Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 20 November 2021

::NATIONAL::

The All-India Presiding Officers’ Conference (AIPOC) ended with the delegates failing to reach a consensus on whether the Speaker’s powers under the anti-defection law should be limited, while reiterating an earlier resolution that there should be no disruptions during Question Hour and the President’s and Governor's address to the House.

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The report of the committee headed by Rajasthan Speaker C.P. Joshi to review the anti-defection law was placed before the presiding officers, but there was no consensus.
The committee was formed in 2019 to examine the role of the Speaker in cases of disqualification on grounds of defection under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
The Speaker called for drastic changes to the functioning of Standing Committees, including changes to their rules.
He said presiding officers should evaluate the work of the committees once a year and make them more accountable to the people.
Among the resolutions passed during the conference was the resolve against disruptions during Question Hour and President’s and Governor’s Address.

Stating that the Uniform Civil Code “is a necessity and mandatory required today,” the Allahabad High Court has called upon the Central Government to forthwith initiate the process for its implementation.

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“A common civil code will help the cause of national integration by removing disparate loyalties to laws which have conflicting ideologies. No community is likely to bell the cat by making gratuitous concessions on this issue. It is the State which is charged with the duty of securing a uniform civil code for the citizens of the country (Article 44) and, it has the legislative competence to do so,” the court observed.

European Commission has planned to ban the sale of agricultural products made in deforested and degraded land.

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The draft law, which Brussels wants to turn into binding rules for all 27 European Union nations, would require companies show their soy, beef, palm oil, cocoa, coffee and wood products are certified “deforestation-free”.
It follows an international pledge made at the COP26 summit last week to end deforestation by 2030.
Under the EU plan, two criteria would have to be met: that the commodities are produced in accordance with the origin country’s laws; and that they were not produced on land deforested or degraded since the beginning of 2021.
Imports from higher-risk countries would be subject to tighter checks.
The European Commission did not say when it hoped to have the new legislation adopted.
The environmental protection group WWF says the huge EU market is responsible for 16 percent of global deforestation linked to international trade.

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The day highlights the importance of sanitation and hygiene in driving improvements in public health, gender equality, education, economic development and environmental protection.
This year’s theme ‘Valuing toilets’ reminds people of the adverse impact of poor sanitation on health, environment, economy and dignity of individuals.
Sustainable Development Goal 6 aims to “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. In particular, target 6.2 is to “End open defecation and provide access to sanitation and hygiene”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that the Government has decided to repeal all three farm laws.
Prime Minister has also announced that the laws will be repealed in the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament.
The Prime Minister said, the goal of three farm laws was to empower farmers, especially the small farmers.

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The journey of the three farm laws — The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 — began on June 5, 2020, when the President of India promulgated three ordinances that were the precursors to these Acts.
These three ordinances — The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020; The Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020; and The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020 — were replaced the aforementioned Acts that were passed by Parliament in September 2020.
The implementation of these laws was stayed by the Supreme Court on January 12, 2021. So, these laws were in effect for only 221 days.

The exoplanet search and study group at the Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), has discovered a new exoplanet orbiting too close to an evolved or aging star with a mass of 1.5 times that of Sun and located 725 light years away, according to Indian Space Research Organisation.

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This discovery was made using PRL Advanced Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search (PARAS) optical fiber-fed Spirograph, the first of its kind in India, on the 1.2 metre Telescope of PRL at its Mt. Abu Observatory.
Using PARAS, which has the capability to measure mass of an exoplanet, the exoplanet’s mass is found to be 70 per cent and size about 1.4 times that of the Jupiter.
The star is known as HD 82139 as per the Henry Draper catalogue and TOI 1789 as per the TESS catalogue. Hence, the planet is known as TOI 1789b or HD 82139b as per the IAU nomenclature.