Maharashtra is in the throes of a constitutional crisis. All indications are that there is a planned mass defection underway.

 

 

* The Tenth Schedule of the Constitution is commonly known as the anti-defection law.

* It was introduced in 1985 with a view to curb the tendency among legislators to switch loyalties from one party to another and facilitate the toppling of regimes and formation of new ones.

* The law provides for the Presiding Officer of the legislature to disqualify any defector on a petition by another member.

* Ex-guerrilla Gustavo Petro was elected the first ever left-wing president of Colombia, after beating millionaire businessman Rodolfo Hernandez in a tense run-off election.

 

* Mr. Petro will succeed the deeply unpopular conservative Ivan Duque, who was barred by Colombia’s Constitution from standing for re-election, in a country saddled with widespread poverty, a surge in violence and other woes.

* Colombia is a country in South America bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuela to the east, Brazil to the southeast, Ecuador and Peru to the south, the Pacific Ocean to the west and Panama to the northwest. It is the only country in South America with coastlines and islands along both Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

* Its capital is Bogotá. Colombia is one of the world's seventeen megadiverse countries.

Source : The Hindu

The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, along with the Army Training Command (ARTRAC), will establish a 5G test bed at the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering (MCTE), Mhow to facilitate the use of 5G technology for the Army along the borders.

 

The test bed will facilitate Indian Army to utilise the 5G technology for its operational use, especially along its borders. The collaboration would provide an impetus to the induction of systems, devices and equipment using niche technology and use of AI-based algorithms for enhancing capabilities of the Indian armed forces.

Under the ambit of the MoU, IIT Madras will provide consultancy, duly supported by research for feasibility studies and prototype development on 5G enabled future communications.

Hence both statements are correct.

Source : The Hindu

Union Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs launched an innovative project for skill training of construction workers called ‘NIPUN’ i.e. National Initiative for Promoting Upskilling of Nirman workers.

 

* The project NIPUN is an initiative of the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) under its flagship scheme of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) to train over 1 lakh construction workers, through fresh skilling and upskilling programmes and provides them with work opportunities in foreign countries also.

* The construction industry is poised to become the largest employer by 2022 and needs 45 million additional skilled workers over the next 10 years.

* To fulfil this mission, the National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) and the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) have joined Project NIPUN as industry partners and will identify training job roles of aspirational value in the construction sector in collaboration with the SSC.

The Election Commission decided to delete 111 Registered Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPPs) from the register, as part of the poll panel’s “graded action” against parties that flouted its rules.

 

* The EC had deleted 87 RUPPs in May after announcing a clean-up drive against more than 2,100 such parties that it said had violated a string of rules by failing to furnish contribution reports or communicating changes to party-related information.

* There are 2,796 RUPPs, according to EC’s data till September 2021, an increase of more than 300% since 2001.

* According to the EC, during verification the RUPPs against whom action has been taken were found existing only on paper or letters sent to their addresses returned undelivered.

* The EC has for long been seeking powers to deregister political parties. The poll panel has also been seeking modification to Form 24A to mandate disclosure of all donations above Rs 2,000 instead of the current Rs 20,000.

The Central government on Friday(24th June 2022) appointed senior IPS officer Tapan Kumar Deka as Director of Intelligence Bureau.

 

Tapan Kumar Deka, a 1988 batch Himachal Pradesh cadre IPS officer, was appointed Director of Intelligence Bureau for a tenure of two years from the date of assumption of the charge of the post or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

 

Deka will succeed incumbent Intelligence Bureau Director Arvind Kumar, whose tenure ends on June 30, 2022.

 

"The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Tapan Kumar Deka, IPS (HP:88), Special Director, Intelligence Bureau as Director, Intelligence Bureau vice Shr Arvinda Kumar, IPS (AM:84), upon completion of his tenure on June 30, 2022, for a tenure of two years from the date of assumption of the charge of the post or until further orders, whichever is earlier, by granting extension in service under the provisions of All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958," the order reads.

 

Deka has spent most of the career in the Intelligence Bureau. He was an Additional Director in Intelligence Bureau when he was promoted to the rank of Special Director in the Wing in June last year..

Source : India Today

* An experimental Alzheimer’s drug – Crenezumab – aimed at slowing or preventing cognitive decline in people at risk of developing the disease early has failed in clinical trials, landing a blow to efforts aimed at finding a treatment to the neurodegenerative disease.

 

* Alzheimer’s is a degenerative brain disorder that slowly robs people of their memory and thinking abilities.

* Worldwide, it is the most common form of dementia or loss of cognitive functioning — thinking, remembering, and reasoning – contributing 60%-70% cases, according to the WHO.

* Progressive and irreversible, it usually begins with mild memory loss, and as symptoms grow severe, patients lose the ability to perform even simple tasks.

* The disease was discovered after Dr Alios Alzheimer examined a memory-loss patient’s brain after her death in 1906 and found abnormal clumps (beta-amyloid plaque) and bundles of fibres (neurofibrillary tangles).

* Pathology of the disease is deposition of an abnormal protein called beta-amyloid in the brain. The plaque and tangles, along with loss of connections between the neurons to transmit messages inside the brain, are key markers of the disease.

 

* In India, only 1 in 10 people with dementia receive any diagnosis, treatment or care for the disease, according to the World Alzheimer’s Report, 2021.

* An increasing prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, and obesity is expected to drive up the incidence of dementia in India in the coming decades.

* According to the Global Burden of Disease study published this year in The Lancet, India could see a 197% jump in dementia, including Alzheimer’s, from 3.84 million cases in 2019 to 11.44 million cases by 2050.

* In 1993, the Supreme Court’s landmark judgement in the Unnikrishnan JP vs State of Andhra Pradesh & Others held that Education is a Fundamental right flowing from Article 21.

* The 86th amendment to the constitution of India in 2002, provided Right to Education as a fundamental right in part-III of the Constitution.  Hence, statement 1 is not correct.

* India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child when the act came into force on 1 April 2010.

* The Title of the RTE Act incorporates the words ‘free and compulsory’.

Source : Indian Express

The United States Senate has passed a gun safety bill, the most significant action against rising gun violence in the country.

 

The bill was passed on June 23, hours after the US Supreme Court ruled that Americans have a constitutional right to carry firearms in public for their safety and self-defence.

The bill will now be sent to the Democrat-dominated House of Representatives, where it is likely to sail through, after which it will be sent to US President Joe Biden for his approval.

The bill has been called the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The bipartisan bill focuses on firearms and improving medical care in the US.

The bill seeks to ensure strict background checks for gun buyers, especially minors. The bill will also release funds for educational institutions, to expand their mental health resources and make schools safer.

* The bill was passed exactly a month after a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman stormed an elementary school and killed 21 people, including 19 children.

* The Uvalde incident came days after a racial shooting in a Buffalo supermarket in New York, where 10 black people were fatally shot..

Source : Indian Express

NITI Aayog first launched and conceptualized the Composite Water Management Index in 2018 as a tool to instil a sense of cooperative and competitive federalism among the states.

It provided actionable guidance to States on where they were doing well absolutely and relatively and what they needed to focus on to secure their water

The index comprises 9 themes..

Source : The hindu