Saturday 24 December 2016

Current Affairs -Indian IAS Academy module-2


1.Hong Kong to withdraw visa-free facility for Indians from January 23, 2017



·      Hong Kong, a China-administered special territory has decided to withdraw visa-free facility for Indians from January 23, 2017. This decision was taken on the ground to prevent illegal immigration as number of Indian asylum seekers was on the rise.

·       Over half a million Indians visit Hong Kong for business, trade and holidays. Under the new rules, Indian travellers will have to complete a pre-arrival registration.

·     Such pre-registration would not be necessary for those transiting through the Hong Kong airport without leaving the airport transit area. 

·  Background Earlier, Hong Kong used to be part of a block of countries that gave Indians unconditional visa-free entry.

·    Indians were permitted to enter Hong Kong with a valid passport for a period up to 14 days without a visa. However in recent times, it was found that Indian nationals were overstaying in Hong Kong by violating visa norms.

·    Hong Kong’s unilateral decision came a year after its government had sent a delegation headed by the Assistant Director of Immigration from the Immigration Department and Hong Kong Police in December 2015 to India.

·     It had informed concerns about “illegal employment” and “human trafficking” involving Indians in Hong Kong to India’s External Affairs Ministry. They even had expressed concern that many Indians taking up jobs even though Hong Kong does not allow visitors to work.

Visa Free Countries for India:

Country
Type
Bahrain
eVisa
Bhutan
No Visa
Bolivia
Visa on Arrival
Cambodia
Visa on Arrival
Cape Verde
Visa on Arrival
Comoros
Visa on Arrival
Cote d’Ivoire
eVisa
Djibouti
Visa on Arrival
Dominica
No Visa
Ecuador
No Visa
El Salvador
No Visa
Ethiopia
Visa on Arrival
Fiji
No Visa
Gabon
eVisa
Georgia
eVisa
Grenada
No Visa
Guinea-Bissau
Visa on Arrival
Guyana
Visa on Arrival
Haiti
No Visa
Indonesia
Visa on Arrival
Jamaica
No Visa
Jordan
Visa on Arrival
Kenya
eVisa
Laos
Visa on Arrival
Madagascar
Visa on Arrival
Maldives
Visa on Arrival
Mauritania
Visa on Arrival
Mauritius
No Visa
Micronesia
No Visa
Moldova
eVisa
Myanmar
eVisa
Nepal
No Visa
Palau
Visa on Arrival
Rwanda
eVisa
Saint Kitts and Nevis
No Visa
Saint Lucia
Visa on Arrival
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
No Visa
Samoa
Permit on Arrival
São Tomé and Príncipe
eVisa
Senegal
Visa on Arrival
Seychelles
Visa on Arrival
Somalia
Visa on Arrival
Sri Lanka
No Visa but special permit required
Tanzania
Visa on Arrival
Thailand
Visa on Arrival
Togo
Visa on Arrival
Timor-Leste
Visa on Arrival
Trinidad and Tobago
No Visa
Tuvalu
Visa on Arrival
Uganda
Visa on Arrival
Vanuatu
No Visa
Zambia
eVisa
Zimbabwe
eVisa
Bhutan
No Visa
Hong Kong
No Visa
Antartica
Visa on Arrival
South Korea
No Visa
FYRO Macedonia
No Visa
Svalbard
No Visa
Montserrat
No Visa
Turks & Caicos Islands
No Visa


2.GARV-II App launched



The government has launched GARV- II app to track Rural Household Electrification. This is the next step in Government of India’s aim to provide access to electricity to all households in the country.

About the scheme

§  Under this module, village-wise and habitation-wise base line data on household electrification for all States, as provided by them, has been incorporated.

§  The data in respect of about 6 lakh villages, with more than 15 lakh habitations having 17 crore people, has been mapped for tracking progress on household electrification in each of the habitations of these villages, which is a remarkable progress over the previous GARV App.

§  In the earlier version of the ‘GARV’ App, launched in October 2015 for the effective and efficient monitoring of village electrification programme, the data of only 18,452 un-electrified villages had been mapped and a 12-stage milestone-based monitoring mechanism was put in place.

§  The status of village-wise works sanctioned under the DeenDayalUpadhyaya Gram JyotiYojana (DDUGJY) and release of funds to the States for these projects has also been mapped in ‘GARV-II’ to monitor progress of works in each village. The progress is required to be updated by the implementing agencies of the States on day to day basis. All data would be made available in public domain to ensure transparency, enhance accountability of various stakeholders and facilitate view of near real time progress.

§  This app is an important part of the ‘Digital India Initiative’ of Government of India and will contribute in further development of the villages. In order to bring more transparency, the Minister asked the Power Ministry officials to place more details regarding discoms, tenders and contracts in public domain.

§  For places, where internet facilities are not available, information regarding rural electrification projects like contractor’s name, amount sanctioned by the Government, deadline of the project etc. will be put on boards on the working sites in villages. This will help people in better monitoring of Government’s work.


3.National Commission for Protection of Child Rights gets SKOCH Awards for POCSO e-Box:



§  The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) of Ministry of Women and Child Development has been conferred the Skoch Silver and Skoch Order-of Merit award.

§  The two awards were received by NCPCR for applying technology to develop an electronic drop box, POCSO e-Box for registering complaints on Child Sexual Abuse.

§  The competition saw more than 3000 participants and NCPCR’s project, POCSO e-box was considered among the top 30 entries.

§  POCSO e-box is a unique endeavour by NCPCR for receiving online complaint of Child Sexual Abuse directly from the victim. The system maintains confidentiality of the victim/ complainant.

§  Through a well defined procedure complaints are directly followed up by a team which counsels the victim, providing further guidance for required legal action. Through a short animation film embedded in the e-box it assures the victim not to feel bad, helpless or confused as it’s not her fault. With the e-box, it is easy to register complaint through a step-by-step guided process.

About National Commission for Protection of Child Rights:

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights is a statutory body set up in 2007 under Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005.
Objective of this commission is to protect, promote and defend the child rights in India including the rights adopted in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children, 1989, ratified by India in 1992. (This convention defines child as a human being below 18 years of age)


4.Alarming rise in forest fires across India



·         According to report submitted by Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, there is alarming rise in forest fires across India. It says that the number of forest fires have touched 24,817 in 2016 from 15,937 fires in 2015.

·          It shows alarming rise 55% in the past year. The report primarily focuses on the prevention and containing of fires in the Himalayan forests spread across Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir.


Findings of Committee

·         There increase in forest fires is seen even though 2015 was considered a drought year. But there is decline in frequency of forest fires by around 16%. The three central States of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha contribute a third of the forest fires.

·         Madhya Pradesh has seen a nearly ten-fold increase in forest fires, from just 294 in 2015 to more than 2,600 in 2016. In Himachal and Uttarakhand, over 17,502 acres have been ravaged in 2016 due to forest fires, a rise of over 171%.

·         Large number of posts of front line forest staff were lying vacant, while fire-fighting equipment is rudimentary in many cases. Recommendations National policy on managing forest fires must be framed. Replacing pine reserve forests areas with “broad-leaf” plants.

·         Procurement of sweeping machines to clear roadsides of Chir pine needles. Advocating large-scale incentives and programmes (including under MNREGA) to collect pines for use as fuel, and other incineration.

About the committee

·         The committee was formed after a series of devastating forest fires earlier in the year 2016 including the prolonged one that had charred 4,000 hectares of forest land across 13 districts of Uttarakhand in May 2016.

·         The committee was headed by RajyaSabha MP RenukaChoudhary.


5.Scientist observed the creation of ice crystals on individual atmospheric particles in the laboratory





·         US based researchers for the first time have observed the creation of ice crystals on individual atmospheric particles in the laboratory.

·       This observation gives an unprecedented glimpse at most critical but least understood parts of the process of cold clouds formation.

·      Researchers had replicated heterogeneous ice nucleation process in which particle attracts water vapour and forms ice crystals.

·      For this, they replicated suitable conditions found high above Earth’s surface at an altitude of about 6 kilometres where cirrus clouds form in the sky due to ice crystals. They witnessed formation of ice crystals in highly confined climate-controlled chamber in which atmospheric temperature, pressure and humidity conditions were maintained similar in atmosphere.

·          For recreation of ice nucleation, researchers also used extremely small particles of a clay mineral called kaolinite. These particles were just 2–3 microns in size, or less than one-tenth width of a human hair.

·         The kaolinite was then placed in a highly confined climate-controlled chamber of very small size, which was photographed by an environmental scanning electron microscope. It was found that nucleation occurred at temperatures as low as minus 68 degrees Celsius with relative humidity from about 70 to 80%.

·         Natural process of heterogeneous ice nucleation At an altitude of about 6 kilometres, relative humidity is high and temperatures are very low. It forces water vapour to collect on any small particles floating in the atmosphere, before freezing in place as an ice deposit. In the atmosphere, such airborne particles could be almost anything, including volcanic ash, aircraft emissions, or even microbes.

Atmospheric particulate matter 
Atmospheric particulate matteralso known as particulate matter (PM) or particulates – are microscopic solid or liquid matter suspended in the Earth's atmosphere. The term aerosol commonly refers to the particulate/air mixture, as opposed to the particulate matter alone.Sources of particulate matter can be man-made or natural. They have impacts on climate and precipitation that adversely affect human health.
Subtypes of atmospheric particulate matter include:
·         Suspended particulate matter (SPM)

·         Thoracic and respirable particles

·         Inhalable coarse particles, which are [coarse] particles with a diameter between 2.5 and 10 micrometres (μm)

·         Fine particles with a diameter of 2.5 μm or less

·         PM2.5 

·         PM10

·         Ultrafine particles, and

·         Soot




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