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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 03 July 2021

::NATIONAL::

Supreme Court held that Section 12 of the Disaster Management Act cast a statutory obligation on National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to recommend minimum relief for the victims of a national disaster.

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Such minimum relief will also include 'ex-gratia assistance' as per Section 12(iii).
Supreme Court, however, left it to NDMA to fix the amount of ex gratia.
Direction came after the Centre said that presently there was no "guideline/policy/scheme inNDMA that may be used to pay for disaster related deaths due to COVID".
Earlier, government had declared COVID-19 a national disaster.

It is an autonomous defence weapon system that uses technologies such as Artificial Intelligence,cybersecurity and robotics to identify and counter threats.
It is capable of protecting a large area of 1,000-2,000 sq km per system against threats such asUnmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), incoming weapons (missiles), loitering munitions andLow-Radar Cross Section (low flying) targets.
Indrajaal, developed by Hyderabad-based Grene Robotics company, came in the backdrop of possible use of drones in recent attack in J&K.

The 15th edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness.

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The ranks are released by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).
The GPI covers 99.7 per cent of the world’s population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, and measures the state of peace across three domains:

1. the level of Societal Safety and Security,

2. the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict, and

3. the degree of Militarisation.

Key findings:

India ranked 135/163 with an improvement of 2 ranks.
Iceland remains the most peaceful country in the world, a position it has held since 2008.
Afghanistan is the least peaceful country in the world for the fourth consecutive year, followed by Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, and Iraq.

Turkey’s controversial exit from Istanbul Convention on Violence Against Women on July 1 has received severe criticism from various quarters and has led to protests across the country.
The development comes over three months after President Tayyip Erdogan issued a decree on March 21 this year, repealing Turkey’s treaty of Istanbul Convention, despite the alarmingly high rates of violence and femicide in the country.

What is the Istanbul Convention on violence against women?

The Council of Europe established the Istanbul Convention, a human rights treaty, with the aim to prevent and prosecute all forms of violence against women, promote gender equality and ensure protection and rehabilitation of women who are victims of violence.
The treaty was opened for ratification in May 2011. From the European Union, 34 countries signed this treaty.
On November 24, 2011, Turkey became the first country to ratify the Istanbul convention and, on March 8, 2012, it incorporated the Istanbul Convention into domestic law.

What are the reasons for Turkey’s withdrawal?

Even though the official gazette did not include the reason for Turkey’s withdrawal, some officials of Erdogan’s nationalist party claimed that the convention demeans traditional family structure, promotes divorces and encourages acceptance of LGBTQ in the society.

How serious is the problem of violence against women in Turkey?

Violence against women and honour killings are persistent in Turkey. The country ranks 133 out of 156 countries in the Global Gender Gap report 2021. According to UN women data, 38 per cent of women in Turkey face violence from a partner in their lifetime.

The commerce ministry said it unveiled plans for freight smart cities to improve urban freight efficiency, and create an opportunity for reduction in the logistics costs.

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Under the freight smart cities initiative, city-level logistics committees would be formed and they will have related government departments and agencies at the local and state levels.
These would also include the private sector from the logistics services and also users of logistics services.
On the freight smart city initiatives, the logistics division is working closely with GIZ (Germany) under Indo-German Development Cooperation, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and RMI India.
From the 10 cities to be identified on immediate basis, it is planned to expand the list to 75 cities in the next phase before scaling up throughout the country, including all state capitals and cities that have more than one million population.
However, the list of cities to be taken up would be finalised in consultation with the state governments.

Recently, energy afterglow of GRB detected in space may help in probing stellar evolution.

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Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB)are short-lived explosions of highly energetic gamma rays lasting from less than a second to several minutes.
GRB are thought to be generated during the formation of black holes. They shine about a million trillion times as bright as the Sun.
They are known to occur at huge distances from Earth, towards the limits of the observableUniverse.
GRBs were first detected in 1967 by the Vela satellites.