Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

• Ain-i-Akbari (Administration of Akbar) is a 16th-century detailed document of the Mughal Empire under Emperor Akbar, written by his court historian, Abu'lFazl in the Persian language.
• It embodies Ains or rules and regulations framed and put into effect for proper administration by Akbar.
• Though a part of the Akbarnamah, Ain-i-Akbari is itself a voluminous work.
• It is divided into five books. The first book called manzil-abadi deals with the imperial household and its maintenance, and the second called sipah-abadi, with the servants of the emperor, military and civil services. The third deals with imperial administration, containing regulations for the judiciary and the executive. The fourth contains information on Hindu philosophy, science, social customs and literature. The fifth contains sayings of Akbar, along with an account of the ancestry and biography of the author.

Explanation :

• The ASEAN Defence Ministers’s Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) is a platform for ASEAN and its Dialogue Partners to strengthen security and defence cooperation for peace, stability, and development in the region.
• The ADMM-Plus countries include ten ASEAN Member State and eight Plus countries, namely Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, ROK, Russian Federation, and the United States.
• The Inaugural ADMM-Plus was convened in Hanoi, Vietnam, on 12th October 2010. The Defence Ministers then agreed on five areas of practical cooperation to pursue under this new mechanism, namely maritime security, counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, peacekeeping operations and military medicine.

Objectives

• To benefit ASEAN member countries in building capacity to address shared security challenges, while cognisant of the differing capacities of various ASEAN countries
• To promote mutual trust and confidence between defence establishments through greater dialogue and transparency
• To enhance regional peace and stability through cooperation in defence and security, in view of the transnational security challenges the region faces
• To contribute to the realisation of an ASEAN Security Community which, as stipulated in the Bali Concord II, embodies ASEAN’s aspiration to achieve peace, stability, democracy and prosperity in the region where ASEAN member countries live at peace with one another and with the world at large
• To facilitate the implementation of the Vientiane Action Programme, which calls for ASEAN to build a peaceful,secure and prosperous ASEAN.

Explanation :

• The Kimberley Process (KP) is a multilateral trade regime established in 2003 with the goal of preventing the flow of conflict diamonds. The core of this regime is the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) under which States implement safeguards on shipments of rough diamonds and certify them as “conflict free".
• It is open to all countries that are willing and able to implement its requirements.
• KPCS imposes extensive requirements on its members to enable them to certify shipments of rough diamonds as ‘conflict-free' and prevent conflict diamonds from entering the legitimate trade.
• Under the terms of the KPCS, participating states must meet ‘minimum requirements' and must put in place national legislation and institutions; export, import and internal controls; and also commit to transparency and the exchange of statistical data.
• India is one of the founder members of Kimberley Process Certification Scheme and is the Chair of Kimberley Process for the year 2019 with Russian Federation as Vice Chair. India had earlier chaired KPCS in the year 2008.

Members

• The KP has 54 participants, representing 81 countries, with the European Union and its Member States counting as a single participant.

Explanation :

• Recently, Brahmaputra Pushkaram - a 12-day mega river festival was celebrated in the state of Assam starting from November 5 to November 16, 2019.
• It is a festival of rivers and it pertains to the 12 important rivers in India, namely Ganga, Yamuna, Narmada, Chambal, Kaveri, Beas, Tapti, Godavari, Chenab, Krishna and Saraswati.
• This festival occurs once every 12 years for each river. Earlier, Brahmaputra Pushkaram was held in 2007.
  It is the second biggest river festival celebrated in Assam after Namami Brahmaputra.
• It is believed that Pushkarudu, also known as Pushkar God, who is powerful enough to make any river holy, will travel with Jupiter during this time, as Jupiter travels from one zodiac sign to another.

Explanation :

• The ‘Council of States’ which is also known as Rajya Sabha, a nomenclature that was announced by the chair in the House on the 23rd August, 1954 has its own distinctive features. The origin of the second Chamber can be traced to the Montague-Chelmsford Report of 1918. The Government of India Act, 1919 provided for the creation of a ‘Council of State’ as a second chamber of the then legislature with a restricted franchise which actually came into existence in 1921.
• The Vice President of India is the ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
• Article 80 of the Constitution lays down the maximum strength of Rajya Sabha as 250, out of which 12 members are nominated by the President and 238 are representatives of the States and of the two Union Territories.The present strength of Rajya Sabha, however, is 245, out of which 233 are representatives of the States and Union territories of Delhi and Puducherry and 12 are nominated by the President. The members nominated by the President are persons having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as literature, science, art and social service.
• The Fourth Schedule to the Constitution provides for allocation of seats to the States and Union Territories in Rajya Sabha. The allocation of seats is made on the basis of the population of each State.

Explanation :

• On 16^th November, 2019, Ministry for Health and Family Welfare launched Social Awareness and Action to Neutralise Pneumonia Successfully (SAANS), a campaign aimed at reducing child mortality due to pneumonia, which contributes to around 15% deaths annually of children under the age of five.
• The government aims to achieve a target of reducing pneumonia deaths among children to less than three per 1,000 live births by 2025.

Objective

• To mobilise people to protect children from pneumonia, and train health personnel and other stakeholders to provide prioritised treatment to control the disease.

About SAANS

• Under the campaign, a child suffering from pneumonia can be treated with pre-referral dose of anti-biotic amoxicillin by ASHA workers, and health and wellness centres can use pulse oximeter (device to monitor oxygen saturation) to identify low oxygen levels in the blood of a child, and if required, treat him by use of oxygen cylinders.
• A mass awareness campaign will also be launched about the effective solutions for pneumonia prevention like breast feeding, and age appropriate complementary feeding.

Explanation :

• Geochemical Baseline Atlas of India has been developed by CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad for use by policy makers to assess environmental damage.
• This is the third map among the series of maps published by NGRI. Earlier, The Gravity map of India and Seismic map of India were released by the research institute.
• The geochemical data presented in these maps will be a part of the Global Map to be prepared by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGC).
• The atlas consisting 45 maps of metals, oxides and elements present in top and bottom soils across India will serve as a reference against which future generations of the country would be able to assess the chemical compositional changes on Earth’s surface.
• To develop the maps, the globe was divided into 5,000 cells of 160 km by 160 km each. Of it, India has 122 cells.
• The map trace elements from top soil i.e. top 25 cm depth and bottom soil at 100 cm depth from the year 2006 to 2011. Across India, over 545 samples were collected.

Significance

• It will help the country to assess the presence of toxic chemicals in soil and how it varies from place to place.
• It also helps in identifying how soil pollution is contributing to groundwater contamination.
• The map will also support in choosing the right soil that’s rich in certain micronutrient elements required for each plant growth.
• It will help to plan the land use in different parts of the country.
• It helps in finding out future contamination caused by industries or other bodies which cause pollution.

Explanation :

• The Olive Ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) is the smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles, growing up to 70 cm and weighing 45 kg, on average.
• It gets its name from its olive green coloured carapace, which is heart-shaped. Males and females grow to the same size; however, females have a slightly more rounded carapace.
• It inhabits tropical and subtropical waters of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Though mainly pelagic, yet they have been found to inhabit coastal areas, including bays and estuaries.
• The species is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List, Appendix 1 in CITES, and Schedule 1 in Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
• It use three different strategies to nest: arribadas, solitary nests and mixed strategy. (An arribada is a mass-nesting event when thousands of turtles come ashore at the same time to lay eggs on the same beach.)

Ecological Significance

• Olive Ridley turtles feed on invertebrates and may play important roles in both open ocean and coastal ecosystems.

Explanation :

• The anti-defection law is contained in the 10^th Schedule of the Constitution. It was enacted by the Constitution (52nd Amendment) Act, 1985, during the Rajiv Gandhi government. It came into effect on 1^st March 1985.
• Purpose: The purpose is to curb political defection by the legislators.
• The Speaker or the Chairman of the concerned Houses (as applicable) makes decisions on defection matters. If the Chairman or the Speaker defects, the decisions shall be made by a member elected by the House.
• The law applies to both Parliament and state assemblies.

Ground of Defection

• One, if the member voluntarily gives up the membership of the party, he shall be disqualified. Voluntarily giving up the membership is not the same as resigning from a party. Even without resigning, a legislator can be disqualified if by his conduct the Speaker/Chairman of the concerned House draws a reasonable inference that the member has voluntarily given up the membership of his party.
• Second, if a legislator votes in the House against the direction of his party and his action is not condoned by his party, he can be disqualified. These are the two grounds on which a legislator can be disqualified from being a member of the House.

Exceptions

The law provides exceptions from being disqualified as a member of legislature on the following grounds:

• When political parties merge with each other entirely.
• When a political party splits into other parties, subject to not less than a third of the members splitting (as per the 93^rd Amendment to the Constitution).
• When two-thirds (or more) of members belonging to a party join another party without both their parties explicitly merging.

Amendment

• The law was amended in 2003 by which the one-third split provision which offered protection to defectors was deleted from the law.

Explanation :

• Asia-Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association(APRACA) is a regional association that promotes cooperation and facilitates mutual exchange of information and expertise in the field of rural finance.
• As of April 2019, a total of 86 institutions in 24 countries in the Asia-Pacific Region are affiliated with the APRACA as its members.

History

• The establishment of a Regional Association that promotes cooperation and facilitates mutual exchange of information and expertise in the field of rural finance was first proposed at the Regional Seminar on Agricultural Credit for Small Farmers, sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the Pacific in October 1974.
• Subsequently under the auspices of FAO, rural finance and agricultural credit institutions in the region formally launched APRACA during its first General Assembly Meeting in New Delhi, India, on October 14, 1977, held in conjunction with the third FAO Asian Conference on Agricultural Credit and Cooperatives.

Mission

• To promote the efficiency and effectiveness of rural finance and improve access to financial services through a network of knowledge sharing and learning, capacity-building, research and exchange of expertise.