This page contains "19th 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.
Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009
Right to Education Act (RTE) 2009
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE), enacted on 4 August 2009 is an ACT of Indian Parliament to provide free and compulsory education for children between the age of 6 to 14 years in India.
The act was enacted based on the modalities of described in Article 21A of the Indian Constitution. On 1 April 2010, India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child when the RTE act came into force.
According to RTE Act, no child shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or expenses which may prevent him or her from pursuing and completing elementary education. This rule does not apply to those children, who has been admitted by his or her parents to a school which is not supported by the Government.
The ACT casts a legal obligation on the Central and State Governments to provide and ensure admission, attendance and completion of elementary education by all children in the 6-14 age group.
Apart from ensuring free education from class 1 to class 8, the act also provides rules on pupil-teacher ratio, teacher vacancies, penalties for conducting screening tests and punishing children.
This Act only applies to children between the ages of 6 to 14. However, children who are more than 14 years old but have not been able to attend school till class 8, can get free education till class 8 under this Act.
Under the act it is illegal to beat up or harass a child, forcing the child to give tests for getting admission and asking the child to leave the school or to force to repeat a class.
Under the act every private school has to keep 25 per cent of it's seats in class 1 for children from 'disadvantaged groups' and 'weaker sections' and give free education to these children till class 8.
Amendment to abolish the 'no detention policy' in schools
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (second amendment) Bill, 2017, was passed in lok sabha to abolish 'no detention policy' in schools, however it would be at the discretion of the States whether to continue with no detention or not.
Under the current RTE Act provisions, all students are promoted to the next grade with no student can be detained till class 8.
The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2018
Cabinet decided to present a bill in monsoon session of Parliament, "to award the death penalty for those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12". The proposed bill The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2018, once approved by the parliament will replace the "Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance - 2018".
Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance - 2018 was promulgated in April, following an outcry over the rape and murder of a minor girl at Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir and the rape of a woman at Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.
The draft Bill prepared by the Home Ministry ensures stringent punishment for perpetrators of rape, particularly of girls below 12. The minimum punishment for convicts of rape of women is also increased from rigorous imprisonment of 7 years to 10 years.
Under the bill the imprisonment for convicts of rape of women aged between 12-16 is increased from 10 to 20 years, while convict of gang rape for same age group will get a life imprisonment.
While increasing punishments for crimes against girls is a welcome step, the government should formulate policies for crimes against boys as well.
Google and UN to track environmental changes together
United Nations (UN) is going to track the impacts of human activity on global ecosystems, by entering into a partnership with Google, sophisticated online tools will be used for the purpose.
The aim of the partnership is to develop a platform using Google's user-friendly front-end, geospatial maps and massive cloud computing technology and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to enable governments, NGO's and the public to track specific environment-related development targets.
The partnership concluded in a High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development at the UN headquarters, New York, will bring the nations one step closer to a sustainable world by solving the biggest environmental challenges of the time using accurate data.
The initial focus of the project is fresh-water ecosystems including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes, covering 0.01 per cent of the world's water while provide habitat for almost 10 per cent of the world's known species.
In a bid to track changes, prevent and reverse ecosystem loss satellite imagery and statistics will be generated to assess the changes occurring to water bodies and resulting data will be shared with nations for free.
Counter-drone strategy for Airports
In a bid to set a framework for regulating unmanned aircraft systems in the country, BCAS (Bureau of Civil Aviation Security) has finalised a strategy to neutralise drones near airports.
A "soft kill" approach is recommended in the counter-drone plan, prepared by a committee headed by Director General of BCAS. The "soft kill" approach will include entrapping or jamming drones instead of destroying them.
The suggested strategy will deal with drones operating near aerodromes to ensure aviation security, a separate plan is prepared by Ministry of Home Affairs to deal with drone attacks in sensitive zones such as Parliament.
The best approach to handle a drone is to capture it, because to destroy them a payload of explosives or biochemical will be needed that result in an attack to serve the purpose of their handlers.
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