Addapedia Odisha | Daily Current Affairs | 15 September 2023 | Download PDF

National and International News

Animal rights activists across India have expressed their concern at the absence of any provision to address sexual crimes against animals in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 Bill that seeks to repeal the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860.

Key points

• While the 2018 judgment removing portions of Section 377 of the IPC decriminalised sex between consenting same-gender adults, it did not address the question of bestiality.
• Currently, Section 377 of the IPC provides for punishment of those found engaging in bestiality.
• It states, “Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.”

Note: The meaning of BESTIALITY is sexual relations between a human being and a lower animal.

A Central team of officials from NCDC is expected to visit Maruthonkara and Ayancheri areas in Kozhikode district of Kerala where two persons died due to Nipah infection recently.

Key points

National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC):

• It is an institute under the Indian Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• The Director, an officer of the Public Health sub-cadre of Central Health Service, is the administrative and technical head of the Institute.
• Headquarters: New Delhi.
• It functions as the nodal agency in the country for disease surveillance facilitating prevention and control of communicable diseases.

• Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that simple and clear Hindi words should be used in office work, adding that the principle of language change says that “language moves from complexity to simplicity”.
• The Minister said that the Hindi language had played an unprecedented role in uniting the country during the difficult days of the Independence movement, instilled a feeling of unity in a country divided into many languages and dialects, and played an important role in carrying the freedom struggle from east to west and north to south in the country.

Key points

• Article 343 of the Indian Constitution talks about the Official language of the Union
• Article 344 talks about Commission and Committee of Parliament on official language

• Real-time data on the filing and disposal of cases in the Supreme Court will now be available at the fingertips of the common man, just a click of a mouse away.
• Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud announced the onboarding of the Supreme Court on the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG)

Key points

• The NJDG portal is a national repository of data relating to cases instituted, pending and disposed of by the courts across the length and breadth of the country.
• The onboarding of Supreme Court’s case data on the NJDG is based on the ‘open data policy’. 
• Data will be uploaded on the NJDG on a real-time and daily basis..

All reported births and deaths in the country will be digitally registered on the Centre’s portal from October 1, 2023.

Key points

• The Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023 that paves the way for digital birth certificates will come into effect from October 1. 
• The digital birth certificates will be a single document to be used for admission to educational institutions, applications for driving licence, government jobs, passports or Aadhaar, voter enrolment, and registration of marriage, and others.
• The centralised database will also update the National Population Register (NPR), ration cards, property registration, and electoral rolls.

• The National Population Register (NPR) is a register of usual residents of the country.
• It includes both Indian citizens as well as a foreign citizen.
• According to the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, a usual resident is a person who has resided in a local area for the past 6 months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next 6 months or more.
• It is being prepared at the local (Village/sub-Town), sub-District, District, State and National level under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003

The Census is the enumeration of the population of the country and it is being conducted at an interval of 10 years

NPR vs Census

• The decennial census is the largest single source of a variety of statistical information on the different characteristics of the people of India.
• While NPR only contains demographic information, more details are required for the census like information on demography, economic activity, literacy and education, and housing and household amenities among others.

India is now counted among the world’s top three countries in fish and aquaculture production

PM Matsay Sampada Yojana (PMMSY)

• It is a flagship scheme for focused and sustainable development of the fisheries sector in the country with an estimated investment of 20,050 crore for its implementation during 2020-21 to 2024-25 as part of Aatmanirbhar Bharat package.
• Ministry: Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying 

Aim: 

• To bring about a blue revolution through sustainable and responsible development of the fisheries sector in India.
• To double the incomes of fishers and fish farmers, reducing post-harvest losses from 20-25% to about 10% and the generation of gainful employment opportunities in the sector.

Implementation:

• It is implemented as an umbrella scheme with two separate components namely
• Central Sector Scheme: The project cost will be borne by the Central government. The entire project/unit cost will be funded by the Government of India (GoI) (i.e., 100% GoI Funding).
• Centrally Sponsored Scheme: All the sub-components/activities will be implemented by the States/UTs and the cost will be shared between Centre and State.
• North Eastern & Himalayan States: 90% Central share and 10% State share.
• Other States: 60% Central share and 40% State share.

Odisha Regional Specific News

Adding a new dimension to the existing spectra of eco-tourism in the Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary, two nature parks were inaugurated recently at Govindpur village and Debrigarh Zero Point adjoining Sanctuary and Hirakud Wetland. 

Key points about Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary

• It comprises of Lohara & Debrigarh Reserved Forests of famous Barapahad hills of Bargarh District of Odisha.
• A third of the sanctuary’s area is bounded by the Hirakud Dam(Mahanadi River) in the east and north, thus forming a mini catchment for the reservoir.
• The sanctuary is also famous for magnificent waterfalls. One famous being Ushakothi.

Did you know?

• The sanctuary finds a special mention because of noted freedom fighter Veer SurendraSai. During his rebellion against the British Veer Surendra Sai made his base at ‘Barapathara” located within the sanctuary.

• Odisha government recently roped in six public sector banks for providing banking services in unbanked gram panchayats of the state through customer service point (CSP) plus banking outlets.

Key points

• • The banks are State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB), Union Bank of India (UBI), UCO Bank, Bank of India (BoI) and Bank of Baroda (BoB).
• Odisha is the first state in the country to adopt such exemplary model for providing banking services to all panchayats. 

• Odisha CM launched two schemes for nutrition enchancement of pregnant women, adolescent girls and children. 
• Name of the schemes – Mukhyamantri Sampoornna Pushti 
• Yojana” (MSPY) and “Pada Pushti Karyakram “(PPK) 
• Key points

• The MSPY aims at providing nutritious dry food to pregnant women, post-natal women and girls of 15 to 19 years. Nutritious food for children having extreme nutrition deficiency and vitamin enforced Chhatua (cereal) and eggs will be supplied to moderately deficient and underweight children.
• Under PPK, nutritious cooked food will be supplied to tribal children living in remote and inaccessible areas of the state.

• Aim – to help in improving the status of specific vulnerable groups like adolescent girls, pregnant women, lactating mothers, and underweight children in the state of Odisha. 
• Funding – Rs. 3354.40 for the successful implementation of the scheme.
• All adolescent girls of 15-19 years will be given eggs, ladoos and other nutrition supplements.
• Pregnant women and lactating mothers will be getting nutrient-rich food products like millet and eggs. 
• Duration of the scheme: run up to five years in the state.

• • Aim: To ensure access to supplementary nutrition by all children staying in hard-to-reach villages and hamlets.
• Beneficiaries: Children aged 3-6 years residing in inaccessible pockets and not accessing the Anganwadi Centres will be provided with both morning snacks and hot cooked meals at their village location.

• This is an initiative to eradicate malnutrition and stunting among kids in inaccessible or hard-to-reach areas where Anganwadi Centres are not available.

• The Odisha Government has unveiled a subsidy scheme to attract investment and boost the State’s stainless-steel production. 
• The scheme offers 20% capital investment subsidy and electricity duty exemption besides land allocation and Employees Provident Fund reimbursement.

Key points

• This investment represents a substantial commitment to the stainless-steel sector in the State
• It was announced at the Global Stainless-Steel Expo 2023 (GSSE 2023) in Mumbai
• The demand for stainless steel in India is expected to grow at an average of 10% annually over the next few financial years, doubling the growth rate of 4.5% in the last five financial years.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar has signed an MoU with Gurgaon-based Whizhack Technologies Private Limited to set up a centre of excellence (CoE) in cyber security.

Key points

• Dean, Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy (SRIC), at IIT Bhubaneswar Prof Dinakar Pasla and Whizhack Technologies co-founder and chief operating officer Kaushik Ray signed the MoU. 
• The association with the leading vertically integrated cyber security company will help establish a research and development ecosystem at IIT Bhubaneswar for cyber security products and solutions, skilling and knowledge transfer, laboratory development and establishing cyber security centre of excellence

All rights are reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of Adda247.