ETEN Enlightens-Daily current capsules

(Prelims Prominence) – 18thJan 2018

DEFENCE
Vajra Prahar

 Indo-US special forces joint training exercise conducted alternately

in India and The US

 Upcoming edition will be held at – joint base lewis-Mc

Chord(JBLM) in Seattle
  The exercise will mainly focus on special operations in urban areas

NATIONAL
IPrism

 Intellectual property competition for colleges and university

students
 The cell for IPR promotion and management (CIPAM),Department
of Industrial Policy and promotin (DIPP)
 IN collaboration with ASSOCHAM and ERICSSON has launched
this competition
 Aims to foster a culture of innovation and creativity in the young
generation

INTERNATIONAL BODIES

Global Forum for Food & Agriculture

 10th edition – held in Berlin Germany

 From 18th -20th January 2018.
 Theme -“Shaping the future of livestock – sustainably, responsibly,
efficiently”.
  Indian delegation to the event is led by Union Minister of State
(MoS) for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Gajendra Singh
Shekhawat.
 The discussions during the conference focussed on sustainable and
productive animal production among other issues.
Enlighten aboutGlobal Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA)
 Focuses on the future of global agri-food industry concerns.
 It is world’s largest conference of agriculture.
 It provides common platform to representatives from worlds of
politics, business, science and civil society opportunity to share
ideas and enhance understanding on selected topic of current
agricultural policy

ENVIRONMENT
World Energy and Environment Conference

 The 5th Series World Energy and Environment Conference and

Exhibition 2018 at Bahrain.
Organised by -
 The World Energy and Environment Council

Theme -

 Shifting to Clean, Renewable Energy in Time of Transition

Enlighten ABOUT WEEC

  WEEC is a world platform that address serious issues about
environment and the challenges to turn to clean, renewable energy.
 The focus is into the development of energy policy, sustainable
strategies, sustainable resource developments and sustainable
economic development.

 WEEC aim for commitment from governments, its leaders, for

lawmakers to do intelligent thinking, get brilliant ideas in directing
laws and regulations.
 With the private sectors cooperation and participation, creating a
roadmap toward sustainability for the benefit of all.

World environment award 2018

 The Energy Globe World Award is an international award in the

field of environment instituted by the Energy Globe Foundation
annually to recognise projects that make careful and economical
use of resources and employ alternative energy sources.

 Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) has won the 18th

Energy Globe World Award -2017 as the one and only
organisation from India.
 KISS won the award in ‘Fire’ Category for green initiatives
undertaken by this institute that reduces the ecological footprint for
large scale cooking.

GOVERNMENT REFORMS
Govt. to revisit Malimath report

Panel proposed reforms in criminal justice system

 A 2003 report of a Committee on reforms in the criminal justice

system that recommended admissibility of confessions made
before a police officer as evidence in a court of law is being
revisited by the Centre, a senior government official said.

 The Committee on Reforms of the Criminal Justice System, or the

Justice Malimath Committee, was constituted by the Home
Ministry in 2000 by then Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, who
also held the Home portfolio.
 It was headed by Justice V.S. Malimath, former Chief Justice of
the Karnataka and Kerala High Courts.
 The Malimath panel had made 158 recommendations but these
were never implemented.
 The subsequent UPA governments from 2004 to 2014 did not act
on the report either.
Major recommendations

 The Committee also suggested constituting a National Judicial

Commission and amending Article 124 to make impeachment of
judges less difficult.

 It had suggested that Section 54 of Evidence Act be substituted by

a provision to the effect that in criminal cases, evidence of bad
character and antecedents is relevant

Article 124
  Article 124 of Constitution of India deals with Establishment and
constitution of Supreme Court
 It deals with the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court of
India
 It also talks about the number of judges to the superior Courts,
their qualification and the mode of appointment of Chief Justice of
India
 It talks about the impeachment of judges and mentions the two
conditions (proved misbehaviour or incapacity) in which the
impeachment be exercised
 It also imposes restrictions on the judges of Supreme Court by
restraining them from pleading or appearing before any authority
within the territory of India

NATIONAL
Branding the coffee grown by Soliga tribes

Tribal coffee

Where –
 Biligiriranga Hills
 The Social Welfare Department have started a ₹2.05-crore project
for branding the beans grown by the Soliga tribals.
 While more than 70 Soligas have taken up coffee plantation in
their hamlet, in Chamrajanagar district itself around 650 Soligas
may be cultivating the bean.
 Araku tribal coffee [from Visakhapatnam] is now sold at premium
stores in Paris.
 The Coffee Board has signed an MoU with the Social Welfare
Department to replicate this for BR Hills
ELECTORAL REFORMS
Proxy voting for migrant workers

Electoral provision meant for NRIs should be extended to others

Meeting of the parliamentary panel on External Affairs, headed by

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor

Question raised in the meeting

 If proxy voting is meant to make it easier for NRIs to exercise their
franchise and save up on travel costs, then why shouldn’t the same
facility be extended to a migrant worker within India?
 Last August, the Cabinet cleared an amendment to the
Representation of the People Act, which allows NRIs to vote by
proxy, a facility only available till now to armed forces personnel
and certain offices notified by the Election Commission.
Fear of easy manipulation
 Proxy voting is open to manipulation.
 The government should have explored a technically sounder way
to get NRIs to vote.
 The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was
not referred to any standing committee. It was introduced in the
Lok Sabha in the recently concluded winter session and has not
yet been debated on.

STATE SPECIFIC
Israel’s P.M visits U.P

Key inputs
 Collaboration to improve the lives of farmers in India’s most
populous state.
 Among the issues raised were the two centres of excellence for
horticulture and food processing coming up in Basti and Kannauj
districts with Israel’s support
 Drinking water management in urban areas and solid waste
managementa government spokesperson said.
 The critical subjects of water conservation, water recharging and
drip irrigation were also discussed in context of the depleting
water table in the drought-prone Bundelkhand.
 A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Jal
Nigam of Uttar Pradesh and Israel’s Ministry of National
Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources on water utility
reforms.

DEFENCE

The Revised Make-II’ procedure

Indian industry can suggest projects related to sub-systems for

innovation

Industry now have more opportunities to participate in defence

production.
Enlighten about the revised Make-II procedure in the Defence
Procurement Procedure

 Indian industry can suggest projects related to sub-systems for

innovation and import substitution under the revised Make-II
procedure in the Defence Procurement Procedure

 “The potential ‘Make-II’ projects will be approved by a collegiate

comprising the DRDO, Headquarter Integrated Defence Staff and
Department of Defence under a committee chaired by Secretary,
Defence Production
 Even start-ups or individuals can propose projects.
 The Service Headquarters will soon come with a list of projects
which can be undertaken under the new procedure.
 Companies would get design and development time of 12 to 30
weeks to offer prototypes and there is no limit to the number of
companies which can respond to the Expression of Interest (EoI).
Enlighten about the ease of process
 Under the new proposal, the time taken to place orders from the
proposal stage would be reduced by 50%.
 After the development period, the Request for Proposal would be
issued to all qualifying companies.
 Once issued, the RFP cannot be retracted. The company which
wins the bid, is assured of an order,” a senior official said.
Single vendor
 In the case of a single vendor situation, the tender would go
through.
 The estimated time to finish the whole process has come down to
69 to 103 weeks.
 There would also be no negotiations under the Contract
Negotiation Committee (CNC)
Sources- the hindu,pib,livemint,et