Prelim Bits 25-04-2018

Justice Rajesh Bindal Committee

• The Committee headed by Justice Rajesh Bindal submitted its report on legal issues related to inter country removal & retention of children.
• It recommended on addressing the problems of parents and children involved in such issues.
• The committee was appointed by Ministry of Women and Child Development.
• The Committee has recommended that the Government may establish an ‘Inter Country Parental Child Removal Disputes Resolution Authority’.
• The authority has been envisaged to provide a one window solution in cases of inter country removal and retention of Children.
• the Authority may be chaired by a retired High Court Judge, with Members from Legal and Social sector background along with representatives from key Ministries.
• The Committee was also requested to study the draft of the International Child Abduction bill, prepared by the Law Commission.

Report on gender inequality

• According to the McKinsey Global Institute recent report Asia Pacific is not meeting its economic potential and one of the major reasons is gender inequality.
• $4.5 trillion could be added to the region’s combined annual gross domestic product by 2025 if targeted policies are formulated to achieve more women’s equality.
• The report judged 18 economies in the region for gender equality in work and in society.
• On the work metrics, the Philippines was lauded for progress, followed by New Zealand and Singapore.
• India and Pakistan were judged furthest from gender parity in work.
• While there are fewer than four women globally in leadership roles to every 10 men, the ratio is only one in four in the Asia-Pacific region.
• On societal metrics, South and Southeast Asia offers a lot of potential for gender parity in digital and financial inclusion, while physical security and autonomy are considered greater worries.

Land Degradation Neutrality

• In the recently inaugurated Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Union Minister for Environment has underlined the critical need to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) by 2030.
• Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) has been defined as

‘A state whereby the amount and quality of land resources, necessary to support ecosystem functions and services and enhance food security, remains stable or increases within specified temporal and spatial scales and ecosystems.’

• LDN represents a paradigm shift in land management policies and practices.
• It is a unique approach that counterbalances the expected loss of productive land with the recovery of degraded areas.
• As land is fixed in quantity, there is ever-increasing competition to control land resources, which has the potential to cause social and political instability, exacerbating poverty, conflict and migration.

Ophioglossum malviae

• Ophioglossum malviae is a tongue fern whose size is just one centimeter.
• Indian researchers have discovered this world’s smallest land fern in the Ahwa forests of the Western Ghats in Gujarat’s Dang district.

• The fingernail-sized fern belongs to a group known as the adder’s-tongue ferns, named after their resemblance to a snake’s tongue.
• The plant’s minuscule seeds (called spores) under a powerful electron microscope revealed it had a unique thick outer layer.

Villanueva solar plant

• The Villanueva Solar plant in Mexico is the largest solar park in Latin America.
• With 2.3 million solar panels in the arid northern state of Coahuila the Villanueva power plant is part of Mexico’s push to generate 43% of its electricity from clean sources by 2024.
• Mexico became the first emerging country to announce its emissions reduction targets for the United Nations climate accord.
• The country ambitiously vowed to halve the emission by 2050.
• It  is also  the largest solar project in the world outside China and India

Use of fly ash in mosquito control

• Fly ash, a harmful byproduct of coal-based power generation, has found a new use in controlling mosquito.
• Scientists at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Pondicherry University have successfully used fly ash as a carrier for Bacillus Thuringiensis Israelensis (Bti), a bio-pesticide used for killing larvae of many insects.
• Bti formulation containing fly ash as carrier and carboxymethyl cellulose as additive to be effective against mosquito larvae.
• For successful application, Bti formulation needs an additive and a carrier.
• At present, Plaster of Paris and charcoal are used for this purpose.
• The new study has found that the use of fly ash as carrier material for can enhance chances of its ingestion.
• During 2016-2017, 169.25 million tons of fly ash was generated in India but only around 63 per cent was properly utilized in cement plants, ready mix concrete, road construction, brick manufacturing and other sectors.

Source: PIB, The Hindu, Business Standard