Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 07 October 2022

::NATIONAL::

National Lok Adalat

National Lok Adalat will be held on 12 November across the country to dispose off pending cases through settlement, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution said in a statement.
The mission of the Department of Consumer Affairs is to strengthen consumer protection and safety through progressive legislation, empower consumers through awareness and education, and provide access to fair and efficient grievance redressal mechanisms.

About:

Lok Adalat is one of the alternative dispute redressal mechanisms. It is a forum where pending cases in the court of law or at the pre-litigation stage are settled amicably.
The first Lok Adalat camp was organized in Gujarat in 1982 without any statutory backing for its decisions.
With the observance of its acceptance and popularity among the citizens, Lok Adalats have been given statutory status under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.
A total number of 1,27,87,329 cases were disposed of in 2021. Over 1 crore cases were settled in the 3rd National Lok Adalat in August 2022.

National Legal Services Authority (NALSA)’s constitution and significance:

National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has been constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, to provide free legal services to weaker sections of society. NALSA is housed at the Supreme Court of India.
It aims to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reasons of economic or other disabilities.

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Infant Mortality Rate

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lauded the collective commitments of 130 crore Indians to strengthen Nari Shakti in the country.

About:

India has registered decline in female infant mortality rate.
The country’s female Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) dropped to same level as males.
However, in sixteen states, IMR remained higher for female babies than male but the gap had reduced since 2011.
According to Sample Registration System Statistical Report 2020, Chhattisgarh had the highest gap in 2020, with a male infant mortality rate of 35 compared to female infant mortality rate of 41.

Interventions for improving Infant Mortality Rate (IMR):

Facility Based New-born Care: Sick New-born Care Units (SNCUs) are established at District Hospital and Medical College level, New-born Stabilization Units (NBSUs) are established at First Referral Units (FRUs)/ Community Health Centres (CHCs) for care of sick and small babies.
Community Based care of New-born and Young Children: Under Home Based New-born Care (HBNC) and Home-Based Care of Young Children (HBYC) program, home visits are performed by ASHAs to improve child rearing practices and to identify sick new-born and young children in the community.
Mothers’ Absolute Affection (MAA): Early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding for first six months and appropriate Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices are promoted under Mothers’ Absolute Affection (MAA).

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::INTERNATIONAL::

India on 6th October abstained on a draft resolution in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka which was adopted.

About:

While abstaining, India stressed that it will work with Sri Lanka and the international community to attain the related objectives of legitimate aspirations of Tamils of Sri Lanka and prosperity for all Sri Lankans.
The draft resolution on ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’ was adopted at the 51st Session of Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The resolutions on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka were previously moved in Geneva in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, and in 2021.

UN Human Rights Council

It is an inter-governmental body within the UN system.
It meets at the UN Office at Geneva.
It was founded in 2006. It replaced the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR).

Functions:

It investigates allegations of breaches of human rights in UN member states.
It addresses important human rights issues such as freedom of expression, women’s rights, LGBT rights, and the rights of racial and ethnic minorities.
The UNHRC works closely with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Membership:

The Council is made of 47 Member States, which are elected by UN General Assembly through direct and secret ballot. The Council’s Membership is based on equitable geographical distribution.

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NOPEC bill

US legislation that could open members of oil producing group OPEC+ to antitrust lawsuits has emerged as a possible tool to tackle high fuel prices, after the body said it would slash production despite lobbying by the Biden administration.

About:

The No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels (NOPEC) bill, which passed a Senate committee 17-4 on May 5, is intended to protect U.S. consumers and businesses from engineered oil spikes.
The bipartisan NOPEC bill would tweak U.S. antitrust law to revoke the sovereign immunity that has protected OPEC+ members and their national oil companies from lawsuits. If signed into law, the U.S. attorney general would gain the option to sue the oil cartel or its members, such as Saudi Arabia, in federal court.
It is unclear exactly how a federal court could enforce judicial antitrust decisions against a foreign nation. The United States could also face criticism for its attempts to manipulate markets by, for example, its planned release of 165 million barrels of oil from the emergency oil reserve between May and November.
But several attempts to pass NOPEC over more than two decades have long worried OPEC’s de facto leader Saudi Arabia, leading Riyadh to lobby hard every time a version of the bill has come up.
Previous versions of the NOPEC bill have failed amid resistance by oil industry groups, including the top U.S. oil lobby group, the American Petroleum Institute (API). But anger has risen in Congress about gasoline prices that earlier this year helped fuel inflation to the highest level in decades.

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::ECONOMY::

International Year of Millets (IYOM)-2023

MoU signed between Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and NAFED to boost International Year of Millets (IYOM)-2023.

About:

The United Nations General Assembly has declared the year 2023 as the International Year of Millets. This was adopted by a United Nations Resolution for which India took the lead and was supported by over 70 nations.
This will help to create awareness throughout the world of the importance of millets, its role in sustainable agriculture, and its benefits as a smart and super food.
India is poised to become the global hub for millets with a production of more than 170 lakh tonnes and producing more than 80 % of the millets produced in Asia.
Earliest evidence for these grains have been found in Indus civilization and were one of the first plants domesticated for food.
It is grown in about 131 countries and is the traditional food for around60 crore people in Asia & Africa.

Millet:

Millet is a cereal that belongs to the grass family.

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::SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY::

Click Chemistry

The 2022 Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to Carolyn R Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K Barry Sharpless “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry”

About:

Sharpless was the first scientist to work on ‘click chemistry’ – a branch of science that explores the assembly of molecules.
Meldal and Dr. Sharpless – independently of each other – presented the copper-catalysedazide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC), a reaction that is now widely used in fields like medicinal chemistry. The CuAAC reaction is an improved form of the azide-alkyne Huisgen cycloaddition.
Bertozzi improved the field further by developing click reactions that work inside living organisms. These bioorthogonal reactions do not disrupt the normal chemistry of the cell.

What is click chemistry?

Click chemistry is a functional field where molecules snap together quickly and efficiently – literally like a click. It is defined as a “set of powerful, highly reliable, and selective reactions for the rapid synthesis of useful new compounds and combinatorial libraries through heteroatom links”.

Need of Click Chemistry

Replicating reactions that involve bonds between carbon atoms – that are vital to the existence of life – is expensive and often leads to side reactions and loss of material.

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