This page contains "14th July 2018" current affairs analysis from different newspapers and magazines like The hindu, Indian express, PIB and Yojna.
Quality and relevance are two key features considered while writing the content, all the topics are based on the pattern of previously asked questions in exams like UPSC CSE, IAS, State PCS, SSC, Banks PO and likewise competitive exams.
National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC)
National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC), an autonomous body was established by "Protection of Human Rights Ordinance" on 12 October 1993. The NHRC is the National Human Rights Commission of India, getting statutory basis by the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 (TPHRA).
National Human Rights Commission is a quasi-judicial and statutory body but not a constitutional body. A Quasi-judicial body is a organisation which have powers similar to that of the law imposing bodies but they are not courts. These bodies help in reducing the burden of the courts and their action may be appealed to a court of law.
NHRC is tasked with protection and promotion of human rights as "rights relating to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual" guaranteed by the Constitution, protection of provisions defined in Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 (TPHRA) and to protect and promote human rights embodied in the International Covenants.
A State Government may constitute a "State Human Rights Commission" to perform the functions assigned to it and to exercise the powers conferred upon it. So far 25 states of India have constituted "State Human Rights Commission".
Functions of NHRC
According to "Protection of Human Rights Act" NHRC is mandated to perform following functions:
1) To inquire into negligence or violation of human rights by a public servent or the government of India.
2) To intervene in court proceeding to safeguards human rights provisions provided by constitution or any other law and to recommend measures for their effective implementation.
3) To provide recommendations for effective implementation of international treaties and instruments related to human rights.
4) Promote human rights awareness through publications, media, seminars and other means to educate various sections of society about the available safeguards against violation.
5) Promote research in the field of Human Rights and to encourage the efforts of NGOs and institutions working in the field.
6) To perform such other function as may be required to protect human rights including requisitioning any public record or copy from any court or office.
Composition of NHRC
NHRC consists of a "Chairperson", who should be a retired Chief Justice of India, a person who has been a judge of the Supreme Court of India, a person who has been the Chief Justice of a High Court, two members having knowledge or experience in matters relating to human rights, for persons to serve as ex officio members of the commission consisting of the chairpersons of four National Commissions 1) Scheduled Castes, 2) Scheduled Tribes, 3)Women and 4) Minorities.
Social media hub, a surveillance state ?
Information and Broadcasting Ministry is planning to set up a social media hub for collect, monitor and analyse digital and social media content or online data, that is refereed to as 'creating a surveillance state' by Supreme Court.
What is social media hub ?
The proposed "Social media hub" will provide automated reports, tactical insights and comprehensive work-flows by monitoring of the social media content of individuals through tracking their e-mails and accounts on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
A Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL) under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, has recently floated a tender to supply a software for the project.
The tender is issued to provide a software system, that will collect digital media chatter in a single system from all core social media platforms as well as digital platforms such as news, blogs etc. The data collected will be used to provide real-time insights, metrics and other valuable information of user's activities.
Under the scheme contractual hiring of local media persons is also proposed to get on ground real time updates and information. The platform will also help the Ministry to understand the impact of various social media campaigns conducted on Centre-run schemes.
"Social media hub", a step towards surveillance state ?
Supreme Court has recently upholded "right to privacy" as an essential fundamental right, under such circumstances the government cannot implement such a surveillance mechanism to to examine every aspect of an individual activity that too in absence of a rigorous data protection regime.
If the proposed "Social media hub" came into existence, a citizen will be hesitated to exercise his right to free speech knowing that the state and its agencies are monitoring every word uttered by her, maintaining records and logs of the same and using them to profile her.
Way forward ?
As the supreme court indicates the proposed "Social media hub" can be a step forward in making India a surveillance state. The government should opt for some other ideas to counter social media misuse and those policies should be inline with rights provided by the constitution to the citizens.
Monitoring individual's activities using "Social media hub" could be proved as a dent in fundamental "right to privacy", more proactive ideas should be adopted while keeping an individual's right to privacy and free speech.
NCPCR - The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights
According to a survey involving 6,632 students, all of them has been found harassed, 75% of has been being beaten and 69% of them did get slaps on their face while 0.4% were given electric shocks by the teachers.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is a statutory body established in December 2005 by an Act of Parliament, the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act.
The commission working under Women and Child development ministry, is responsible to ensure that all laws, policies, programmes, and administrative mechanisms are in accordance with the Child Rights perspective, the Constitution of India and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The commission is also tasked will examining the mental and physical torture against children, hearing complaints regarding sexual and mental harassment, favouritism etc. Formation of special cells in school is also proposed by the commission to deal with problems of children and to to solve them in reasonable time.
Swachh Survekshan Grameen 2018 - Cleanliness Survey
Swachh Survekshan Grameen 2018 has been launched by 'The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation', the initiative will rank all states and districts on the basis of qualitative and quantitative evaluation.
The ranking will under "Swachh Survekshan Grameen 2018", will be based on district-level surveys of public places like schools, anganwadis, haat-bazaars, panchayats and citizen's perception of Swachhta and will consider a comprehensive cleanliness parameters.
6,800 villages in 680 districts across the country has been selected for survey and an award is also proposed to be given to top scorer on 2nd October,
Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) will be used to collect information from 55,000 citizens on the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, a private organisation is selected to conducted the survey. A mobile app and an online platform would be set up to collect information from citizens.
MeerKAT radio telescope
MeerKAT situated in South Africa is a 64-dish radio telescope, the telescope will help in to listen the relatively weak signals from space to help scientists understand what is going on in the far reaches of the universe.
MeerKAT will become part of the under construction project Square Kilometre Array (SKA). SKA once completed will be the world's largest radio telescope (and the largest scientific apparatus ever made) with dishes and antennas in South Africa and Australia.
LADUMA one of the MeerKAT surveys will study a patch of sky and piece together to understand how hydrogen has been behaving for about two-thirds of the age of the universe.
The project will also be useful in understanding mystry around "Dark Matter" and how galaxies are able to produce new starts out of limited hydrogen available in universe.
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