UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 26-02-2020

Conference on Coastal Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience (CDRR&R)

• The first ‘National Conference on Coastal Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience (CDRR&R) – 2020’ was held in New Delhi.
• It was organized by the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM).
• Implementation of the Prime Minister’s 10-point agenda and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction are the key takeaways of the conference.

The Prime Minister’s 10-point Agenda

• The Prime Minister had listed the agenda during his inaugural speech at the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) 2016, held in New Delhi.
• It includes the following elements namely.

1. All development sectors must imbibe the principles of disaster risk management.
2. Work towards risk coverage for all-starting from poor households to SMEs to multinational corporations to nation-states.
3. Encourage greater involvement and leadership of women in disaster risk management.
4. Invest in risk mapping globally. For mapping risks related to hazards like earthquakes, we have accepted standards and parameters.
5. Leverage technology to enhance the efficiency of our disaster risk management efforts.
6. Develop a network of universities to work on disaster issues.
7. Utilise the opportunities provided by social media and mobile technologies.
8. Build on local capacity and initiative.
9. Opportunity to learn from a disaster must not be wasted. After every disaster there are papers on lessons that are rarely applied.
10. Bring about greater cohesion in the international response to disasters.

Sendai Framework for Disaster Reduction 2015-30

• It was adopted at the Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, held from March 14 to 18, 2015 in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan.
• It aims to guide the multi-hazard management of disaster risk in development at all levels as well as within and across all sectors.
• It is the successor instrument to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters.

National Institute of Disaster Management

• The National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) was constituted under Disaster Management Act 2005 with a vision to play the role of a premier institute for capacity development in India and the region.
• It has been assigned nodal responsibilities for human resource development, capacity building, training, research, documentation and policy advocacy in the field of disaster management.

World Air Quality Report 2019

• World Air Quality Report is released by the pollution tracker IQAir and Greenpeace.
• The ranking is based on a comparison of PM 2.5 levels.
• According to the recent report Bangladesh emerged as the most polluted country for PM 2.5.
• Pakistan, Mongolia, Afghanistan and India followed behind respectively.
• PM 2.5 includes pollutants such as sulfate, nitrates and black carbon. Exposure to such particles has been linked to lung and heart disorders and can impair cognitive and immune functions.

Elections to Rajya Sabha

• Election Commission recently announced biennial elections for 55 Rajya Sabha seats.
• The Constitution provides that the Rajya Sabha shall consist of 250 members, of which 12 members shall be nominated by the President from amongst persons having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as literature, science, art and social service; and not more than 238 representatives of the States and of the Union Territories.
• Elections to the Rajya Sabha are indirect and the Rajya Sabha is not subject to dissolution; one-third of its members retire every second year.
• According to Section 154 of the Representation of the People Act 1951, a member chosen to fill a casual vacancy will serve for the remainder of his predecessor’s term of office.
• Members of a state’s Legislative Assembly vote in the Rajya Sabha elections in what is called proportional representation with the single transferable vote (STV) system, Each MLA’s vote is counted only once.
• Members representing Union Territories are chosen in such manner as Parliament may by law prescribe.

E-court Integrated Mission Mode Project

• The E-Courts Project was conceptualized on the basis of "National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Indian Judiciary - 2005" submitted by e-Committee of the Supreme Court of India (set up in 2004).
• The main objectives of the e-Court Project are as follows:

1. To provide efficient & time-bound citizen centric service delivery.
2. To develop, install & implement decision support systems in courts.
3. To automate the processes to provide transparency of Information access to its stakeholders.
4. To enhance judicial productivity both qualitatively & quantitatively, to make the justice delivery system affordable, accessible, cost effective & transparent.

• The e-Courts National portal (ecourts.gov.in) was launched in 2013.
• This provides Case Status, daily Case-list, Cases Filed and Cases Registered through the Case information System (CIS) Software.

National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG)

• The National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) is a part of the e-Courts Integrated Mission Mode Project. It was launched in 2015. The aim is to track judicial performance across different courts in the country.
• The NJDG is working as National data warehouse for case data including the orders/judgments for Courts across the country.
• NJDG works as a monitoring tool to identify, manage & reduce pendency of cases.
• It also helps to provide timely inputs for making policy decisions to reduce delay and arrears in the system, facilitate better monitoring of court performance and systemic bottlenecks, and, thus, facilitate better resource management.
• NJDG has specifically helped India improve its ranking in World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Report.

Olive Ridley Turtles

• Rushikulya rookery on the Odisha coast is prepared to welcome and protect olive ridley turtles during mass nesting.
• Olive Ridley Turtles are the smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in the world, inhabiting warm waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans.
• These turtles, along with the Kemps ridley turtle, are best known for their unique mass nesting called Arribada (mass-nesting event when thousands of turtles come ashore at the same time to lay eggs on the same).
• The coast of Odisha in India is the largest mass nesting site for the Olive-ridley, followed by the coasts of Mexico and Costa Rica.
• Olive Ridley Turtles are Vulnerable according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
• They are Listed in Appendix I of CITES and Under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
• The Odisha government has made it mandatory for trawls to use Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs), a net specially designed with an exit cover which allows the turtles to escape while retaining the catch.

Rushikulya River

• It originates from Rushikulya hills of the Eastern Ghats in Phulbani district (Odisha).
• It is 165 kms. long with 8900 sq.kms of catchment areas.
• It covers the entire catchment area in the districts of Kandhamal and Ganjam district of Odisha.

Source: PIB, Indian Express, the Hindu