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Geomagnetic storm:
Reference News:-
The earth is likely to hit by a geomagnetic
storm on 7th April, according to the Space
Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA).
What are Geomagnetic Storms?
Geomagnetic storms are caused when events such as solar flares can send higher than normal levels
of radiation towards Earth. This radiation interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field causing a
geomagnetic storm.
Causes:
The disturbance that drives the magnetic storm may be a solar coronal mass ejection (CME) or
(much less severely) a co-rotating interaction region (CIR), a high-speed stream of solar wind
originating from a coronal hole.
Effects of Geomagnetic storms:
 Effects from the geomagnetic storm can range from the appearance of auroras or the northern
and southern lights to disruptions in communications systems due to high radiation. This
would make it difficult to communicate with others on Earth.
Classification of Geomagnetic storms:
Geomagnetic storms are classified according to a scale that measures the effect that storms will
have.
 At its safest level, a G1 storm affects power grids by causing weak fluctuations, minor
impacts on satellite operations, and causes the northern and southern lights to occur.
 At its most extreme, G5, there would be voltage control problems with some grid system
collapses or blackouts, radio waves wouldn’t be able to travel for one to two days, low-
frequency radio would be out for hours, and the auroras would be able to be seen at lower
latitudes than usual.
Nipah Virus:
Reference News:-
Scientists at Pune’s Indian Council of Medical Research – National Institute of Virology were able
to detect the presence of IgG antibodies against Nipah virus infection (NiV) in 51 bats that were
captured from Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
What is Nipah?
 It is a zoonotic virus (it is transmitted from animals to humans).
 It first broke out in Malaysia and Singapore in 1998 and 1999.

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 It first appeared in domestic pigs and has been found among several species of domestic
animals including dogs, cats, goats, horses and sheep.
Spread:
 The virus is transmitted to people from animals and can also be passed on through
contaminated food or directly from person-to-person.
 Fruit bats are considered to be a natural reservoir of the virus.
Symptoms:
Symptoms include acute encephalitis and respiratory illnesses.
Prevention:
Currently, there are no vaccines for both humans and animals. Intensive supportive care is given to
humans infected by Nipah virus.
‘Prakriti’ initiatives for effective plastic waste management:
Reference News:-
In another step toward eliminating single-use
plastic, the Union Environment Ministry has
launched “Prakriti”, a mascot to spread greater
awareness about small changes that can be
sustainably adopted in the lifestyle for a better
environment.
During the event, following green initiatives were launched for plastic waste management:
1 – National Dashboard on Elimination of Single Use Plastic and Plastic Waste Management
(MoEFCC):‘
 This aims to connect all stakeholders including Central Ministries/ Departments, State/UT
Governments, etc. through one platform and track status and progress made for elimination of
single use plastic & effective management of plastic waste.
2 – Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Portal for Plastic Packaging (CPCB):
 This portal will look after tasks that will help in overall operational functions like improving
accountability, traceability, transparency and facilitating ease of reporting compliance to EPR
Obligations by Producers, Importers and Brand-owners.
3 – Mobile App for Single Use Plastics Grievance Redressal (CPCB):
 This app will allow citizens to check sale/usage/manufacturing of single use plastic in their
region and tackle the plastic menace.
4 – Monitoring module for single use plastic (CPCB):
 This will be for local bodies, State pollution control board/PCCs and CPCB, etc. to invent
details of single use plastic production, its sale & usage, etc. in commercial establishments at
district level, and on-ground enforcement of ban on single use plastics.

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5 – Industrial production of Graphene from Waste Plastic (G B Pant NIHE & NRDC) will
promote more industries to come forward to upcycle plastic waste.
Efforts by Government in this regard:
 To tackle the challenge of plastic pollution, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced
India’s pledge to phase out Single-Use Plastics (SUPs) by 2022.
 India’s plastic waste management rules 2016 were amended banning the import of plastic
waste SUVs with effect from July 2022 onward.
What are single use plastics?
Single-use plastics refer to disposable items like grocery bags, food packaging, bottles and straws
that are used only once before they are thrown away, or sometimes recycled.
Why plastics?
 As plastic is cheap, lightweight and easy to produce, it has led to a production boom over the
last century, and the trend is expected to continue in the coming decades, according to the
United Nations.
 But countries are now struggling with managing the amount of plastic waste they have
generated.
About 60% of plastic waste in India is collected — that means the remaining 40% or 10,376 tons
remain uncollected.
Government’s strategy:
A government committee has identified the single use plastic (SUP) items to be banned based on an
index of their utility and environmental impact. It has proposed a three-stage ban:
1. The first category of SUP items proposed to be phased out are plastic sticks used in
balloons, flags, candy, ice-cream and ear buds, and thermocol that is used in decorations.
2. The second category, proposed to be banned from July 1, 2022, includes items such as
plates, cups, glasses and cutlery such as forks, spoons, knives, straws, trays; wrapping and
packing films used in sweet boxes; invitation cards; cigarette packets; stirrers and plastic
banners that are less than 100 microns in thickness.
3. A third category of prohibition is for non-woven bags below 240 microns in thickness.
This is proposed to start from September next year.
Challenges ahead:
1. It is not going to be an easy task given that close to 26,000 tons of plastic waste is generated
across India every day, of which more than 10,000 tons stays uncollected.
2. A significant amount of plastic ends up in rivers, oceans and landfills.
What needs to be done?
1. The government has to do a thorough economic and environmental cost-benefit analysis.
2. The plan has to take into account social and economic impacts for the ban to be successful.
3. We need better recycling policies because resources are poor and there needs to be a much
broader strategy.

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Hate Speech:
Reference News:-
Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu has
said that hate speech should not be made
against any community, be it minority or
majority.
What’s the issue?
Concerns have been raised over concerted events in the recent past that targeted political, social and
economic exclusion of Muslims through a series of rallies and hate speeches. Journalists too were
attacked.
What is Hate Speech?
Hate speech is an incitement to hatred against a particular group of persons marginalized by their
religious belief, sexual orientation, gender, and so on.
 The Law Commission, in its 267th report on hate speech, said such utterances have the
potential to provoke individuals and society to commit acts of terrorism, genocide, and ethnic
cleansing.
Why Hate Speech Must be curbed?
1. Internal Security: The Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013 was triggered by a fake video that
incited communal passions.
2. Igniting extremist sentiments.
3. Mob lynching.
4. Misinformation and disinformation: Delhi Riots.
Measures:
1. The world’s biggest social media companies, including Facebook, Google, Twitter and
ByteDance, are exploring an industry-wide alliance to curb fake news on their platforms in
India.
2. The Election Commission of India must tie up with tech companies to identify the creator of
such news.
3. Educating the end-users.
4. The government should bring out a policy framework on the possible harm due to the internet
messaging platforms to engage at a deeper level.
5. Imposing hefty fines, like in Germany the Social media companies face fines of up to €50m if
they persistently fail to remove illegal content from their sites.
Need of the hour:
 Hate speech is a discursive process of pushing marginalised groups outside of social,
economic and political spheres of society by disseminating hate propaganda and encouraging
discrimination. At its most harmful, it is widely recognized as a precursor to ethnic cleansing.

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 Public authorities must be held accountable for dereliction of the duty of care and also for
non-compliance with this court’s orders by not taking action to prevent vigilante groups from
inciting communal disharmony and spreading hate against citizens of the country and taking
the laws into their own hands.
Provisions regarding Hate Speech:
 Section 153A IPC penalises ‘promotion of enmity between different groups on grounds of
religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to
maintenance of harmony’.
 Section 153B IPC penalises ‘imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration’.
 Section 295A IPC penalises ‘deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious
feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs’.
 Section 298 IPC penalises ‘uttering, words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious
feelings of any person’.
 Section 505 IPC penalises publication or circulation of any statement, rumour or report
causing public mischief and enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes.
 Part VII of the Representation of People Act, 1951 classifies hate speech as an offence
committed during elections into two categories: corrupt practices and electoral offences.
Various Committees and their Views:
T.K. Viswanathan Committee:
 It submitted a report recommending stricter laws to curb online hate speech and use of
cyberspace to spread hatred and incitement.
 It proposed inserting Sections 153 C (b) and Section 505 A in the IPC for incitement to
commit an offence on grounds of religion, race, caste or community, sex, gender identity,
sexual orientation, place of birth, residence, language, disability or tribe.
Bezbaruah committee:
 It was constituted by the Centre in 2014 in the wake of a series of racial attacks on persons
belonging to the northeast.
 It had proposed to insert two stricter anti-racial discrimination provisions in the IPC.
‘Tour of Duty’ recruitment model:
Reference News:-
The Department of Military Affairs has finalised a radical proposal for future recruitment to the
armed forces. The Army will be the first to try out the concept –the ‘Tour of Duty’ model, which
involves recruiting some soldiers for a fixed period of three years.
 The ‘Tour of Duty’ (ToD) concept, first unveiled in 2020.
What is the ‘Tour of Duty’ model?
This model of recruitment would let young individuals voluntarily serve for a temporary period of
three years.
 It will be a voluntary engagement.

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 It is for youths who “do not want to make defence services their permanent vocation, but still
want to experience the thrill and adventure of military professionalism”.
 The proposal is a shift from the concept of permanent service/job in the Armed Forces,
towards ‘internship’/temporary experience for three years.
 While the original proposal in 2020 would have extended the ToD to officers as well, it’s
now being restricted to jawans, as officers already have the Short Service Commission (SSC)
route.
Benefits for the government:
1. There are immense financial benefits to the organisation due to reduction in pay and
gratuity payouts.
2. The cost of a three-year service per officer will be a fraction of the cost incurred on Short
Service Commission (SSC) officers.
3. The cost incurred on an officer, who leaves after 10 or 14 years, is Rs 5 crore-Rs 6.8 crore,
which includes the cost of pre-commission training, pay, allowances, gratuity, leave
encashment among others. The corresponding cost for a three-year service will be Rs 80
lakh-85 lakh.
4. SSC officers have the option to join the service permanently, which further increases the
cost incurred, including pension bills.
5. For soldiers, who usually serve for 17 years, the Army has calculated a lifetime savings of Rs
11.5 crore per person, as compared to a three-year service.
Benefits for citizens and the country:
1. It will help to “channelise the youth energy into positive utilisation of their potential”.
2. Rigorous military training and habits inculcated will lead to healthy citizenry.
3. The entire nation will benefit from “trained, disciplined, confident, diligent and committed”
young men or women who have done the three-year service.
4. An “initial survey” has indicated that the corporate sector will prefer to hire such youths
rather than fresh graduates.
Need for:
 The Army’s pay and pension bill has been increasing steeply over the years, accounting for
60% of its budget allocation.
 According to a report of the Standing Committee of Defence, 2019, the deficiency in
officer cadre of the Indian Army stood at approximately 14 per cent.
 Advocates of this scheme also cite “resurgence of nationalism and patriotism”, and the
fact that “unemployment in our country is a reality”.

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Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act:
Reference News:-
On March 24, a Sessions Court in Delhi denied bail to Umar Khalid as part of a set of cases that
have commonly come to be known as “the Delhi riots cases”.
What’s the issue?
The case of the police was that Mr. Khalid was one of the conspirators behind the February 2020
violence in Delhi, which had claimed more than 50 lives.
 For this, Mr. Khalid, along with many others, was charge-sheeted under the Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967, and jailed pending trial. Mr. Khalid has been in
jail for over 500 days. The trial has not yet begun.
About the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act:
Passed in 1967, the law aims at effective prevention of unlawful activities associations in India.
The Act assigns absolute power to the central government, by way of which if the Centre deems
an activity as unlawful then it may, by way of an Official Gazette, declare it so.
 It has death penalty and life imprisonment as highest punishments.
Key points:
Under UAPA, both Indian and foreign nationals can be charged.
 It will be applicable to the offenders in the same manner, even if crime is committed on
a foreign land, outside India.
 Under the UAPA, the investigating agency can file a charge sheet in maximum 180 days
after the arrests and the duration can be extended further after intimating the court.
As per amendments of 2019:
 The Act empowers the Director General of National Investigation Agency (NIA) to grant
approval of seizure or attachment of property when the case is investigated by the said
agency.
 The Act empowers the officers of the NIA, of the rank of Inspector or above, to investigate
cases of terrorism in addition to those conducted by the DSP or ACP or above rank officer in
the state.
 It also included the provision of designating an individual as a terrorist.
Delhi High Court defines the contours of UAPA:
In June 2021, delivering a judgment defining the contours of the otherwise “vague” Section 15 of
the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, (UAPA), the Delhi High Court laid down some
important principles upon the imposition of Section 15, 17 & 18 of the Act.
Sections 15, 17 and 18 of UAPA:
1. S. 15 engrafts the offence of ‘terrorist act’.
2. S. 17 lays-down the punishment for raising funds for committing a terrorist act.
3. S. 18 engrafts the offence of ‘punishment for conspiracy etc. to commit a terrorist act or any
act preparatory to commit a terrorist act’.

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Key observations made by the court:
1. “Terrorist Act” Should not be used lightly so as to trivialise them.
2. Terrorist activity is that which travels beyond the capacity of law enforcement agencies to
deal with under ordinary penal law (Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Hitendra
Vishnu Thakur).