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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 14 December 2022

::NATIONAL::

Parliament must examine age of consent issue

Chief Justice of India appealed to Parliament to have a relook at the issue of age of consent under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 as it posed difficulties for judges examining cases of consensual sex involving adolescents.

About:

CJI referred to ‘India analysis of Judgements of Special Courts in West Bengal, Assam and Maharashtra - Romantic Cases under POCSO Act Study’ by Enfold Proactive Health Trust and UNICEF-India.
As per this study, one in every four cases under POCSO Act constituted romantic cases.
93.8% cases ended with acquittals.
In 46.6% cases, girl was between 16 to 18 years.

POCSO Act:

POCSO Act is a special act to protect children (any person below age of 18 years) from offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography.
In 2019, it was amended to impose stringent punishment for sexual crimes against children.
It provides for establishment of Special Courts for trials for early disposal of cases.

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New India Literacy Programme

Government has announced a Centrally Sponsored Scheme namely, “New India Literacy Programme” (NILP) for implementation during five years from 2022-23 to 2026-27.
The programme aims to cover a target of 5.00 crore learners during the five years under Foundational Literacy and Numeracy component.

The programme has five objectives:
(i)   Foundational Literacy and Numeracy,
(ii)   Critical Life Skills,
(iii)   Vocational Skills Development,
(iv)   Basic Education and
(v)   Continuing Education.
Key highlights:

The major challenge faced by the Government while implementing the NILP presently is the opening and mapping of all Bank Accounts of Single Nodal Agencies (SNAs) and Implementing Agencies (IAs) in all States with Public Financial Management System (PFMS).
This is a pre-requisite for release of funds as per revised procedure guidelines of Ministry of Finance. The challenge exists because this is the first year of implementation.
The first step is to identify the beneficiaries and Volunteer Teachers. Survey of beneficiaries and Volunteer Teachers (VTs) are being conducted by States/UTs using schools as the base. The volunteer teachers are trained to carry out the learning modules in online mode.
Various workshops are being conducted by States/UTs. At national level, the content is driven by the Cell for National Centre for Literacy (CNCL) at National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
The teaching and learning material is available on DIKSHA portal developed by NCERT. The sample assessment modules have also been made available on DIKSHA.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

UN-Water Summit on Groundwater

The UN-Water Summit on Groundwater take place recently at UNESCO HQ, Paris.
Summit was organised by UN-Water, UNESCO and International GroundwaterResources Assessment Centre (IGRAC) to bring attention to groundwater athighest international level.

About:

Summit will mark the completion of “Groundwater: Making the invisiblevisible” campaign run by UN-Water throughout 2022.
Summit uses UN World Water Development Report 2022 as a baseline and SDG6 Global Acceleration Framework (GAF) to define actions towards moreresponsible and sustainable use and protection of this vital natural resource.
In 2020, five pillars of SDG 6 GAF released namely data and information,capacity development, innovation, finance and governance.

Recommendations by Report to promote GW

Improve exploration, monitoring and analysis of GW resources to manage
them by identifying how much GW we can extract, where and when.
Protect Aquifers recharge areas from pollution.
Ensuring groundwater access to all, helping to achieve SDG.

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Base Editing

For the first time, a new gene editing technology called base editing was used to modify immune cells and successfully treat a teen with treatment-resistant leukemia.
Bases are the language of life. Just as letters in the alphabet spell out words that carry meaning, the billions of bases in our DNA spell out the instruction manual for our body.

About:

Base Editing treatment is a modification of chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR, T-cell therapy. But instead of using the CRISPR gene editing technique to modify the patient’s immune cells, the clinicians used the more precise base editing technique to alter donor immune cells.
Those edited cells are given to the patient to rapidly find and destroy T-cells in the body, including leukemic T-cells.
Base editing is an even more precise gene editing technique than CRISPR and has fewer risks of unwanted effects on the chromosomes and thus less risk of side effects.

T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL):

T-ALL affects the stem cells in the bone marrow that produce a particular kind of white blood cells (WBC) called T lymphocytes (T cells).
These cells provide a person immunity by killing cells carrying infections, activating other immune cells, and regulating the immune response.
At least 20% of these WBC are atypical– as they accumulate in the bone marrow, they crowd out “good” WBCs and hence weaken the immune system.
These unhealthy cells can also accumulate in other parts of the body like the liver, spleen and lymph nodes.
While found in both children and adults, T-ALL’s incidence decreases with age.

::Economy::

Energy Conservation (Amendment)Bill 2022

Parliament of India passed the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill -2022 recently.

About Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill 2022:

The Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill-2022 amends the Energy Conservation Act 2001.

Salient features of the amendments:

The Bill amends the Energy Conservation Act, 2001 to empower the central government to specify a carbon credit trading scheme.
Designated consumers may be required to meet a proportion of their energy needs from non-fossil sources.
The Energy Conservation Code for buildings will also apply to office and residential buildings with a connected load of 100 kilowatt or above.
Energy consumption standards will be specified for vehicles and ships.

Provisions of the Energy Conservation Act-2001:

Energy Efficiency Norms: Empowers the Centre to specify norms and standards of energy efficiency for appliances, industrial equipment and buildings with a connected load over 100 kiloWatts (kW) or a contractual demand of more than 15 kilovolt-amperes (kVA).
Energy Trading: The Government can issue energy savings certificates to those industries which consume less than their maximum allotted energy.
Bureau Of Energy Efficiency: The act established this statutory body (Under Ministry of Power) helps in policy and programs ,which will increase the conservation and efficient use of energy in India.

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::SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY::

L1 frequency

To promote the use of ‘NAVigation with the Indian Constellation’ (NavIC), the Indian version of GPS, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will introduce the L1 frequency in all its future satellites.

Key objectives:

It aims to promote civilian use of NAVigation with the Indian Constellation(NavIC) and thus, the next satellites, starting from NVS-01 onwards, will havean L1 band for civilian navigational use.
NVS-01 satellite is set to replace one of ISRO’s seven navigational satellitescurrently in space.
L1 frequency is most commonly used frequencies in Global Positioning System(GPS).
It will increase use of regional navigation system in wearable devices andpersonal trackers.
NaVIC currently broadcasts its Signal-in-space in 2 frequency bands: L5 and S band.

About:

NavIC or Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), is ISRO’sconstellation of 7 satellites that is akin to US’s GPS, European Union’s Galileo,Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System and Russia’s GLONASS, and can be used totrack location.
NaVIC offers two services: Standard Position Service (SPS) for civilian usersand Restricted Service (RS) for strategic users like military.

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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 14 December 2022