Deepak UPSC Notes

2021-12-18 03:14:43 Biological Diversity Act, 2002

GS Paper - 2

Government Policies & Interventions

International Treaties & Agreements

GS Paper - 3

Conservation

Biodiversity Hotspots

Environmental Pollution & Degradation

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)

The Biological Diversity Act, 2002

The act was enacted in 2002, it aims at the conservation of biological resources, managing its sustainable use and enabling fair and equitable sharing benefits arising out of the use and knowledge of biological resources with the local communities.

Salient Features of the Act

The Act prohibits the following activities without the prior approval from the National Biodiversity Authority:

Any person or organisation (either based in India or not) obtaining any biological resource occurring in India for its research or commercial utilisation.

The transfer of the results of any research relating to any biological resources occurring in, or obtained from, India.

The claim of any intellectual property rights on any invention based on the research made on the biological resources obtained from India

The act envisaged a three-tier structure to regulate the access to biological resources:

The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA)

The State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs)

The Biodiversity Management Committees(BMCs) (at local level)

Under this act, the Central Government in consultation with the NBA:

Shall notify threatened species and prohibit or regulate their collection, rehabilitation and conservation

The act stipulates all offences under it as cognizable and non-bailable.

The National Biodiversity Authority

The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) was established in 2003 by the Central Government to implement India’s Biological Diversity Act (2002).

It is a Statutory body that performs facilitative, regulatory and advisory functions for the Government of India on the issue of Conservation and sustainable use of biological resources.

The NBA has its Headquarters in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India Ochish/sharhlash

2021-12-18 03:14:43 Ochish/sharhlash

2021-12-18 03:14:43 Internal Security

Induction of French Rafale Aircrafts in IAF

Rafale Deal

GS Paper - 2

Government Policies & Interventions

GS Paper - 3

Growth & Development

Security Challenges & their Management in Border Areas

Introduced in 2001, the Rafale is a French twin-engine and multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation being produced for both the Frenchf Air Force and for carrier-based operations TV h in the French Navy.

India has inked a Rs 59,000-crore deal in 2016 to procure 36 Rafale jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation after a nearly seven-year exercise to procure 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for the Indian Air Force did not fructify.

The MMRCA deal was stalled due to disagreements over production in India.

In comparison to the earlier deal i.e. MMRCA, Rafale has much technological advancement, lower life cycle cost and specifications according to the warfare needs of India.

Specification

Air Supremacy: Equipped with a wide range of weapons, the Rafale is intended to perform air supremacy, interdiction (act of disrupting), aerial reconnaissance (observation to locate an enemy), ground support, in-depth strike, anti-ship strike and nuclear deterrence missions.

Wide Range of Weapons: Meteor missile, Scalp cruise missile and MICA weapons system will be the mainstay of the weapons package of the Rafale jets.

Meteor: It is the next generation of Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) designed to revolutionise air-to-air combat.

The Meteor missile can target enemy aircraft from 150 km away. It can destroy enemy aircraft before they actually even get close to the Indian aircraft.

SCALP Cruise Missiles: It can hit targets 300 km away.

MICA Missile System: It is a very versatile air-to-air missile. It comes with a radar seeker and can be fired for the short-range to long-range as well right up to 100 km.

It's already in service with the IAF i.e. Mirages and is the primary weapon system of Rafales as well.

Air to Air Target: The ability to strike air-to-air targets from up to 150 km away and safely hit land targets 300 km within enemy territory make them some of the deadliest fighter jets flying in the world.

Flight Hours: The aircraft has 30,000 flight hours in operations. Ochish/sharhlash

2021-12-18 03:14:43 GS-2, Polity

Habeas Corpus:

It is a Latin term which literally means ‘to have the body of’. Under this the court issues an order to a person who has detained another person, to produce the body of the latter before it. The court then examines the cause and legality of detention.

This writ is a bulwark of individual libertyagainst arbitrary detention.

The writ of habeas corpus can be issued against both public authorities as well as private individuals.

The writ, on the other hand, is not issued where the:

detention is lawful,

the proceeding is for contempt of a legislature or a court,

detention is by a competent court, and

detention is outside the jurisdiction of the court. Ochish/sharhlash

2021-12-18 03:14:42 Types of Writ Ochish/sharhlash

2021-12-18 03:14:42 Minimum Age of Marriage for Girls

GS Paper - 2

Issues Related to Women

Government Policies & Interventions

Issues Related to Children

Health

Gender

History

The Indian Penal Code enacted in 1860criminalised sexual intercourse with a girlbelow the age of 10. The provision of rape was amended in 1927 through the Age of Consent Bill, 1927, which declared that marriage with a girl under 12 would be invalid.

In 1929, the Child Marriage Restraint Actset 16 and 18 years as the minimum age of marriage for girls and boys respectively. 

This law, popularly known as the Sarda Act after its sponsor Harbilas Sarda, a judge and a member of Arya Samaj, was eventually amended in 1978 to prescribe 18 and 21 years as the age of marriage for a woman and a man respectively.

Present Age for Marriage

The Special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006prescribe 18 and 21 years as the minimum age of consent for marriage for women and men respectively.

The laws prescribe a minimum age of marriage to essentially outlaw child marriages and prevent the abuse of minors.Personal laws of various religions that deal with marriage have their own standards, often reflecting custom

For Hindus, Section 5(iii) of The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, sets 18 years as the minimum age for the bride and 21 years as the minimum age for the groom. However, child marriages are not illegal — even though they can be declared void at the request of the minor in the marriage.

In Islam, the marriage of a minor who has attained puberty is considered valid.

Additionally, sexual intercourse with a minor is rape, and the ‘consent’ of a minor is regarded as invalid since she is deemed incapable of giving consent at that age

Link Between Age of Marriage and Nutrition:

A study conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), which was published in 2019, showed that children born to adolescent mothers (10-19 years) were 5 percentage points more likely to be stunted(shorter for their age) than those born to young adults (20-24 years), and 11 percentage points more stunted than children born to adult mothers (25 years or older).

Children born to adolescent mothers also had 10 percentage points higher prevalence of low weight as adult mothers.

It recommended that increasing age at first marriage, age at first birth, and girl’s education are a promising approach to improve maternal and child nutrition.

About the Committee:

On 2nd June 2020, the Union Ministry for Women and Child Development set up a committee to examine matters pertaining to age of motherhood, imperatives of lowering Maternal Mortality Ratio and the improvement of nutritional levels among women. The Committee is headed by Jaya Jaitely.

The Committee was proposed in the Union Budget 2020-21.

It will examine the correlation of age of marriage and motherhood with health, medical well-being, and nutritional status of the mother and neonate, infant or child, during pregnancy, birth and thereafter.

It will also look at key parameters like Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), Total Fertility Rate (TFR), Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) and Child Sex Ratio (CSR), and willexamine the possibility of increasing the age of marriage for women from the present 18 years to 21 years Ochish/sharhlash

2021-12-18 03:14:42 Justice RV Raveendran Committee Ochish/sharhlash

2021-12-18 03:14:42 Governance

Pegasus Case

GS Paper - 2

Cyber Security

Judgements & Cases

Why in News

Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) has appointed an expert committee [to be overseen by a retired apex court judge (Justice Raveendran Committee)] in the Pegasus case.

Under the case, the Union Government is alleged to have used spyware for surveillance on private citizens.

Supreme Court Judgment:

Judicial Principle Against Bias:

The court rejected the government’s plea to set up its own probe.

Formation of Expert Committee:

On account of the government's inaction to file a detailed response to the allegations made by the petitioners, the Court has constituted a panel of experts under former SC judge Justice R V Raveendran

Terms of Recommendation:

The court has also asked the Raveendran committee to make recommendations on a legal and policy framework to protect citizens against surveillance and enhance cyber security of the country.

Issues Addressed by the SC:

Right to Privacy:

The court reiterated that right to privacy is as sacrosanct as human existence and is inalienable to human dignity and autonomy.

The Right to Privacy was held as a part of fundamental rights by the Supreme Court in K S Puttaswamy case, 2017.

Any surveillance or snooping done on an individual by the state or any outside agency is an infringement of that person’s right to privacy.

Surveillance on Free Speech:

The Court has drawn a link between surveillance and self-censorship.

The knowledge that one is under the threat of being spied on leads to self-censorship and potential chilling effect.

The chilling effect surveillance can produce is an assault on the vital public-watchdog role of the press, which may undermine the ability of the press to provide accurate and reliable information (Free Speech).

It further held that, an important and necessary corollary of such a right is to ensure the protection of sources of information Ochish/sharhlash

2021-12-18 03:14:42 Pegasus Spyware

GS Paper - 3

Cyber Security

Cyber Warfare

Challenges to Internal Security Through Communication Networks

GS Paper - 2

Government Policies & Interventions

Why in News

Recently, it has been reported that Pegasus, the malicious software, has allegedly been used to secretly monitor and spy on an extensive host of public figures in India.

Key Points

About Pegasus:

It is a type of malicious software or malware classified as a spyware.

It is designed to gain access to devices, without the knowledge of users, and gather personal information and relay it back to whoever it is that is using the software to spy.

Pegasus has been developed by the Israeli firm NSO Group that was set up in 2010.

The earliest version of Pegasus discovered, which was captured by researchers in 2016, infected phones through what is called spear-phishing – text messages or emails that trick a target into clicking on a malicious link.

Since then, however, NSO’s attack capabilities have become more advanced. Pegasus infections can be achieved through so-called “zero-click” attacks, which do not require any interaction from the phone’s owner in order to succeed.

Targets:

Human Rights activists, journalists and lawyers around the world have been targeted with phone malware sold to authoritarian governments by an Israeli surveillance firm.

Indian ministers, government officials and opposition leaders also figure in the list of people whose phones may have been compromised by the spyware.

In 2019, WhatsApp filed a lawsuit in the US court against Israel's NSO Group, alleging that the firm was incorporating cyber-attacks on the application by infecting mobile devices with malicious software.

Recent Steps Taken in India:

Cyber Surakshit Bharat Initiative: It was launched in 2018 with an aim to spread awareness about cybercrime and building capacity for safety measures for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and frontline IT staff across all government departments.

National Cyber security Coordination Centre (NCCC): In 2017, the NCCC was developed to scan internet traffic and communication metadata (which are little snippets of information hidden inside each communication) coming into the country to detect real-time cyber threats.

Cyber Swachhta Kendra: In 2017, this platform was introduced for internet users to clean their computers and devices by wiping out viruses and malware.

Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C): I4C was recently inaugurated by the government.

National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal has also been launched pan India.

Computer Emergency Response Team - India (CERT-IN): It is the nodal agency which deals with cybersecurity threats like hacking and phishing.

Legislation:

Information Technology Act, 2000.

Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019.

Types of Cyber Attacks

Malware: It is short for malicious software, refers to any kind of software that is designed to cause damage to a single computer, server, or computer network. Ransomware, Spy ware, Worms, viruses, and Trojans are all varieties of malware.

Phishing: It is the method of trying to gather personal information using deceptive e-mails and websites.

Denial of Service attacks: A Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack is an attack meant to shut down a machine or network, making it inaccessible to its intended users.

DoS attacks accomplish this by flooding the target with traffic, or sending it information that triggers a crash.

Etc Ochish/sharhlash

2021-12-18 03:14:42 Pegasus spyware Ochish/sharhlash