Daily Current Affairs 08 July 2023 – IAS Current Affairs

Current Affairs 08 July 2023 focuses on Prelims-Mains perspective. Major events are :

Candida Auris UPSC Prelims

Source : The Hindu
GS II : Health; Prelims

Overview

1. News in Brief
2. About Candida Auris
3. How can it be treated?

Why in News ?

Recently, Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungus that was identified as a global threat was found in hospitalised stray dogs in Delhi.

News in Brief

• Live cultures of Candida auris, an emerging fungus that presents a serious global health threat.
• That is resistant to most antifungal agents, have been isolated and documented in the ear canals of hospitalised stray dogs in the capital.
• This fungal pathogen has been rated as an urgent threat by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and classified as a critical priority group by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
• The recent finding suggests pets could act as reservoirs for superbugs, potentially transmitting infections to humans.

About Candida Auris

• Candida auris is an emerging multidrug-resistant oval-shaped fungus causing life-threatening outbreaks, often in healthcare settings.

  

• Origin – First reported in Japan in 2009, C. auris has since spread all over the world.
• It grows as yeast and causes candidiasis in humans.
• The fungus is hard to identify with standard laboratory methods and can be misidentified in labs without specific technology.
• It has brought on ear infections, bloodstream infections, and wound infections.
• Although it has been identified from respiratory and urine samples as well, it is unknown if it is responsible for bladder or lung infections.

How can it be treated?

• A family of antifungal medications known as echinocandins can be used to treat the majority of C. auris infections.
• It is particularly challenging to treat certain C. auris infections since some of them have developed resistance to all three major types of antifungal drugs.
• To treat the infection in this case, it could be necessary to use many kinds of antifungals at large dosages.

What is Cluster Munitions?

Source : Indian Express
GS II : International Relation

Overview

1. News in Brief
2. What is Cluster Munitions?
3. Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM)

Why in News ?

The United States has decided to send cluster munitions to Ukraine to help its military push back Russian forces entrenched along the front lines.

News in Brief

• The Biden administration is expected to announce that it will send thousands of Cluster Bomb as part of a new military aid package worth $800 million.
• Likely trigger outrage from some allies and humanitarian groups.
• Proponents argue that Russia has already been using the controversial weapon in the region.
• This will cause unintended civilian deaths.

What is Cluster Munitions?

• A weapon known as a Cluster Munitions or Cluster Bomb.
• It is made to scatter smaller explosives across a wide region.
• The smaller bombs are referred to as submunitions or bomblets.
• They are also referred to as cluster munitions.

How Cluster Bomb works?

• The dozens or hundreds of bomblets that cluster bombs discharge can scatter across a considerable region.
• It can be dropped from the air, shot from the ground, or fired from the sea.
• They were initially employed during World War II to eliminate numerous scattered military objectives or soldiers.
• Anyone there when a cluster bomb explodes in that region runs the risk of dying or suffering severe injuries may includes civilians.
• In addition, a lot of bomblets do not detonate instantly, which means that they might still cause harm or death years later.

Controversaries regarding Cluster Munition

• A sizable portion of bomblets fail to detonate as anticipated upon impact.
• The dud rate—also known as the submunition failure rate has reportedly ranged from 10% to 40% in recent conflicts.
• Civilians are the primary victims of cluster bombs.

Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM)

• Cluster bombs have negative humanitarian effects and inflict intolerable suffering on people, which is why the Convention on Cluster

  

  bombs (CCM) was created.

• It was adopted in Dublin on 30 May 2008 and opened for signature in Oslo on 3 December the same year.
• The Convention will be fully universalized, its standards will be promoted, and it will be fully implemented, according to the States Parties.
• Its application advances human rights, international humanitarian law, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
• It also promotes international peace and security.
• It prohibits all use, stockpiling, production and transfer of cluster munitions.
• Till date 108 signatories and 111 parties in the CCM.
  • However, India was not a party to this Convention.

Brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri

Source : Indian Express
GS III : Science and Technology

Overview

1. News in Brief
2. About Brain-eating amoeba

Why in News ?

A 15-year-old boy in Kerala’s Alappuzha district has died due to a rare infection caused by Naegleria fowleri or “brain-eating amoeba” after a week of high fever and rapid deterioration in his vitals.

News in Brief

• The amoeba most likely came from his taking a bath in a nearby stream.
• It is known to flourish in any natural setting, but especially in warm water environments.
• It isn’t found in sea water since it can’t thrive in salty environments.
• It feeds on bacteria found in the silt of rivers and lakes to live.

About Brain-eating amoeba

• Naegleria fowleri is a single-cell creature commonly referred to as “brain-eating amoeba.”

  

• It may be discovered in warm freshwater environments like lakes, hot springs, and even unkempt swimming pools.
• It was first found in Australia in 1965, and due to its tiny size, it can only be seen under a microscope.
• Naegleria fowleri is the only species of Naegleria that can infect humans.
• According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) PAM’s initial symptoms appear one to twelve days after infection.
• They may first resemble the meningitis-related symptoms of headache, nausea, and fever.
• In the latter stages, one may have seizures, hallucinations, a stiff neck, and possibly a coma.
• Naegleria fowleri normally eat bacteria, but during human infections, the trophozoites consume astrocytes and neurons.

Human Infection and survival rate

• Through the nose, the amoeba enters the human body and moves up to the brain.
• This frequently occurs when a person swims, dives, or even just dips their head into a freshwater body of water.
• Impact: It destroys brain tissues and causes a dangerous infection known as primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM).
• Survival Rate: The chances of survival from this infection are unfortunately low upto 97%.

How can Brain-eating amoeba treated?

• Combination of drugs, often including amphotericin B, azithromycin, fluconazole, rifampin, miltefosine, and dexamethasone according to US-based Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

What is Criminal Defamation Case

Source : PIB
GS II : Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate

Overview

1. News in Brief
2. Moral Turpitude and Serious Offence

Why in News ?

The Gujarat High Court used standard in its 125-page decision recently concluding that Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in the criminal defamation case constitutes a serious offence and one involving moral turpitude.

News in Brief

• Two criteria must be met in order for a court to delay a conviction for an offence.
  • A 2014 Supreme Court ruling and the Code of Criminal Procedure both provide that it cannot be a Serious Offence or an offence involving Moral Turpitude.
• According to the court under the facts and circumstances of the case, the offence committed by the accused falls in the category of moral turpitude also.
• The revisioner has breached modesty, even if his version is accepted and further revisioner owes a duty to each individual and society in general not to influence the election on the basis of false facts.
• Magistrate court in Surat convicted Rahul for criminal defamation under Section 499 of the IPC.

Moral Turpitude and Serious Offence

• Shyam Narain Pandey v State of Uttar Pradesh 2014

  

  • Moral turpitude was listed by the Supreme Court as one of the grounds to take into account while staying a conviction.
  • The word not mentioned in the law but understood to include crimes such as murder or rape.
• Maulik Kotak v. State of Maharashtra 2014
  • Bombay High Court ruled that only the individual who was wronged and defamed may file a defamation complaint.
• Shreya Singhal Vs. Union of India:
  • It dealt with internet defamation.
  • Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 unconstitutional which punishes for sending offensive messages through communication services.
• Section 389 of the Code of Criminal Procedure
  • The individual convicted must convince the court that his sentence does not exceed three years for the conviction to be overturned.
  • This is taken to imply that the conviction was not for a serious offence.
• Section 2(54) of the Indian Penal Code
  • Serious offences” as offences for which the punishment is imprisonment between three and seven years.

What is Defamation in IPC?

• It is referred to as defaming that person when an improper or inaccurate remark, allegation, or false imputation is made or published about that person, whether by words, oral communication, visual clues, or any other means.
• Under Section 499 of the IPC, defamation is addressed.

What are the factors of defamation?

• It must be done with the intention of harming the person it is done to.
• Communicated either vocally, in writing, graphically, or through signs.
• Making such accusations public

Criminal versus civil defamation

• Civil defamation
  • A person who has been falsely accused may file a lawsuit in the High Court or a lower court and demand monetary damages.
  • There is no jail term or other type of retribution.
• Criminal Defamation
  • According to this, the defendant in a defamation lawsuit may get a two-year prison term, a fine, or both.
  • Rahul Gandhi faced Criminal Defamation.

Information Technology Amendment Rules 2023

Source : The Hindu
GS II : Governance

Overview

Why in News ?

The Bombay High Court said words like, fake, false and misleading that are part of the new Information Technology Rules were
problematic.

News in Brief

• A group of petitions filed recently challenging the constitutionality of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code)

  

  Amendment Rules, 2023, were being heard by a division bench.

• Words like fake, false, and misleading are problematic in the IT Rules’ terminology.
• The only three requirements to mark information as false are those three.
• We are unaware of the Central government’s operations.
• The phrase “like fake” is quite troublesome.
• One could contend that something is untrue. Falsity forces us into a binary; fake makes no attempt to do so.
• Given that it is an opinion, the phrase “misleading” in the Rules is a very tricky issue.
• The Division Bench said that the term “misleading” is arbitrary and that what is misleading for one person may not necessarily be misleading for another.

Information Technology Amendment Rules, 2023

• The rules amended the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
• The purpose of the revisions is to compel online gaming and social media intermediaries to exercise greater scrutiny with regard to online games and incorrect or misleading material relating to government business.

Amendment Rules

• Union Government to regulate the online real money gaming industry Eg. rummy, poker
• Fact Checking Unit
  • No platform like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter etc can allow harmful unapproved online games and their advertisements.
  • They should not share false information about the Indian government, as confirmed by a fact-checking unit.
  • Fact check unit of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) will be notified.
• Registration
  • Online gaming platforms must register with a Self-Regulatory Body (SRB) that will decide whether or not the game is legal.
  • It will prohibit any forms of gambling.
• Intermediaries should take down the information that is marked as fake by fact checking unit.
  • This mean games that are not declared permissible would fall under the betting and gambling category.
  • Social media intermediaries will have to take action act or risk losing their safe harbour protections under Section 79 of the IT Act.

What is Cluster Munitions?

Source : Indian Express
GS II : International Relation

Overview

1. News in Brief
2. What is Cluster Munitions?

Why in News ?

The United States has decided to send cluster munitions to Ukraine to help its military push back Russian forces entrenched along the front lines.

News in Brief

• The Biden administration is expected to announce that it will send thousands of Cluster Bomb as part of a new military aid package worth $800 million.
• Likely trigger outrage from some allies and humanitarian groups.
• Proponents argue that Russia has already been using the controversial weapon in the region.
• This will cause unintended civilian deaths.

What is Cluster Munitions?

• A weapon known as a Cluster Munitions or Cluster Bomb.
• It is made to scatter smaller explosives across a wide region.
• The smaller bombs are referred to as submunitions or bomblets.
• They are also referred to as cluster munitions.

How Cluster Bomb works?

• The dozens or hundreds of bomblets that cluster bombs discharge can scatter across a considerable region.
• It can be dropped from the air, shot from the ground, or fired from the sea.
• They were initially employed during World War II to eliminate numerous scattered military objectives or soldiers.
• Anyone there when a cluster bomb explodes in that region runs the risk of dying or suffering severe injuries may includes civilians.
• In addition, a lot of bomblets do not detonate instantly, which means that they might still cause harm or death years later.

Controversaries regarding Cluster Munition

• A sizable portion of bomblets fail to detonate as anticipated upon impact.
• The dud rate—also known as the submunition failure rate has reportedly ranged from 10% to 40% in recent conflicts.
• Civilians are the primary victims of cluster bombs.

Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM)

• Cluster bombs have negative humanitarian effects and inflict intolerable suffering on people, which is why the Convention on Cluster bombs (CCM) was created.
• It was adopted in Dublin on 30 May 2008 and opened for signature in Oslo on 3 December the same year.
• The Convention will be fully universalized, its standards will be promoted, and it will be fully implemented, according to the States Parties.
• Its application advances human rights, international humanitarian law, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
• It also promotes international peace and security.
• It prohibits all use, stockpiling, production and transfer of cluster munitions.
• Till date 108 signatories and 111 parties in the CCM.
  • However, India was not a party to this Convention.

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