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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 23 November 2020

::NATIONAL::

A two-day All India Presiding Officers Conference will be organized at Kevadia in Gujarat on 25th of this month.

About:

The theme of this year conference is Harmonious Coordination of Legislative, Executive and Judiciary - Key to a Vibrant Democracy.
President will inaugurate the two day conference.
Various sessions will be organised in which presiding officers will exchange their views and shared best practices.
On 26th November which is celebrated as Constitution Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the valedictory session of the conference.

Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala said it would be better if both Haryana and Punjab agreed on Chandigarh as a Union Territory and make their independent capitals and Benches of High Courts.
On November 1, Haryana was celebrating 54 years of its formation as a separate state after it was carved out of undivided Punjab in 1966.

Background:

Chandigarh was planned to replace Lahore, the capital of erstwhile Punjab, which became part of Pakistan during the Partition.
In March 1948, the Government of (India’s) Punjab, in consultation with the Centre, approved the area of the foothills of the Shivaliks as the site for the new capital.
From 1952 to 1966 (till Haryana was carved out of Punjab), Chandigarh remained the capital of Punjab.
At the time of reorganisation of Punjab in 1966, the city assumed the unique distinction of being the capital of both Punjab and Haryana, even as it was declared a union territory and was placed under the direct control of the Centre.
The properties in Chandigarh were to be divided in 60:40 ratio in favour of Punjab.

The 30th edition of India-Thailand Coordinated Patrol (CORPAT) concluded in the Andaman Sea close to the strategic Strait of Malacca.
It saw the participation of indigenously-built missile corvette INS Karmuk and Thailand Frigate HTMS Kraburi, along with Dornier maritime patrol aircraft from both the navies.
India and Thailand have been carrying out CORPAT along their International Maritime Boundary Line twice a year since 2005, with the aim of keeping this vital part of the Indian Ocean safe and secure for commercial shipping and international trade.

Ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) has released the backend code of the Aarogya Setu in the open domain to help people understand how contact tracing mobile application functions.
The step is expected to increase transparency and dispel privacy concerns and will also help peopleunderstand how contact tracing mobile application functions.
It is released on a government platform called Open Forge that has been set up to promote sharing and reuseof e-governance application source code.
Aarogya Setu app aimed at informing users of potential risk of the COVID-19 infection by alerting peoplewhen they come in contact with someone infected with COVID-19.

A new study in Pune has revealed that nearly 85% of the people who had been found infected with novel coronavirus in a serosurvey, conducted earlier, had developed neutralising antibodies.
In other words, these people had developed immunity against the disease.
It is sometimes thought that everyone who is infected with a disease-causing virus, and recovers, becomes immune to the disease, because they build antibodies against it. But that is not the case.
While the creation of antibodies is necessary for the recovery process, it does not guarantee immunity against a future attack from the same virus.
Immunity comes from what are known as “neutralising” or “protective” antibodies.

Neutralising antibodies:

Neutralising antibodies, like other antibodies that are created to fight the disease, are nothing but proteins.
These are a small subset of the disease-specific antibodies that are generated once an infection has occurred.
The neutralising antibodies become special because they have the ability to thwart the entry of the same virus inside human bodies in the future. The other antibodies help in fighting off the virus once the infection has already happened.

The Rodchenkov Act was passed by the Senate and will become a law once the US president signs it.
It allows the USA to initiate legal proceedings against those involved in running doping rings, including coaches, officials, managers or suppliers even if they are not residents of the United States or if the act of doping took place outside the United States.

Key objectives:

The main objective of the Rodchenkov Act is to bring to book facilitators who otherwise got away when athletes who tested positive for performance-enhancing substances were banned under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code.
The Act seeks to criminalise ‘major international dope fraud conspiracies’, which is mentioned in Section 4 of the Act.
The Act accounts for a scenario where doping fraud conspiracies ‘may not support the use of existing laws’ and gives the example of Russia’s systematic doping during the 2014 Sochi Winter Games and in other ‘major international competitions.

What does the Act cover?

The Act will cover any ‘major international competition’ where one or more athletes from the United States participates and three or more from other countries are present.
The Act also covers events where the competition organiser or sanctioned body has received sponsorship or funding from an organisation doing business in the United States, and the broadcaster has bought the rights to telecast in the United States.

Punishment provision:

An offence will attract imprisonment of upto 10 years and a fine of upto $250,000 for individuals.
Fines can go upto $1 million if a syndicate, lab or organisation is found to be indulging in doping related activities.
Properties can also be seized, including those belonging to a private individual.

Can someone in India be charged under the act?

Yes, it appears so. A hypothetical example would be if it is proven that an Indian coach, who is part of a doping syndicate, provided performance-enhancing substances to athletes who won medals at an international competition and this resulted in American athletes missing out on podium places.
It may be difficult to extradite the person to the United States, but once charged a citizen of another country will have to be wary of travelling outside her/his country, especially for competitions at venues where investigators could conduct questioning and try and piece together evidence to make their case stronger.