The Daily Brief – 23rd August 2018

Every year on August 20 the World Mosquito Day is observed to raise awareness about the causes of malaria. The observance of the day seeks to create awareness to prevent and also to fundraise for research into the cure of malaria. World Mosquito Day also marks groundbreaking discovery of British doctor, Sir Ronald Ross when he had identified link between mosquitoes and malaria way back in 1897. He had found that female Anopheles mosquitoes transmit malaria between humans.

Supreme Court scrapped use of NOTA (none of the above) option for Rajya Sabha elections, saying it defeats fairness in indirect elections, destroys democratic values and serves as Satan of defection and corruption. The ruling was given by three judges’ bench of SC comprising of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud. It came on petition by Shailesh Parmar, who was Congress chief whip in Gujarat, challenging EC decision to allow NOTA in Rajya Sabha polls. NOTA was introduced in Lok Sabha polls (direct election) by Election Commission of India (ECI) following 2013 Supreme Court decision. It was extended to Rajya Sabha election (i.e. indirect elections) via notification in January 2014.

Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has designated National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) as nodal authority to curb online child pornography, sexual violence and rape videos. It was decided by high-level meeting to discuss recommendations on ways to curb “sexual violence” videos involving women and children. NCRB (established on 11 March 1986) has been mandated to launch online portal for receiving complaints and acting on them. The powers were delegated to NCRB under section 79 of Information Technology Act, 2000 to perform the functions under clause (b) of sub-section (3) of section 79 of IT Act, 2000 and to notify the instance as per the order issued.

The World Senior Citizens Day is celebrated every year on 21 August across the world to raise awareness of the condition of elder people and support them through the process of senescence. It is also recognizes and appreciates contributions that older people make to society. It calls for welfare of elder persons to enroll and appreciate their achievements and involvement in the society to get promoted from their ability and knowledge. The day was officially established by former president of United States Ronald Reagan as National Senior Citizens Day in US. Later United Nations General Assembly on 14th of December 1990 proclaimed to observe 21 August as World Senior Citizens Day.

Union Ministry of Earth Sciences has announced to set up Cyclone Warning Centre in Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram. It also proposed to set up C-band Doppler weather radar at Mangalore, Karnataka. This comes in view of recent heavy rainfall and concerns over extreme weather activities in future. At present, IMD has six cyclone warning centres, four along east coast at Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Bhubaneswar (Odisha) and Kolkata (West Bengal), and two along west coast at Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Mumbai (Maharashtra).

President Ram Nath Kovind appointed Governors of seven states including Bihar (Lal Ji Tandon), Haryana (Satyadev Narayan Arya), Uttarakhand (Baby Rani Maurya), Jammu and Kashmir (Satya Pal Malik), Sikkim (Ganga Prasad), Meghalaya (Tathagata Roy) and Tripura (Kaptan Singh Solank) by exercising his authority under Article 156. The appointments will be effective from the dates the incumbents take charge of their respective office.

The International Buddhist Conclave (IBC), 2018 was inaugurated by President Ram Nath Kovind in New Delhi. The sixth edition of IBC with a theme of ‘Buddha Path – The Living Heritage” was organized by Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with State Governments of Maharashtra, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Japan is Partner Country for IBC-2018.