Daily Current Affairs : 7-Mar-2020
Major Topics Covered :
BRANDING OF ORGANISATION AS POLITICAL
DELIMITATION COMMISSION FOR J&K, NORTHEASTERN STATES
INDIA’s ROLE IN AFGHANISTAN
AYUSH-GRID
NATIONAL AYURVEDA MORBIDITY CODES(NAMC)
GENOMEINDIA
BRANDING OF ORGANISATION AS POLITICAL
Why in news?
Supreme Court gave its verdict on a petition filed by Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF) challenging certain provisions of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010 and the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules of 2011.
Highlights :
Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010 and the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules of 2011, both of which confer the Centre with “unguided and uncanalised power” to brand organisations ‘political’ and shut down their access to foreign funds.
Section 5 (1) of the FCRA :
This provision allowed the Centre a free hand to decide whether a seemingly non-political organisation was actually political in nature.
INSAF argued that Section 5(1) was vague and thus unconstitutional.
The Delhi High Court, which INSAF approached first, said the provision was “expansive” and not vague. The Supreme Court agreed with the High Court on Friday.
Section 5(4) of the FCRA :
INSAF said the provision did not exactly identify the authority before which an organisation could represent its grievance. But the apex court dismissed this contention.
However, SC added that the Central government cannot brand an organisation ‘political’ and deprive it of its right to receive foreign funds for using “legitimate forms of dissent” like bandh, hartal, road roko or jail ‘bharo’ to aid a public cause.
But the foreign funding pipeline could be cut if an organisation took recourse to these forms of protest to score a political goal
The court wholesomely agreed that organisations with “avowed political objectives in its memorandum of association or bye laws” cannot be permitted access to foreign funds.
Source : Hindu
DELIMITATION COMMISSION FOR J&K, NORTHEASTERN STATES
Why in news?
The Law Ministry issued an order to set up a Delimitation Commission for the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern States of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland.
Highlights :
A significant improvement in the security situation, reduction in insurgency and improvement in the law and order situation in these States had made the delimitation exercise possible now
The exercise to readjust the division of each State and the UTs into territorial constituencies for the purpose of elections to the Lok Sabha and to the State Legislative Assemblies on the basis of the 2001 Census figures was last completed on November 26, 2008.
The Delimitation Commission in India is a powerful body, whose orders have the force of law and cannot be called in question before any court.
Source : Hindu
INDIA’s ROLE IN AFGHANISTAN
Why in news?
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said Pakistan does not want any security role for India in Afghanistan as he accused New Delhi of playing the role of a “spoiler” in the war-torn country, according to a media report.
Highlights :
India has been a key stakeholder in Afghanistan as it has already spent around $2 billion in reconstruction of the war-ravaged country.
Ahead of a peace deal between the U.S. and the Taliban, India conveyed to the U.S. that pressure on Pakistan to crack down on terror networks operating from its soil must be kept up though Islamabad’s cooperation for peace in Afghanistan is crucial.
Source : Hindu
AYUSH-GRID
Why in news?
The Ministry of AYUSH has initiated steps to set up a nationwide digital platform called “AYUSH GRID” which aims to bring onboard all AYUSH facilities including hospitals and laboratories and to promote traditional systems of healthcare.
Highlights:
Ministry of AYUSH has conceptualized AYUSH GRID Project for digitalization of the entire AYUSH Sector.
Currently, Ministry has launched Pilot Projects like AYUSH Hospital Information Management System (A-HMIS), Tele-Medicine, Yogaloctaor Application, Bhuvan Application, Yoga Portal, Case Registry Portal, etc. and these projects will be co-opted in AYUSH GRID Project in future.
Ministry of AYUSH has also proposed to establish 12,500 AYUSH centres across the country for traditional system of healthcare and medicines.
12,500 AYUSH Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) are proposed to be established by up gradation of existing State Government AYUSH dispensaries and Sub Health Centres by the year 2023-24.
Source : PIB
NATIONAL AYURVEDA MORBIDITY CODES(NAMC)
Why in news?
The Ministry of AYUSH has developed National Ayurveda Morbidity Codes (NAMC), a comprehensive classification of diseases described in Ayurveda as well as Standardized Ayurveda Terminologies.
Highlights :
For standardization of Ayurvedic diagnostic and treatment protocol, the Central Council of Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) under Ministry of AYUSH has undertaken a project on Reliability testing and Validation of Ayurveda diagnostic methods in June 2018.
Under this project, some common disease condition have been identified and accordingly the Proforma and manual of selected disease conditions is being drafted and validated through scientific methods in phased manner.
In the first phase, the disease conditions which have been identified one Kushtha (skin diseases), Kasa, Shwasa and Jwara.
The first draft of Kushtha (skin diseases) manual as clinical series-I has been published and for other three disease conditions inter-rator reliability has already been completed and second phase validity is under pipeline in collaboration with the academic institutes of national repute.
Further, the development of proforma of various other disease conditions has been initiated.
Source : PIB
GENOMEINDIA
Why in news?
‘GenomeIndia: Cataloguing the Genetic Variation in Indians’ project has been sanctioned by Department of Biotechnology (DBT) on January16, 2020 for a period of 3 years to 20 institutions from varied disciplines across the country. The whole genome sequencing under GenomeIndia has just started.
Highlights:
The proposed target of Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) is to do it for total 10,000 individuals representing the country’s diverse population in 3 years.
The information generated from whole genome sequencing can facilitate future human genetics research in the country with greater precision, and to design a genome wide association array for the Indian population to develop precision healthcare and diagnostics for major diseases at affordable costs.
The data security and sharing measures for this project will be governed by the rules and regulations formulated by Government of India. The personal information of all individuals consenting to participate in the study is stripped off from any further records in this project.
This process of de-identification ensures that the personal information of the participants is not compromised. Additionally, ethical measures are strictly adhered to in order to maintain data security and protection.
Source : PIB