Solution (a)

The President of India promulgated the Tribunals Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance 2021. The proposed changes are based on the direction issued by the Supreme Court in the Madras Bar Association case.

The ordinance seeks to dissolve certain existing appellate bodies and transfer their functions to other existing judicial bodies.

It provides that the chairperson and members of the Tribunals will be appointed by the Central Government on the recommendation of a Search-cum-selection Committee. The committee will be headed by the Chief Justice of India or a judge of Supreme Court nominated by him.

It provides that the chairperson of a Tribunal shall hold office for a term of 4 years or till he attains the age of 70 years whichever is earlier.

Article Link: Restructuring the tribunals system

Solution (c)

Article 123 deals with the ordinance making power of the President. These ordinances must be approved by the Parliament within six weeks from its reassembly. He can also withdraw an ordinance at any time.

Article 61 deals with the procedure for impeachment of the President.

Article 111 deals with the power of the President regarding assent to bills passed by the Parliament.

Article 143 deals with the power of the President to consult the Supreme Court.

Solution (b)

The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG) is a grouping of 10 National Laboratories being setup with following objectives:

• To find out current status of new variant of SARS COV-2 in India
• To establish a sentinel surveillance in order to detect the genomic variant early with the public health implication
• To determine the genomic variants in unusual events or trends like the super spreader events and high mortality or morbidity trend areas.

Article Link: Shahid Jameel quits as head of virus genome sequencing group

Solution (a)

In the Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR) technique, the pre-germinated seeds are directly drilled into the field by a tractor- powered machine. There is no requirement of nursery preparation. This technique has following benefits over normal transplanting of paddy:

• Less water requirement
• Less number of Labourers required
• Saves labour cost
• Reduced methane emission due to shorter flooding period

However, the seed requirement for DSR method is high, 8-10 kg/acre, compared to 4-5 kg/acre in normal transplanting.

Article Link: Punjab targets to bring one million hectare under DSR in this paddy season

Solution (b)

Zeolites are aluminosilicates minerals. They are microporous material that is used as adsorbents and catalysts.

Zeolite is naturally formed when the volcanic rocks react with alkaline ground water. The naturally occurring Zeolite is contaminated with other minerals like quartz. For this reason naturally occurring Zeolite is not used for commercial applications.

Artificially, Zeolite is produced by the process of slow crystallization of silica-alumina gel.

Zeolite is mainly used as adsorbents and catalysts. An oxygen concentrator uses Zeolite to adsorb atmospheric nitrogen and then vents out the nitrogen. This leaves oxygen gas remaining to be used for patients.

Article Link: Air India lifts 35 tonnes of mineral used in O2 production plants from Rome to Bengaluru