PERIYAR IAS CURRENT AFFAIRS 30-MAY-2018
Topic:
Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.
NCDRC
Context: Former
Supreme Court judge Justice R K Agrawal has been appointed the President of the
National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC).
About NCDRC:
The
National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), India is a
quasi-judicial commission in India which was set up in 1988 under the Consumer
Protection Act of 1986. The commission is headed by a sitting or retired judge
of the Supreme Court of India.
Statutory provisions:
Section 21 of
Consumer Protection Act, 1986 posits that
the National Consumer shall have jurisdiction to entertain a complaint valued
more than one crore and also have Appellate and Revisional jurisdiction from
the orders of State Commissions or the District fora as the case may be.
Section 23 of
Consumer Protection Act, 1986, provides that any person aggrieved by an order
of NCDRC, may
prefer an Appeal against such order to Supreme Court of India within a period
of 30 days.
What’s important?
§ For
Prelims: NCDRC, Consumer Protection Act- Key features.
§ For Mains:
Dispute redressal mechanisms and their significance.
Sources:
the hindu.
Topic:
e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential.
PRAAPTI app
Context: In a
bid to rein in errant distribution companies (discoms) that
delay payments to power generation companies, the Power Ministry has launched
the Praapti web portal, that aims at bringing transparency in power sector of
India.
About PRAAPTI:
PRAAPTI,
Payment Ratification and Analysis in Power procurement for bringing
Transparency in Invoicing of generators, will contain all details related to
payments.
§ The app
will enable citizens to monitor the payments that are being made to power
generation companies. The app will also allow its users to know the details related
to the payments made by the discoms to
the power generation company and when it was made.
§ PRAAPTI
will also enable the consumers to know the performance of their discoms in terms of payments that are being
made to the generation companies. Later, the performance of the discomswill be ratified on the basis of payments
that were made.
What’s important?
For
Prelims and Mains: PRAAPTI app and its significance.
Sources:
pib.
Paper 3:
Topic:
Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and
issues relating to intellectual property rights.
TRAI proposes use of blockchain technology
Context: Telecom
regulator Trai has issued new draft norms to curb pesky calls and SMSes by
using blockchain technology. When implemented, Trai will become first organisation to
implement this kind of regulation.
Key facts:
§ The new
technology aims to ensure that telemarketing messages are sent only to those
who have subscribed to them, and that too by authorized entities. The draft
proposes to check misuse of repeated unsolicited calls being made even to those
subscribers who have given consent.
§ The
new technology based norms
will record all communication between subscribers and entities, capturing
customer consent for information and authorised telemarketing
agencies.
§ A
subscriber may have given consent for a service but that consent is liable to
be misused. Under the proposed regulation. The subscriber will be able to
revoke consent given to entities whenever he or she desires through Trai app
and other mechanism that
will be provided under the regulation.
What is Blockchain?
Blockchain is
the digital and decentralized ledger that records transactions without the need
for a financial intermediary, which in most cases is a bank. A blockchain is an
anonymous online ledger that uses data structure
to simplify the way we transact. Blockchain allows users to manipulate the
ledger in a secure way without the help of a third party.
How it works?
Blockchain
enables two entities that do not know each other to agree that something is
true without the need of a third party. As opposed to writing
entries into a single sheet of paper, a blockchain is a distributed database
that takes a number of inputs and places them into a block. Each block is then
‘chained’ to the next block using a cryptographic signature. This allows
blockchains to be used as a ledger which is accessible by anyone with
permission to do so. If everyone in the process is pre-selected, the
ledger is termed ‘permissioned’. If the process is open to the whole world, the
ledger is called unpermissioned.
Benefits of blockchain technology:
A
blockchain is anonymous, protecting the identities of the users. This makes
blockchain a more secure way to carry out transactions. The algorithm used in
blockchain reduces the dependence on people to verify the transactions.
Concerns associated:
Blockchain is
still a (relatively) new technology and is not without its problems. For a
start, there are ongoing concerns about privacy in the settlement and storage
of securities – blockchain providers are working hard to address.
Banks are
also at threat
with blockchain, since
more and more firms (using their IT service providers from India and elsewhere)
will build systems that can create and exchange ‘blocks’ with one another
completely legally, without ever having to use the banks as a financial
intermediary.
Way ahead:
Blockchain is
not a panacea for all issues facing the banking system today. However,
blockchain is an ideal technology to ensure proof of integrity to the data and
reduce incidents of fraud.
What’s important?
§ For
Prelims: Blockchain- how it works.
§ For Mains:
Prevention of fraud, use of technology in this regard.
Sources:
the hindu.
Topic: Science
and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday
life.
4th Room-Temperature Ferromagnetic Element:
Ruthenium
Context: A
platinum-group chemical element called ruthenium (Ru) is the fourth single
element to have unique ferromagnetic properties at room temperature.
About Ru:
§ Ruthenium
is a chemical element with symbol Ru and atomic number 44. It is a rare
transition metal belonging to the platinum group of the periodic table. Like
the other metals of the platinum group, ruthenium is inert to most other
chemicals.
§ Most
ruthenium produced is used in wear-resistant electrical contacts and thick-film
resistors. A minor application for ruthenium is in platinum alloys and as
a chemistry catalyst.
A new application of ruthenium is as the capping layer for extreme ultraviolet
photomasks.
§ Ruthenium
is generally found in ores with the other platinum group metals in the Ural
Mountains and in North and South America. Small but commercially important
quantities are also found in pentlandite extracted from Sudbury, Ontario and in
pyroxenite deposits in South Africa.
§ From an
application perspective, Ru is interesting because it does not oxidize easily
and theoretical predictions indicate it is particularly temperature-stable,
which is an important property allowing scaling of magnetic memories.
Significance of the discovery:
The
discovery could be used to improve sensors, devices in the computer memory and
logic industry, or other devices using magnetic materials.
Facts for Prelims:
§ Ferromagnetism
is the basic mechanism by which certain materials form permanent magnets, or
are attracted to magnets.
§ So far,
only three single elements were found to be ferromagnetic at room temperature:
iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), and nickel (Ni); the rare earth element gadolinium (Gd)
nearly misses by only 8 degrees Celsius.
§ Magnetic
materials are very important in industry and modern technology and have been
used for fundamental studies and in many everyday applications such as sensors,
electric motors, generators, hard disk media, and most recently spintronic memories.
Sources: toi.
Topic: IP
related issues.
GI tag for rural crafts
Context: The
Chau mask of Purulia, the wooden mask of Kushmandi, the Patachitra, the Dokras
of Bengal, and Madhurkathi (a kind of mat) have been presented with the
Geographical Indication (GI) tag by the Geographical Indication Registry and
Intellectual Property India.
Significance of this recognition:
GI tags
for these five rural crafts would not only help the artisans create their own
brand but would also provide legal protection to artisans practising the
crafts against attempts to duplicate them in other regions. It will also have a
direct impact on the occupation of 5,000-6,000 families in the State.
About GI tag:
What is it?
A GI is
primarily an agricultural, natural or a manufactured product (handicrafts and
industrial goods) originating from a definite geographical territory.
Significance of a GI tag:
Typically,
such a name conveys an assurance of quality and distinctiveness, which is
essentially attributable to the place of its origin.
Security:
Once the
GI protection is granted, no other producer can misuse the name to market
similar products. It also provides comfort to customers about the authenticity
of that product.
Sources:
the hindu.
Topic:
conservation of biodiversity.
NGT issues notices on plea to halt road
through Corbett
Context: A
plea seeking a stay on the construction of a link road linking Kotdwar to
Ramnagar through the Corbett Tiger Reserve has led the National Green Tribunal
to seek responses from the Uttarakhand government and the Centre.
What’s the issue?
The
petition alleges that the construction of the road through the park was in
violation of previous Supreme Court orders that prohibited the construction of
any road through the Corbett Tiger Reserve.
About Corbett tiger reserve:
§ Corbett
National Park is situated in the foothills of the Sub- Himalayan belt in
Nainital districts of Uttarakhand state in India.
§ Established
in the year 1936 as Hailey National Park, Corbett has the glory of being
India’s oldest and most prestigious National Park. It is also being honored as
the place where Project Tiger was first launched in 1973. This unique tiger
territory is best known as the father who gave birth of the Project Tiger in
India to protect the most endangered species and the Royal of India called
Tigers.
§ Corbett
National Park covers an area of 521 sq. km and together with the neighboring
Sonanadi Wildlife Sanctuary and Reserve Forest areas, forms the Corbett Tiger Reserve.
§ Corbett is
one of the richest bird regions of the Country and has been declared as an
‘Important Bird Area’ (IBA) by Birdlife International.
Sources:
the hindu.
Facts for Prelims:
Braille-enabled signboards to be used during
Maheshtala bypoll:
Context:
Election Commission of India for the first time will start the use of
Braille-enabled signboardsfor visually
challenged voters in the upcoming Maheshtala Assembly by-election in West
Bengal.
The
initiative of Braille-enabled signboards was part of the drive to make
elections more accessible to persons with disabilities (PWD). The decision to
use Braille-enabled signboards is a State-specific measure to ensure
hassle-free polling experience for visually impaired voters.
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