Current Affairs 02 August 2022

CONTENTS

1. Parliamentary panel reviews Goa Civil Code
2. Indian Antarctic Bill 2022
3. Electoral bonds
4. AlphaFold
5. Lumpy skin disease
6. African swine fever

Parliamentary Panel Reviews Goa Civil Code

Context

A parliamentary panel has reviewed Goa’s uniform civil code, and some of its members feel that there are some peculiar and outdated provisions related to matrimony in it.

Relevance:

 GS II- Polity and Governance

Dimensions of the Article:

1. What is Goa Civil Code?
2. What is Uniform Civil Code (UCC)?
3. Positive aspects of Uniform Civil Code include
4. Challenges in Implementing Uniform Civil Code Include
5. Does India not already have a UCC for civil matters?
6. How does the idea of UCC relate to the Fundamental Right to religion?

Click Here To Read More: Parliamentary Panel Reviews Goa Civil Code

Indian Antarctic Bill 2022

Context:

Recently, Parliament passed the Indian Antarctic Bill, 2022, which aims at having India’s own national measures for protecting the Antarctic environment as also the dependent and associated ecosystem.

Relevance:

GS II- Government policies and Interventions

Dimensions of the Article:

1. What is the Antarctica Bill?
2. What is the Antarctica Treaty?
3. What are the main provisions of the Bill?
4. What are the prohibitions?
5. What is the penalty system that has been introduced?

Click Here To Read More: Indian Antarctic Bill 2022

Electoral Bonds

Context:

Recently, the State Bank of India (SBI) shared data reporting that Donations to political parties through electoral bonds (EBs) have crossed the Rs 10,000-crore mark.

Relevance:

GS-II: Polity and Governance (Governance and Government Policies)

Dimensions of the Article:

1. What are Electoral Bonds?
2. Why have they attracted criticism?
3. Government’s response defending the Electoral Bonds scheme

Click here To Read More: Electoral Bonds

AlphaFold

Context:

DeepMind, a company based in London and owned by Google, announced this week that it had predicted the three-dimensional structures of more than 200 million proteins using AlphaFold.

Relevance:

GS III- Science and Technology

Dimensions of the Article:

1. What is AlphaFold?
2. How does AlphaFold work?
3. What are the implications of this development?
4. Is AlphaFold one-of-a-kind tool in predicting protein structures?

Click Here To Read More: AlphaFold

Lumpy Skin Disease

Context:

With the lumpy skin disease spreading fast among bovines in western and northern Rajasthan, cattle-rearers in the State are suffering heavy losses. The infection has spread to about 25,000 cattle in the last couple of months and resulted in the death of more than 1,200 animals.

Relevance:

Focus: GS-III Science and Technology

About Lumpy Skin Disease

• It is caused by infection of cattle or buffalo with the poxvirus Lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV).
• The virus is one of three closely related species within the genus capripoxvirus, the other two species being Sheeppox virus and Goatpox virus.

Click Here To Read More: Lumpy Skin Disease

African Swine Fever

Context:

Barely a week after about 500 pigs were culled in Kerala’s Wayanad district to prevent the spread of African swine fever detected there, new cases of the disease have been reported from there and Kannur.

Relevance:

Focus: GS-III Science and Technology

 Dimensions of this Article:

1. What is African Swine Fever?
2. What are the symptoms of African swine fever?

What is African Swine Fever?

• African Swine Fever (ASF) does not affect humans but can be catastrophic for pigs.
• In 2019, the outbreak of the disease swept through pig populations in China — which is the largest exporter and consumer of pork — leading to large-scale cullings.
• ASF is a severe viral disease that affects wild and domestic pigs typically resulting in an acute haemorrhagic fever.
• The disease has a case fatality rate (CFR) of almost 100 per cent.
• Its routes of transmission include direct contact with an infected or wild pig (alive or dead), indirect contact through ingestion of contaminated material such as food waste, feed or garbage, or through biological vectors such as ticks.
• Any country with a pig sector is at risk of the spread of the disease and its spread is most likely via meat arriving aboard ships and planes, which is incorrectly disposed of and by meat carried by individual travellers.

What are the symptoms of African swine fever?

• High Fever
• Weakness and Difficulty Standing
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Red or blue blotches on the skin (Particularly around ears and snout)
• Coughing or labored breathing

-Source: The Hindu