Prelim Booster News discussion

13 December, 2017
 Jallikattu issue to go to Constitution Bench
• The Supreme Court on Tuesday said a Constitution Bench would examine if the
people of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra can conserve jallikattu
• Bullock cart races as their cultural right and demand their protection under Article 29
(1) of the Constitution.
• Article 29 (1) is a fundamental right guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution to
protect the educational and cultural rights of citizens.
• Though commonly used to protect the interests of minorities, the Article mandates
that “any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof
having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve
the same”.
• Article 29 (1) does not necessarily confine to the cultural rights of minorities but may well
include the majority.
• “prevention” of cruelty to animals under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960
Article 29
 Peta  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an American animal rights
organization based in Norfolk, Virginia
• A nonprofit corporation with nearly 400 employees, it claims that it has 6.5 million
members and supporters,
• Its slogan is "Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment,
or abuse in any other way.
• Founded in March 1980
 Centre to give ₹500 to TB patients every month
• About 35 lakh identified tuberculosis patients across the country will soon get ₹500 every
month from the Centre as social support.
• will start providing the cash benefit for social support that will cover loss of wages, travel
and mainly nutrition, soon.
• In the absence of nutritional support, undernourished patients with TB do get
enmeshed in a vicious cycle of worsening disease and under-nutrition, which can be
detrimental and even fatal.
 Special courts to try politicians
• The court on November 1 directed the Centre to place before it details of 1,581 cases
involving MPs and MLAs, as declared by the politicians at the time of filing their
nominations during the 2014 general elections.
• The Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that it will set up at least 12
special courts to try exclusively criminal cases involving MPs and MLAs.
• The government, in an affidavit, said it had allotted ₹7.8 crore and framed a scheme
to set up the special courts.
• The Bench said the Supreme Court would directly interact with the State
governments on issues like the appointment of judicial officers, public prosecutors,
court staff and other requirements of manpower and infrastructure for the special
courts.
 World Economic Situation and Prospects Report
• Jointly published by the united nations department of economic and social affairs
(UN-DESA), the united nations conference on trade and development (UNCTAD).
• 2017 marks the 70th anniversary of the publication.
• It is the flagship report on the state of global economy.
• Un-desa  un-desa is based at un headquarters in new york.
• Entity of the un secretariat
• Responsible for economic, social and environmental issues.
• It promotes international cooperation in the pursuit of sustainable development.
• It publishes “sustainable development goals report 2017”
 UNCTAD
• headquartered  Geneva, Switzerland
• part of the United Nations Development Group (UNDG).
• It was formed specifically to handle the problems of developing countries dealing with
trade, investment and development issues.
• Other reports by UNCTAD –
1. Trade and Development Report,
2. World Investment Report,
3. The Least Developed Countries Report,
4. Information and Economy Report,
5. Technology and Innovation Report
6. Commodities and Development Report.
 Question
‘Global Financial Stability Report’ is prepared by the
(a) European Central Bank
(b) International Monetary Fund
(c) International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(d) Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
 First NIC-CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team)
• Country’s first NIC-CERT has been recently setup that will monitor, detect and
prevent cyber attacks on government networks
• It uses various tools to gather intelligence to identify vulnerabilities and possible
exploits thereby predicting cyber incidents.
• The NIC-CERT will monitor and help in early detection and mitigation of
cyberattacks on government networks.
• Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) is under the Ministry of Electronics
and Information Technology.
• It has been designated to serve as the national agency to collect, analyse and
disseminate information on cyber incidents.
• National Informatics Centre (NIC) provides nationwide common ICT infrastructure
consisting of national and state “Data Centres” to support e-Governance services to
the citizen.
PIB
 Laqshya Initiative
• Central govt.  Labour Room Quality Improvement Initiative.
• objective  Reduce preventable maternal and new-born mortality
• improving the quality of care provided in the labour room.
• It will be implemented in Government Medical Colleges besides District Hospitals,
and Sub- District Hospitals and Community Health Centres.
• The initiative plans to conduct quality certification of labour rooms and also
incentivize facilities achieving the targets outlined.
 Universal Health Coverage Day:
• Universal Health Coverage Day was commemorated on 12th December, 2017.
• It is the anniversary of the first unanimous United Nations resolution calling for countries
to provide affordable, quality health care to every person, everywhere.
• Universal Health Coverage (UHC) means everyone can access the quality health services
they need without financial hardship.
• Universal health coverage has been included in the new Sustainable Development Goals
adopted by the United Nations