Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill 2021

• The Union Cabinet approved amendments to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015.
• The amendments include authorizing District Magistrates including Additional District Magistrates to issue adoption orders under Section 61 of the JJ Act, in order to ensure speedy disposal of cases and enhance accountability.
• The District Magistrates have been further empowered under the Act, to ensure its smooth implementation, as well as garner synergized efforts in favour of children in distress conditions.
• As per the amended provisions of the Act, any Child Care Institutions shall be registered after considering the recommendations of the District Magistrate.
• The DM shall independently evaluate the functioning of District Child Protection Units, Child Welfare Committees, Juvenile Justice Boards, Specialized Juvenile Police Units, Child care Institutions etc.
• The eligibility parameters for appointment of CWC members have been redefined.
• Criteria for disqualification of the CWC members has also been introduced to ensure that only the persons capable of rendering quality service with requisite competence and integrity are appointed to CWC.
• Presently there are three categories (petty, serious and heinous) defined under the Act which are referred to, while considering the cases of children in conflict with law.
• However, it was observed that some of the offences do not strictly fall under any of these categories.
• It has been decided that offences where the maximum sentence is more than 7 years imprisonment but no minimum sentence has been prescribed or minimum sentence of less than 7 years is provided, shall be treated as serious offences within this Act.
• The district child protection unit will function under district magistrate.
• Before becoming a member of the CWC, background and educational qualification checks will be done.
• Before registration of a CCI, DM will conduct its capacity and background check, and submit recommendations to state government.
• The definition of “child in need of care” and protection of the JJ Act has been expanded to include, Child victims of trafficking and drug abuse and Children abandoned by their guardian.
• There is a proposal to appoint a nodal office in each embassy to monitor the child adopted abroad.

PM Fasal Bima Yojana, 2016 = MoAFW

• One Nation – One Scheme theme.
• It will replace 2 schemes: National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS) and the modified NAIS.
• It was launched along with 2 schemes: Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS) and restructured pilot UPIS (Unified Package Insurance Scheme).
• Objectives:
  1. Provide insurance coverage,
  2. Stabilize (not double) income of farmers,
  3. Encourage farmers to adopt innovative and modern agriculture practices and
  4. Ensure flow of credit to Agri sector.
• Components
  1. Uniform premium of 2% for all Kharif crops, 1.5% for all Rabi crops and 5% for all commercial and horticulture crops.
  2. No upper limit on Government subsidies. Earlier there was a capping but now the farmers will get a claim against the full sum insured without any reduction.
  3. Even for the 1st time, Post-harvest losses are also covered.
  4. ‘Area Approach basis’. Use of technology for 1st time - smartphones, remote sensing.
  5. Compulsory for Loanee farmers and Voluntary for other farmers. Now voluntary for all Farmers.
• Centre has halved its contribution to Crop Insurance Schemes - PMFBY. Share of premium subsidy from current 50% to just 25% in irrigated areas and 30% for unirrigated areas.
• The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is available for all States/UTs and farmers whether loanee, non-loanee, sharecropper or tenant farmers on a voluntary basis.
• The concerned State Government notifies the crops and areas under the Scheme. Therefore, benefits of the scheme are available to all those farmers who are growing notified crops in areas/insurance units notified by the concerned State Government.
• Based on the experience gained, views of various stakeholders and with a view to ensure better transparency, accountability, timely payment of claims to the farmers and to make the scheme more farmer-friendly, Government has comprehensively revised and revamped the Operational Guidelines of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) with effect from Rabi 2018 and Kharif 2020 respectively to ensure the targeted delivery of benefits of the scheme to the farmers adequately and timely.
• Further, National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) has been developed for ensuring better administration, coordination, transparency, dissemination of information and delivery of services including direct online enrollment of farmers, uploading/obtaining individual insured farmer’s details for better monitoring and ensuring transfer of claim amount electronically to the individual farmers' Bank Account. To ensure timely payment of claims, the use of a smartphone/CCE-Agri App for real-time transfer of data on the national crop insurance portal has been initiated. Crop Insurance app has also been launched, on which farmers can enrol themselves under the scheme, track their crop insurance and get all information about it.
• Penalty provisions of @12% per annum for late settlement of claims by insurance companies and late release of funds by State Governments have also been stipulated under the scheme.

Anti Drone system developed by India

• DRDO has developed an anti-drone system to neutralize enemy drone attacks.
• The Indigenous Drone Technology is capable of counter-attacks including detection, Soft Kill (for jamming the communication links of Drone) and Hard Kill (Laser based on hard kill to destroy the Drone) of enemy Drones.

The Anti-Drone System Technology and how it works

• Anti-drone systems are used to detect and/or intercept unwanted drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
• Hostile drones may be used to deploy explosives, smuggle contraband or gather intelligence on sensitive assets, and the proliferation of low-cost UAVs has led to an increase in incidents.
• Anti-drone technology is deployed to protect areas such as airports, critical infrastructure, large public spaces such as stadiums, military installations and battlefield sites.
• Electro-optical (EO) and infrared (IR) sensors can be used to detect drones based on their visual and heat signatures, respectively.
• These sensors may need to be paired with machine vision and artificial intelligence algorithms that can reduce the risk of false positives and false negatives.
• EO/IR gimbals for anti-drone systems are available that combine multiple cameras into one payload and can be mounted on a fixed site or moving vehicle.
• Acoustic CUAS detection systems compare the noise made by drone propulsion systems to a database of sounds. Their accuracy can be affected by other noise in the vicinity.
• The System is already demonstrated to Armed Services and other internal security agencies.
• The indigenous DRDO Counter-Drone Technology is transferred to M/s BEL. Simultaneously Transfer of Technology (ToT) of the Counter-Drone System is offered to other companies.

To read the complete 20 Defense reforms in 2020: Click here

National Education Policy turns one

• On the first anniversary of the National Education Policy (NEP), the Centre plans to officially roll out some initiatives promised in the policy, such as a credit transfer system that will allow multiple entries and exit options in higher education, as well as engineering programmes in regional languages.
• However, other promised reforms such as the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI), the four-year undergraduate degree, and the common university entrance test, are not ready yet.

Academic Bank of Credit

• The Academic Bank of Credit will be rolled out for students in over 290 top institutions from the current academic year 2021-22 onwards.
• All institutions in the top 100 of the National Institutional Ranking Framework as well as those who have achieved an A grade under the National Assessment and Accreditation Council will be allowed to participate in the credit transfer system, which will also allow multiple entries and exit options for students, according to senior Education Ministry officials.
• However, the proposal for four-year undergraduate degrees has run into some opposition, especially from faculty at the premier University of Delhi, and will also have to wait for the National Higher Education Curricular Framework, which is still being prepared, they said.

A mix of subjects

• Multidisciplinarity is also being encouraged with guidelines to be issued to allow the merger of institutes as well as to give students the choice of taking subjects such as social sciences, music and sports while getting engineering degrees, or even get a minor degree in emerging areas while majoring in a different subject.
• Although premier institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology have baulked at the idea of introducing courses in Indian languages, Mr Modi will announce the launch of engineering degrees in regional languages in about 14 smaller institutions. He will also announce the establishment of the National Digital Education Architecture and National Education Technology Forum.