• The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has written to the Indian Council of Medical seeking guidelines for treatment of children ahead of the potential third wave of COVID-19.

National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)

• NCPCR was set up in March 2007 under the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005, an Act of Parliament.
• It is a statutory body under the administrative control of the Ministry of Women & Child Development.
• Under the NCPCR the Child is defined as a person in the 0 to 18 years age group.
• The Commission’s Mandate is to ensure that all Laws, Policies, Programmes, and Administrative Mechanisms are in consonance with the Child Rights perspective as enshrined in the Constitution of India and also the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
• The commission consist of a Chairperson, who is a person of eminence and has done an outstanding work for promoting the welfare of children, and six members.
• The Commission shall not enquire into any matter which is pending before a State Commission or any other Commission duly constituted under any law for the time being in force.

• A huge ice block has broken off from western Antarctica into the Weddell Sea, becoming the largest iceberg in the world and earning the name A-76.
• It is the latest in a series of large ice blocks to dislodge in a region that is acutely vulnerable to climate change, although scientists said in this case it appeared to be part of a natural polar cycle.

A-76

• It is slightly larger than the Spanish island of Majorca, A-76.
• It has been monitored by scientists since it began to separate from the Ronne Ice Shelf.
• The iceberg, measuring around 170 km long and 25 km wide, with an area of 4,320 sq km is now floating in the Weddell Sea.
• It joins previous world’s largest title holder A-23A — approximately 3,880 sq. km. in size — which has remained in the same area since 1986.
• Icebergs form when hunks of ice break off from ice shelves or glaciers and begin to float in open water.

Weddell Sea

• The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and is enclosed between the Antarctic Peninsula on the west, Cape Norvegia on the east and Filchner and Ronne ice shelves to the south.
• Most of the Weddell Sea is covered in dense sea ice all year around and only the northwestern part can be visited by ships.

• Scientists from Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG) have recently developed a theory that helps understand the complicated nature of Sun-Earth interaction's happening in the magnetosphere.
• Magnetosphere is an area of space around Earth that is controlled by the Earth’s magnetic field.
• The theory solves every bit of uncertainty regarding the conflict between the observations from Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission of NASA.

Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission

• It is a NASA robotic space mission to study the Earth's magnetosphere, using four identical spacecraft flying in a tetrahedral formation.
• The spacecrafts were launched in 2015.

Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG)

• It is an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

Dead Sea

• It is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west.
• It lies in the Jordan Rift Valley, and its main tributary is the Jordan River.

Lake Baikal

• It is a rift lake located in southern Siberia, Russia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast.
• Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake by volume in the world, containing 22 to 23% of the world's fresh surface water.

• Quartz glass has high melting temperatures of about 1700 degrees Celsius.
• This and its purity make it the choice for its use in semiconductors.

Creation of New District

• The power to create new districts or alter or abolish existing districts rests with the State governments.
• This can either be done through an executive order or by passing a law in the State Assembly.
• Many States prefer the executive route by simply issuing a notification in the official gazette.
• States argue that smaller districts lead to better administration and governance.
• The Centre has no role to play in the alteration of districts or creation of new ones. States are free to decide.
• The Home Ministry comes into the picture when a State wants to change the name of a district or a railway station.
• The State government’s request is sent to other departments and agencies such as the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Intelligence Bureau, Department of Posts, Geographical Survey of India Sciences and the Railway Ministry seeking clearance.
• A no-objection certificate may be issued after examining their replies.

Bog Wetland

• A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat, a deposit of dead plant material, often mosses, and in a majority of cases, sphagnum moss.
• The peat is a fossil fuel that is used for heating homes and businesses in northern Europe.
• Bogs also act as carbon sinks, sequestering around 200 million tons of carbon from the environment in Siberia and Scandinavia.
• The gradual accumulation of decayed plant material in a bog functions as a carbon sink.
• Bog is one of the four main types of wetlands, other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; alkaline mires are called fens.
• A baygall is another type of bog found in the forest of the Gulf Coast states in the United States.
• Bogs have distinctive assemblages of animal, fungal and plant species, and are of high importance for biodiversity, particularly in landscapes that are otherwise settled and farmed.

Malerkotla District

• Recently, the Punjab government has announced the formation of Malerkotla as the 23rd district of the state.
• The Malerkoltla is former princley state and only Muslim-dominated town of Punjab.
• Historically, Malerkotla owes its foundations in the 15th century to Sufi saint Sheikh Sadrauddin Sadar-i-Jahan, also known as Haider Sheikh.
• After the decline of the Mughal empire, Malerkotla’s rulers exercised greater independence and at the time of the invasion of India by Ahmad Shah Abdali from Afghanistan, they aligned with him.
• Malerkotla Nawab Sher Mohammad Khan had raised his voice (‘Haa Da Naara’) against brutal execution of Chote Sahibzade (youngest sons of Guru Gobind Singh — Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh by Nawab of Sirhind, Wazir Khan in 1705.
• Gurdwara Haa da Naara Sahib was built in Malerkotla to commemorate the voice raised by Sher Mohammad Khan.

Namdhari Massacre (1872)

• The British administration of Malerkotla (Punjab) was attacked by the contingents of Namdharis (a sect of Sikhs) under the leadership of Hira Singh and lehna Singh, on 15th January, 1872.
• The British Administration ordered that the Namdhari revolutionaries should be brought to the Parade Ground and blown up with cannons.
• That ground as a symbol of martyrdom has been named now as ‘Kukian Da Shaheedi Park’.

MLA-LADS

• Members of Legislative Assembly Local Area Development (MLA-LAD) Scheme is the States’ version of a central government scheme - Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLAD).
• The objective of this scheme is to create local need based infrastructure, to create assets of public utility and to remove regional imbalances in development.
• This scheme is implemented in rural areas as well as urban areas of a state.
• Amounts per MLA varies across the states, Delhi has the highest allocation under MLALAD, and each MLA can recommend works for up to Rs. 10 crore each year.
• The guidelines for use of MLA-LAD funds differ across states.
• After the legislators give the list of developmental works, they are executed by the district authorities as per the government's financial, technical and administrative rules.
• Recently, Rajasthan Government has approved a proposal to provide Rs. 3 crore each from the MLA Local Area Development (LAD) Fund to mobilise resources for Covid-19 Vaccination of the people in the age group of 18 to 44 years.

Pressure Swing Adsorption

• Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) is a technology used to separate some gas species from a mixture of gases under pressure.
• PSA operates at near-ambient temperatures.
• Specific adsorbent materials (e.g., zeolites, activated carbon, molecular sieves, etc.) are used as a trap, preferentially adsorbing the target gas species at high pressure.
• A real time example where PSA is applied in an oxygen concentrator, it uses Zeolites to adsorb atmospheric nitrogen and then vents out the nitrogen, this leaves oxygen gas remaining to be used for patients.
• In high pressure, the surface area of zeolites increases and thus is capable of adsorbing large quantities of nitrogen.