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Current Affairs-19.01.2021

19.01.2021

News Broadcasters Association

The News Broadcasters Association is a private association of different current affairs and news television broadcasters in India.
NBA represents the collective voice of the news and current affairs broadcasters in India.
It is an organisation funded entirely by its members.
It was established by leading Indian news broadcasters in 3 July 2007.
The Association was set up to deal with ethical, operational, regulatory, technical and legal issues affecting news and current-affairs channels.

RatG13

RaTG13 virus is isolated from a horseshoe bat in Yunnan Province in 2013 and it was most closely related to SARS-CoV-2.
All approaches suggest that RaTG13 and SARS-CoV-2 share a single ancestral lineage and estimate that SARS-CoV-2 genetically diverged from related bat sarbecoviruses in 1948, 1969 and 1982.

FBI

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency.
Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, the FBI is also a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence.
A leading U.S. counter-terrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, the FBI has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes.

Kamala Harris as Vice President of US

She is the first biracial (South Asian and African), intercultural (Indian and Jamaican), interfaith (Hindu and Baptist) woman and daughter of immigrant parents to hold this post.

Gig Workers

A gig economy is a free market system in which temporary positions are common and organizations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements
Examples of gig employees in the workforce could include freelancers, independent contractors, project-based workers and temporary or part-time hires.
The three new labour codes passed by Parliament recently acknowledge platform and gig workers as new occupational categories in the making
Defining gig workers is done in a bid to keep India’s young workforce secure as it embraces ‘new kinds of work’, like delivery, in the digital economy.

Creamy Layer Concept for SC and ST – M. Nagaraj Case – 2006

The ‘means-test and creamy layer’ first finds expression in the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment in Indra Sawhney versus Union of India, delivered by a nine-judge Bench on November 16, 1992.
‘Creamy layer’ contains “some members of a backward class who are highly advanced socially as well as economically and educationally.
On June 17, 1995, Parliament adopted the seventy-seventh amendment by which clause (4A) was inserted into Article 16 to enable reservation to be made in promotion for SCs and STs.
The validity of the amendment was challenged before the Supreme Court in the Nagaraj case (2006).
Upholding the validity of Article 16 (4A), the court then said that it is an enabling provision. “The State is not bound to make reservation for the SCs and STs in promotions. But, if it seeks to do so, it must collect quantifiable data on three facets — the backwardness of the class; the inadequacy of the representation of that class in public employment; and the general efficiency of service as mandated by Article 335 would not be affected”.

Types of Tortoises found in India

Indian Star Tortoise (Geochelone elegans): Indian star tortoise is the most popular species of tortoise as part of the exotic pet trade. The endangered tortoise are found in dry areas and scrub forest in India, also in the illegal wildlife trade in India as most trafficked wild animals along with monitor lizard, red sand boa and Indian pangolin.
Asian Forest Tortoise/Asian Brown Tortoise (Manouriaemys): Asian forest tortoise is endemic to Southeast Asia and one of the largest tortoise in mainland Asia that occurs in northeastern India.
Elongated Tortoise: found in Southeast Asia and parts of the Indian Subcontinent, particularly Nepal.
Travancore Tortoise: It is a large forest tortoise growing up to 330 millimetres (13 in) in length.

Joint Parliamentary Committee

The JPC is an ad-hoc body.
It is set up for a given period of time and is aimed at addressing a specific issue.
In order to set up a JPC, a motion is passed in one House and supported by the other House.
The committee’s members are decided by Parliament.
The number of members can vary. There are twice as many Lok Sabha members as the Rajya Sabha.
A JPC is authorised to collect evidence in oral or written form or demand documents in connection with the matter.