Current Affairs 4th August 2019

Current Affairs 4th August 2019 - Important Points

• Hydro Thermal Carbonization technology for Waste Management developed by  - IIT-KGP
• Increasing strength of Supreme Court Judges approved by - Union Cabinet
• Who is the additional charge of DG Narcotics Control Bureau ? - Rakesh Asthana 

Current Affairs 4th August 2019 - Details

Hydro Thermal Carbonization technology for Waste Management developed by  - IIT-KGP

Indian Institute of Technology- Kharagpur scientists develop new technology- Hydro Thermal Carbonization for solid waste management. This Hydro-Thermal Carbonization Technology can transform municipal solid waste to biofuel, soil amendment and absorbents.
More about Hydro Thermal Carbonization

• Presently, India has accepted waste incineration processes from developed nations which are
  primarily attentive on treating drier waste content.
• These processes need high energy input to burn municipal solid waste produced in India which has high moisture content due to tropical weather, open collection systems and mixed waste therefore, by using current processes, only 20-30 percent of organic fraction of municipal solid waste is being recycled to biofuel.
• This absence of India suited technology headed to develop a technology which can address the challenge indigenously.
  ProcessMoisture in waste is utilised to the advantage of process which utilises water for reaction. The
  biofuel produced as recovered output can help curb air pollution.
  Benefits
  Technology can be utilised by civic bodies to effectively manage solid waste.
  Once organic waste is put into process, the outputs produced are all usable.
  All outputs can be utilised for one purpose or the other, including the water which can be
  converted to biogas/methane.

Increasing strength of Supreme Court Judges approved by - Union Cabinet

Union Cabinet led by PM Narendra Modi has sanctioned increasing the number of judges in Supreme Court from the current 31 to 34 by 10%, including Chief Justice of India. In this regard it has sanctioned bill to modify Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956. Presently, the full approved strength of SC judges is 31 including Chief Justice of India. Once this bill gets parliamentary nod, the number of judges would go up to 34, including the Chief Justice of India.

SC Composition: Constitutional and Statutory Provisions
The strength of SC is fixed by law made by Parliament according to Article 124 (1) of Constitution
of India. Therefore, the strength can be upsurge by way of parliamentary regulation. In pursuance
of this Parliament has passed Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956, which initially
provided for maximum of 10 judges excluding the Chief Justice of India. The law was earlier
corrected in 2009 to upsurge judges’ strength from 25 to 30 excluding the Chief Justice of India.

Did you know?
This decision of Union Cabinet comes following CJI Ranjan Gogoi in letter to PM Narendra Modi
had urged to upsurge number of judges in the Supreme Court. Chief Justice of India in his letter
had urged to augment judge-strength in Supreme Court suitably so that it can work more efficiently
and effectively and go a long way to gain ultimate goal of rendering timely justice to litigant public. He
also had mentioned that due to scarcity of judges, the needed number of Constitution Benches of
Supreme Court were not being shaped to decide significant cases involving questions of law.
According to written reply by Law Minister to Rajya Sabha there are total 1159331 cases are
pending in the SC.

Who is the additional charge of DG Narcotics Control Bureau ? - Rakesh Asthana 

Appointments Committee of Cabinet permitted handing over of additional charge of position of Director General NCB to Director General- DG of Civil Aviation Security Rakesh Asthana. He is designated for upcoming six months or till a new incumbent is selected.
Narcotics Control Bureau chief position was lying vacant since 4th July 2019 following then incumbent Abhay was selected as Director of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy based in Hyderabad.
More about Rakesh Asthana

• Rakesh Asthana is 1984-batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre. He was 2nd in command in CBI, was
  transferred as Director General- DG of Civil Aviation Security following a bitter tug of war with then  chief of Central Bureau of Investigation Alok Verma. Both administrators had levelled allegations of corruption on each other following which they were sent on leave by Centre.
• Central Bureau of Investigation had recorded a complaint against Rakesh Asthana claiming
  corruption which he had strongly denied and claimed that he was booked because of a complaint he
  made against Alok Verma.
  Narcotics Control Bureau
• It is a nodal intelligence and drug law enforcement agency of the nation.
• It was recognized in 1986 and is HQ in New Delhi.
• It was established to enable full implementation of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 and fight its abuse by Prevention of Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988.