical support from United States Agency for International Development (USAID), ECBC 2017 prescribes the energy performance standards for new commercial buildings to be constructed across India.

• The updated version of ECBC provides current as well as futuristic advancements in building technology to further reduce building energy consumption and promote low-carbon growth.
• The code aims to optimise energy savings with the comfort levels for occupants, and prefers life-cycle cost effectiveness to achieve energy neutrality in commercial buildings.
• With the adoption of ECBC 2017 for new commercial building construction throughout the country, it is estimated to achieve a 50% reduction in energy use by 2030.

United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC)

(Topic: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests)

Background

• The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) is a multilateral treaty negotiated by member states of the United Nations (UN)
• It is promoted by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
• It is one of several legally binding international anti-corruption agreements. UNCAC requires state parties to the treaty to implement several anti-corruption measures that focus on five main areas
  1. Prevention
  2. law enforcement
  3. international cooperation
  4. asset recovery
  5. technical assistance and information exchange

India has a robust and time tested institutional and legislative framework including

• Prevention of Corruption Act
• An independent Central Vigilance Commission
• Central Information Commission
• Comptroller and Auditor General
• The Judges (Inquiry) Act
• A spate of legislations including The Lokpal & Lokayukta Act, 2013
• Whistle Blowers Protection Act 2011
• Prevention of Money Laundering Act
• Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act

At the Eighth Session of the Implementation Review Group of the UNCAC, India stated its commitment to tackle corruption and adopt a ‘zero tolerance’ approach as well as minimum Government and maximum Governance.

UNCAC’s goal is to reduce various types of corruption that can occur across country borders, such as trading in influence and abuse of power, as well as corruption in the private sector, such as embezzlement and money laundering.

POCSO e-box

(Topics: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.)

What:  Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO), e-Box, is an online complaint management system for easy and direct reporting of sexual offences against children and timely action against the offenders under the POCSO Act, 2012.

E-Box will help to maintain the confidentiality of the complaint. It is incorporated at the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) website.

Child and sexual abuse

• According to a study, about 53% of children surveyed, reported having faced one or the other form of sexual abuse in their lifetime.
• In most cases, the offender is a family member/near relative or an acquaintance.
• The child victim in such cases generally does not report these offences.
• Result: The child faces serious consequences such as cognitive impairment, violent and risk behaviour including depression and anxiety, feeling shame and guilt with poor interpersonal relationship & self-esteem.

POCSO Act

• The government enacted POCSO Act, 2012 to protect children from offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography.
• The interest of child is safeguarded during judicial process, by incorporating child friendly mechanisms for reporting, recording of evidence, investigation and speedy trial of offences through designated Special Courts.
• The Act provides for mandatory reporting of sexual offences. If the person is aware of such situation and fails to report so, he/she is punished with six months’ imprisonment and/or fine.
• Any human being up to the age of 18 years is recognised as a child under the POCSO Act.

Minister of Power launches POSOCO-IMD Weather Portal for Power Sector & Web Portal ‘MERIT’ (Merit Order Despatch of Electricity for Rejuvenation of Income and Transparency)

(Topics: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.)

What:

POCOSO– help State discoms better predict short- and medium-term management processes and supply planning requirements.

Why needed?

• Day to day weather variations have an impact on load demand and energy production, transport and distribution management, as well as energy prices.
• Extreme events such as heat waves or cold waves, wind storms or floods can of course have dramatic consequences on the production means or the electrical grid of a country including physical damage to the infrastructure.
• The information available in the POSOCO-IMD Weather Portal shall help State Discoms to take pro-active steps.

MERIT– help State discoms optimise power procurement in a more efficient way, leading to lower cost of power for consumers.

Why needed?

• It displays extensive array of information regarding the merit order of Electricity procured by State(s) such as daily state-wise marginal variable costs of all generators, daily source-wise power purchases of respective states/UTs with source-wise fixed and variable costs, energy volumes and purchase prices.
• It will give information regarding reasons for deviation from merit order such as must run conditions, transmission constraints etc.

GS-3

Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO)

(Topic: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.)

What: The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) is the largest trade organization in the world that represents the biotechnology industry.

• BIO holds a trade meeting each year in the United States, which are essential for the business development and partnering activities that are required in the biotechnology sector, in which it is expensive to develop products, timelines to develop products are long, and regulatory risks are high.
• The BIO International Convention is the largest global event for the biotechnology industry
• It attracts the biggest names in biotech, offers key networking and partnering opportunities, and provides insights and inspiration on the major trends affecting the industry.

Background

The BIO International Convention is hosted by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).

• BIO represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations.
• BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products.
• The key benefits of attending the BIO International Convention are access to global biotech and pharma leaders.

Waste Management Rules (2016) – National Productivity Council

(Topic: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment)

What: In 2016, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change notified the new Solid Waste Management Rules (SWM) 2016, replacing the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000.

SWM rules are for managing six categories of waste

1. Plastic
2. E-waste
3. Bio-medical
4. Construction and demolition
5. Hazardous and other wastes
6. Solid

As part of Swachh Bharat Mission, the Ministry of Urban Development and Ministry of Environment, have launched a National Capacity Building Project in 68 Cities on the above rules and their implementation aspects for the Urban Local Bodies / UAs and various stakeholders in the identified cities.

For this, National Productivity Council (NPC) under the Ministry of commerce will act as a programme coordinator for implementing Solid Waste Management Rules, in association with Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), which is the national implementing agency for capacity building project on waste management rules.

The Capacity Building project seeks to

• Strengthen institutional capacities at ULBs and amongst stakeholders, towards collection, treatment, disposal and efficient management of various types and categories of wastes
• Promote 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) initiatives
• Disseminate good practices
• Facilitate integrated efforts towards achieving improvement in general health of city environment etc.

In news: a Training of Trainers Programme to train and engage Waste Management Experts from various parts of the country to serve as Master Trainers is being organised at NPC Conference.

National Productivity Council

• NPC is national level organization to promote productivity culture in India.
• Established by the Ministry of Industry in 1958.
• It is an autonomous, multipartite, non-profit organization with equal representation from employers’ & workers’ organizations and Government.
• NPC is a constituent of the Tokyo-based Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an Inter Governmental Body, of which the Government of India is a founder member.

10th Anniversary Celebrations of Indo-Russian Partnership in Science and Technology

(Topic: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.)

What: 2017 is a special year for India and Russia as it celebrates the 70th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries.

It was on 13 April 1947 – four months before India’s independence – that diplomatic relations were established between two nations.

In news: A MOU on the India-Russia unified technology assessment and accelerated commercialization programme was concluded recently.

• The MOU aims at facilitating support enterprises to improve their global competitiveness through international cooperation, innovative activities and technology transfer.
• Science and Technology cooperation between India and the Russian Federation has been one of the important pillars of the long standing and time tested bilateral relationship.
• With the sunset of the Integrated Long Term Programme (ILTP) with the Russian Academy of Sciences, the birth of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), India and the Russian Federation of Basic Research (RFBR) programme on Basic Sciences took place in 2007.
• The initial few years of DST-RFBR partnership was a modest one, competing with the footprint left by the ILTP. However, the DST-RFBR programme emerged steadily and today it provides one of the robust platforms for bilateral scientific cooperation in Basic Sciences.

PSLV-C38 Successfully Launches 31 Satellites in a Single Flight

(Topic: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.)

What: India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its 40th flight (PSLV-C38), launched the 712 kg Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation and 30 co-passenger satellites together.

The co-passenger satellites comprise 29 Nano satellites from 14 countries namely, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, United Kingdom and United States of America.

And one Nano satellite- NIUSAT, a University/Academic Institute satellite from Nurul Islam University, Tamil Nadu, India

The Cartosat-2 will be used for cartographic applications, coastal land use and regulation, road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, Land Information Systems (LIS) and Geograhical Information System (GIS) applications.