Consumer Protection Act, 2019

Context:

• The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 came into force on 20th July 2020.

Details:

• The new Act empowers buyers to ask for replacements, refunds or damages from brands, e-tailers and service providers.
• Aggrieved customers in India will now be able to seek effective legal remedy, on the lines of class action suits seen in many countries.

Salient features of the Act:

Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA):

• The law proposes a Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to regulate matters of consumer rights, trade practices and advertisements prejudicial to the interests of the public, and to promote, protect and enforce the rights of the consumers as a class.
• The proposed CCPA will be able to file suo motu cases on behalf of a class of customers, thereby initiating class action suits that would hold brands and e-tailers accountable.

Simplified Dispute Resolution Process:

• Consumer Commissions are empowered to enforce their orders.
• State Commissions & District Commissions can now review their own orders.
• Ease of approaching Consumer Commissions through E-filing and video conferencing for hearing.

Mediation:

• Mediation is prescribed as an Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism.
• Reference to mediation by Consumer Commissions wherever scope for early settlement exists and parties agree for it.
• No appeal against settlement through mediation.

Product Liability:

• A manufacturer or product service provider or product seller to be responsible to compensate for injury or damage caused by defective product or deficiency in services.
• This provision would deter manufacturers and service providers from delivering defective products or deficient services.

IIT-M researchers use artificial materials and ultrasound to detect defects in large structures

Context:

• Researchers in the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the University of Nairobi have used metamaterials to improve detection of defects in large structures by guided wave ultrasound.
• Engineering structures including buildings, pipelines and rails require periodic testing to prevent catastrophic failures occurring due to corrosion, impact, and strain.
• High-frequency sound waves that travel in the bulk are widely used for non-invasive and non-destructive testing of structural materials.
• Conventional bulk ultrasonic inspection is tedious and time-consuming as it involves point-by-point assessment of structures.

Guided Wave Testing:

• In guided wave testing (GWT), the sound waves are sent along the length of the structure rather than into the structure, allowing the waves to travel longer distances.
• GWT has poorer resolution than conventional ultrasound-based testing due to diffraction limitations.
• The research team used metamaterials to improve the resolution of guided ultrasound waves.

Metamaterial

• A metamaterial is any material engineered to have a property that is not found in naturally occurring materials.
• They are made from assemblies of multiple elements fashioned from composite materials such as metals and plastics.
• The materials are usually arranged in repeating patterns, at scales that are smaller than the wavelengths of the phenomena they influence.
• Metamaterials derive their properties not from the properties of the base materials, but from their newly designed structures. Their precise shape, geometry, size, orientation and arrangement gives them their smart properties capable of manipulating electromagnetic waves: by blocking, absorbing, enhancing, or bending waves, to achieve benefits that go beyond what is possible with conventional materials.
• Appropriately designed metamaterials can affect waves of electromagnetic radiation or sound in a manner not observed in bulk materials.
• Those that exhibit a negative index of refraction for particular wavelengths have been the focus of a large amount of research
• These materials are known as negative-index metamaterials.

Vulnerable groups petition global fund

Context

• Deprived of sources of livelihood during the pandemic, sex workers, trans-persons, gay and bisexual men, drug users and people living with HIV/AIDS have written to the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) protesting against being ignored by governments and multilateral agencies in COVID-19-related emergency relief efforts.

Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM)

• Founded in 2002, GFATM, also known as Global Fund, is an international financing organization.
• The Global Fund was formed as an independent, non-profit foundation under Swiss law and hosted by the World Health Organization in January 2002.
• In January 2009, the organization became an administratively autonomous organization, terminating its administrative services agreement with the World Health Organization.
• It aims to “attract, leverage and invest additional resources to end the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria to support attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations.”
• It is a partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and people affected by the diseases.
• Its secretariat is in Geneva, Switzerland.