SC for uniform compensation scheme for differently abled rape
victims
ü SC
ordered all States and UTs to formulate a uniform scheme for providing compensation to differently
abled victims of rape and sexual exploitation.
ü As
court has noticed that Compensation and rehabilitation expenses are very low in
most of the states.
ü These
women have to battle both the social disadvantage of their disability and
stigma of the crime committed against them.
ü In
Goa, the victims are paid Rs. 10 lakh as against in most states which range
from Rs. 20000 to Rs. 1 lakh.
MoEFCC declares Wild pig as vermin for year in Uttarakhand
ü The
Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has declared Wild Pig (sus scrofa) as vermin
in Uttarakhand for a year.
ü In
this regard, MoEFCC has used its powers enshrined to it by section 62 of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), 1972.
ü For
this purpose, ministry has shifted protected wild pig (listed in schedule III
to the Act) in the vermin category to Schedule V of the Act for period of 1
year.
ü Earlier,
Uttarakhand forest department had forwarded proposal to the MoEFCC to declare both wild pig and Neel
Gai (blue bull) vermin.
ü In
its proposal, authorities had mentioned that due to overpopulation of these
animals in the areas outside the forest, they have created havoc by harming
life and property including large scale destruction of agriculture produce.
Key points about Vermin
ü Vermin means
wild mammals and birds which are harmful to crops, farm animals or which carry
disease.
ü In
India, wild animals can be declared as vermin if they have become
¨ Dangerous
to human life or property.
¨ Become
disabled or diseased as to be beyond recovery.
ü Currently,
some animals like the common crow, fruit bats, mice and rats have been listed
as vermin in Schedule V of WPA.
New discovery on gravitational waves
ü Albert Einstein predicted the existence of
gravitational waves in 1915.
ü Gravitational
waves are distortions in the space-time geometry that propagate with the speed
of light, analogous to ripples on the surface of a pond.
ü Inter-University
Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics-Pune involved in this research.
Maharashtra tops Internet readiness index report
ü According
to Index of Internet Readiness of Indian States, Maharashtra
has emerged as the top ranking state in terms of the overall
Internet readiness index.
ü The
report was published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI)
and Indicus Analytics
ü Among
the smaller states, Delhi has emerged as the topmost state, followed by Puducherry
and Goa
UAE’s ADNOC to store crude oil in India’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves
ü The
UAE’s national oil company Abu Dhabi National Oil (ADNOC) Company has agreed to
store crude oil in India’s maiden Strategic
Petroleum Reserves (SPRs) storage.
ü It
will be first of its kind deal in
which India has partner with other country for storing crude oil in the SPR
storage for emergency purpose.
ü India is building underground SPR storages at
Visakhapatnam (1.33 million tonnes capacity), Mangalore (1.5 million tonnes)
and Padur (2.5 million tonnes) to store about 5.33 million tonnes of crude oil.
ü It
will act as a valuable buffer against short term oil supply disruptions and
global price shocks as India is 79% dependent on imports to meet its crude oil
needs.
ü UAE
has agreed to give two-third of the oil to it for free for this purpose.
Presently India imports upto 8 per cent of crude oil from UAE.
NATO, EU sign agreement on Cyber Defence Cooperation
ü The
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and European Union (EU) have signed
an agreement to improve Cooperation in Cyber
Defence to counter modern forms of hybrid warfare.
ü In
this regard a technical agreement was signed at NATO
headquarters in Brussels, Belgium between both organisations which
have 22 member countries in common.
ü It
was signed between NATO Computer Incident Response Capability (NCIRC) and the
Computer Emergency Response Team – European Union (CERT-EU).
ü This
agreement will help both organizations better address the challenges of cyber
security against the growing threat of cyber-attacks.
Amazon to invest in Tata Group Company
ü Westland,
a Trent Ltd subsidiary (Tata Group), has announced an investment from Amazon in support of its publishing business.
ü The
investment by Amazon will enable Westland to expand its international reach and
scale its physical and digital book businesses.
ü Westland had last year dragged Amazon's rival, Flipkart, to
court, alleging that the e-commerce company was violating
copyrights and the IT Act by selling Amish Tripathi's novel Scion of Ikshvaku
on its platform.