Section 124a of IPC
- Law Commission of India has recently recommended to the Government of India to re-think or even repeal the provision of sedition (Section 124A) from the Indian Penal Code.
- Section 124a, commonly known as Sedition law made words or any visible representation that attempts to bring hatred or contempt or excite disaffection towards the government punishable by law.
- They shall be charged with cognizable and non-bailable offence with punishment up to imprisonment for life & fine or imprisonment for 3 years & fine or with fine alone.
- The expression disaffection includes disloyalty and all feelings of enmity.
- It was introduced in the 1870s, originally to deal with increasing Wahabi activities that posed a challenge to the colonial government.
- The section has been misused in recent times to suppress even minor dissent.
- Non-bailable offence – The police cannot release anyone on bail and so the arrested person must make an application for bail before a magistrate or court.
Leptospirosis
- Health Department has recently given the warning about leptospirosis disease in the post-flood period.
- Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection in rodents and other wild and domesticated species.
- It is a zoonotic disease (i.e) spread from animals to humans caused by bacteria of the genus Leptospira.
- It is transmitted to humans by exposure through water contaminated by urine from infected animals.
- The infection in man is contracted through skin abrasions and the mucosa of the nose, mouth and eyes.
- Human-to-human transmission is rare.
- In most of the cases, leptospirosis only causes mild flu-like symptoms, such as headache, chills and muscle pain.
- However, in some cases the infection is more severe and can cause life-threatening problems, including organ failure and internal bleeding.
- Severe form of leptospirosis is known as Weil's disease
- It is an emerging tropical infectious disease.
- Without treatment, Leptospirosis can lead to kidney damage, meningitis, liver failure, respiratory distress, and even death.
Monster Galaxy
- Astronomers have captured the clearest image of Monster galaxy using Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).
- The monster galaxy called as COSMOS-AzTEC-1 is located 12.4 billion light-years away.
- Monster galaxies, or starburst galaxies, form stars at a startling pace, 1000 times higher than the star formation rate in Milky Way Galaxy.
- It has molecular clouds that are highly unstable and leads to runaway star formation.
- They are thought to be the ancestors of the huge elliptical galaxies in Universe.
- Therefore, these findings pave the way to understand the formation and evolution of such galaxies.
SAARC
- South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Council of Ministers’ meeting is going to be held in New York.
- It is expected to be chaired by Nepal Foreign Minister.
- SAARC is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of nations in South Asia.
- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are its members.
- Its secretariat is based in Kathmandu, Nepal.
- The organization promotes development of economic and regional integration.
- It launched the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) in 2006.
- States with observer status include Australia, China, European Union, Iran, Japan, Mauritius, Myanmar, South Korea and United States.
RCEP Trade Minsiters’ Meeting
- Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Trade Ministers’ Meeting was recently held in Singapore.
- RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the ten member states of the ASEAN and the six states with which ASEAN has existing free trade agreements - Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam are ASEAN members.
- RCEP is viewed as an alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed trade agreement which includes several Asian and American nations but excludes China and India.
- RCEP will cover trade in goods, trade in services, investment, economic and technical co-operation, intellectual property, competition, dispute settlement and other issues.
- Negotiations of RCEP will aim to achieve the high level of tariff liberalisation, through building upon the existing liberalisation levels between participating countries.
Source: Indian Express, PIB, The Hindu
