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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 17 December 2021

::NATIONAL::

The Centre has decided to raise the legal age of marriage of women from 18 to 21 years and is likely to move legislative amendments in the ongoing winter session of Parliament.

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The Union Cabinet cleared a proposal to bring uniformity in the marriageable age of men and women, adding that a Bill to amend the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006, will be introduced during this session.
The proposed Bill may also contain amendments to various personal laws relating to marriage of various communities to ensure a uniform age of marriage.
As of now, the legal age of women to get married is 18, while that for men is 21.

What is the current law that defines legal marriage age of women?

According to the Section 5(iii) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, 18 years has been set as the minimum age for women and 21 for men to marry.
The Special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 also prescribe 18 and 21 years as the minimum age of consent for marriage for women and men, respectively.

The use of zinc is on the rise in Indian agriculture, but more needs to be done to achieve food security and nutritional security of the growing population, said Andrew Green, Executive Director of International Zinc Association (IZA).

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According to estimates, about 40 per cent of the agricultural soils or about 60 million hectares in India are zinc deficient.
Most of this zinc deficiency is found in the soils of Western India, mainly Rajasthan, Central and South India.
Increasing awareness among the farmers to use the micronutrient in fertiliser formulations is crucial to boost not only food production and productivity but also increasing farm incomes.
Increasing awareness:
In a bid to promote use of zinc, IZA along with Hindustan Zinc recently announced a project to study the effect of zinc application on crop productivity, soil health and popularising the zinc fertilisation among the farmers in collaboration with the Maharana Pratap University (MPU) in Udaipur.
As part of the project, MPU would engage and mentor around 100 farmers to incorporate zinc to increase productivity, starting with wheat and maize in the next cropping season.
Zinc sulphate is widely consumed world over in the farm sector. Among the overall zinc fertiliser consumed in the country, zinc sulphate has 75-80 per cent share.
Also, the use of zinc sulphate monohydrate is picking up because of the handling property and is considered value for money by the farmers.

A panel set up by the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled against India’s sugar subsidies.

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It has asked it “withdraw its prohibited subsidies under the Production Assistance, the Buffer Stock, and the Marketing and Transportation Schemes within 120 days from the adoption of report”.
The panel circulated its 115-page report, ‘India — Measures Concerning Sugar and Sugarcane’. The report is yet to be adopted (or rejected) by the WTO’s full membership. The WTO describes itself as a “member-driven”, “consensus-based” organisation.

What was the complaint against India?

Three countries, Australia, Brazil and Guatemala, had complained about “support allegedly provided by India in favour of producers of sugarcane and sugar (domestic support measures), as well as all export subsidies that India allegedly provides for sugar and sugarcane (export subsidy measures)”.
India’s domestic support and export subsidy measures appeared to be inconsistent with various articles of the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture and the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM), and Article XVI (which concerns subsidies) of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT).
India provides domestic support to sugarcane producers that exceeds the de minimis level of 10% of the total value of sugarcane production, which they said was inconsistent with the Agreement on Agriculture.

U.S. Navy tested a laser weapon in Gulf of Aden (separates East Africa from the Arabian Peninsula).

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By focusing a powerful beam of light steadily on an object, the laser can burn through and destroy arange of objects, from small drones to flying missiles.
Such weapons are also known as Directed energy weapons that travel at the speed of light withunprecedented accuracy.
DRDO has also developed a vehicle-mounted high-power laser-directed energy system for useagainst drones.

Background:

A laser weapon is a directed-energy weapon based on lasers. After decades of R&D, as of January 2020 directed-energy weapons including lasers are still at the experimental stage and it remains to be seen if or when they will be deployed as practical, high-performance military weapons.
Atmospheric thermal blooming has been a major problem, still mostly unsolved, and worsened if fog, smoke, dust, rain, snow, smog, foam, or purposely dispersed obscurant chemicals are present.
Essentially, a laser generates a beam of light which needs clear air, or a vacuum, to work without thermal blooming.

NTPC Ltd has awarded the country’s first green hydrogen microgrid project at its Simhadri plant in Andhra Pradesh.

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Green hydrogen is produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using an electrolyzer powered by renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.
The hydrogen would be produced using the advanced 240 kW Solid Oxide Electrolyser by taking input power from the nearby Floating Solar project.
The hydrogen produced during sunshine hours would be stored at high pressure and would be electrified using a 50 kW Solid Oxide Fuel Cell.
The fuel can be a game-changer for the energy security of India, which imports 85% of its oil and 53% of gas requirements.
To promote clean fuels, India is considering making it mandatory for fertilizer plants and oil refineries to purchase green hydrogen.
Project offers benefits of decarbonising far-off regions (e.g. Ladakh) and meet the clean energygoals because of its features like sustainability, easy to store etc.

Union Minister of Atomic Energy said, the Government has accorded ‘In-Principle’ approval of the site at Jaitapur in Maharashtra for setting up six nuclear power reactors of 1650 MW each in technical cooperation with France which would make it the largest nuclear power generating site with a total capacity of 9900 MW.

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The Government has taken several measures to enhance the generation from nuclear power plants in the country. These include:
Accord of administrative approval and financial sanction of - ten (10) indigenous 700 MW Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) to be set up in fleet mode with provision of equity support.
Resolution of issues related to Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (CLND) Act & Creation of Indian Nuclear Insurance Pool (INIP).
Amendment of the Atomic Energy Act to enable Joint Ventures of Public Sector Companies to set up nuclear power projects.