Current Affairs 14th May 2018

Current Affairs 14th May 2018 -  Important Points

• NASA’s carbon monitoring project cancelled by - United States
• Government to expand Buddhist tourism circuit to 21 more states under - Swadesh Darshan Scheme
• Women can file domestic violence complaint even after divorce by - Supreme Court
• UNDP to set up skill development centre in - Hyderabad
• 200 more mandis to eNAM to be linked by - Union Government

Current Affairs 14th May 2018 - Details

NASA’s carbon monitoring project cancelled by - United States

United States President Donald Trump’s administration has negated NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System
programme quoting reasons of budget constraints and higher priorities within science budget. It was also in streak with Donald Trump’s modern broad attack on climate science.
Carbon Monitoring System Programme

• NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System Programme costing $10 million annually was intended to track key greenhouse gases, carbon and methane, that results into global warming.
• It also pursued sources and sinks for carbon and finished high-resolution models of planet’s flows of carbon. It was intended to make important assistances in characterizing, quantifying, understanding and forecasting evolution of global carbon sources and sinks via upgraded monitoring of carbon stocks and fluxes.
• The System utilises complete range of NASA satellite observations, modelling and investigation
  capabilities to create accuracy, quantitative uncertainties and usefulness of products for supporting
  national and international policy, regulatory and management actions.
• Carbon Monitoring System also preserves global emphasis while delivering finer scale regional data, using space and surface-based information. It had started production and circulation of products both for operator evaluation and to inform near-term policy progress and development.

Government to expand Buddhist tourism circuit to 21 more states under - Swadesh Darshan Scheme

Ministry of Tourism has finalised to expand Buddhist tourism Journey under Swadesh Darshan Scheme
to 21 extra states to make it India’s 1st trans-national tourist Journey. Previously, it was imagined only to 7 major Buddhist pilgrimage sites in UP and Bihar.
Key Points

• Now, Ministry of Tourism has recognized stupas and viharas in these 21 states, around which small intra-state Buddhist zones will be established. The states are MP, Rajasthan, Kerala, West Bengal, Goa, Gujarat and J&K.
• The expansion of Buddhist tourism Journey focuses to attract new-age Buddhist tourists from the West, besides those from traditional markets in South-East Asia.
• The ministry is in talks with World Bank and Japanese government for capital support for the infrastructure projects linked with Buddhist tourism Journey.
• It also aims to include the private sector in building tourism infrastructure relating to the Journey.
  More about Swadesh Darshan Scheme
• The Union Ministry of Tourism had released the Swadesh Darshan Scheme in 2014-15 with an objective to advance theme-based tourist journeys in the nation. These tourist journeys will be established on principles of high tourist value, attractiveness and sustainability in a combined manner. 
• They will be established by synergizing efforts to attention on anxieties and requirements of all shareholders to enrich tourist experience and augment employment options.
• Under this plan, 13 thematic journeys have been recognized for progress.
• They are Buddhist Journey, North-East India Journey, Coastal Journey, Himalayan Journey, Krishna Journey, Desert Journey, Eco Journey, Wildlife Journey, Tribal Journey, Rural Journey, Spiritual Journey, Ramayana Journey and Heritage Journey.

Women can file domestic violence complaint even after divorce by - Supreme Court

The Indian Supreme Court has ruled that a woman can file a complaint under the domestic violence law
against the cruel acts accomplished by her ex-husband even after their divorce. The ruling was sanctioned by a 3-judge bench consisting Justices Ranjan Gogoi, R.Banumathi and Navin Sinha. The ruling came on an application that challenged an order by the Rajasthan High Court.
Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005

• The act focuses to deliver ample effective protection of the women’s rights definite under the Constitution who are violence victims of any type, happening within the family.
• It was carried into force by the Indian government from October 26, 2006. The act 1 st time delivers a definition of 'domestic violence' in Indian law, with this definition being wide-ranging and including not only physical violence, but also other types of violence including emotional, verbal, sexual and economic violence. 
• The act spreads throughout the India except for the state of J&K, which has its own law- Jammu and Kashmir Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2010.
  Key features of the Act:
• The act looks forward to cover those women who are in a relationship with the violence where both parties have lived together in a common household and are related by marriage or any relationship in the nature of marriage, and adoption. 
• Even those women who are sisters, widows, mothers, single-females, or living with them are permitted to get legal protection under the proposed Act.
• Domestic violence consists of actual violence or the threat of violence that is physical, sexual, verbal, emotional and economic. 
• Annoyance by way of illegal dowry anxieties to the woman or to her family members would also be
  encompassed under this act.
• The act also delivers for the woman’s right to live in the marital/shared house, whether or not she has any rights in the house premises. 

UNDP to set up skill development centre in - Hyderabad

The UNDP would shortly be forming a skill development centre at Bharosa which would be a joined support centre for upset women and children in Hyderabad, Telangana. The centre would be focused at authorizing vulnerable and marginalised females by imparting skills training.
Key Highlights

• Bharosa, is a state-of- the-art centre formed by the Hyderabad City Police to take care of females and children who are victims of abuse.
• Since its establishment in 2016, a sum of 3,560 fatalities have approached the centre with a variety of issues.
• Among these, more than 2,600 victims have sought assistance with regard to domestic abuse.
• The United Nations Development Programme has suggested to form a skill development centre
  completely for the clients of Bharosa.
• The essential arrangements for designing of the centre are already ongoing and it would initiate in the next 2-3 months.
• The discussions with agencies that provide training are also under process. The training period will differ on the basis of the nature of skill imparted.
• A huge number of victims who contacted Bharosa centre are not much educated.
• Hence, the skill trainings would be providing based on the educational qualification of the victims.

200 more mandis to eNAM to be linked by - Union Government

Union Government is going to connect extra 200 wholesale mandis to online trading platform electronic
National Agriculture Market- eNAM, this fiscal year and also inspire inter-mandi transactions. Presently, 585 regulated mandis in fourteen states are connected with the eNAM. Till date, 73.50 lakh farmers, 53,163 commission mediators and more than one lakh dealers are registered on it from these fourteen states. Government is guaranteeing that all wholesale agri-mandis adopt online sale and gradually permit trading among mandis in state and ultimately between mandis outside states, thus forming single national agriculture market for the profit of farmers.
eNAM electronic National Agriculture Market is pan-India electronic trading web portal for farm produce which focuses to form unified national market for agricultural commodities by integrating present Agriculture Produce Market Committee markets. It delivers single window service for all Agriculture Produce Market Committee related services and data, for instance commodity arrivals and prices, provision for replying to trade offers among other services. It was released in April 2016. It is being executed in different phases to integrate 585 regulated markets across nation with common e-market platform by March 2018. Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium is the principal promoter of electronic National Agriculture Market. On this platform, farmers can exhibit their produce online from their nearby market and dealers can quote price from anywhere. It focuses to foster superior competition between buyers and also make sure open price discovery and healthier returns to farmers.