20-10-22 Daily-Odisha-OPSC Current Affairs

The Orissa has directed the government to constitute a high-level committee in order to monitor the smooth functioning of quasi-judicial forums in the state. JusticeBiswanath Rathissued the direction on October 19 while adjudicating on a petition questioning the functioning of such forums.

Cases involving the OdishaLand Reforms(General) Amendment Rules, 2015, and theOrissa Survey and Settlement Act, 1959, among others, are settled through the quasi-judicial forums.

The high court divided the petitioners’ allegations into three categories – first, in quasi-judicial proceedings initiated around four years ago, there is no admission of such matters for a long period of time; second, there is no hearing even on matters admitted around 15 years ago; third, many posts in the forums remain vacant on most occasions.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched Mission LiFE movement (Lifestyle for the Environment) at the Statue of Unity in Gujarat. Envisaged by PM Modi, Mission LiFE is expected to be an India-led global mass movement that will nudge individual and collective action to protect and preserve the environment

The launch of Mission LiFE in Gujarat is significant as it was the first state in the country to initiate steps in the direction of and Climate protection.

PM Modi said the mantra of Mission LiFE is Lifestyle for Environment. It connects the powers of the people for the protection of this earth, and teaches them to utilize it in a better way.

Following concerns over the possible dilution of powers of the (TRAI) in the proposed telecom policy, the government is mulling the removal of provisions related to the regulator from the bill. It is evaluating introducing a separate bill to strengthen the regulatory body at a later stage.

The DoT is currently under the process of discussion with all stakeholders, including Industry bodies, on the draft Bill. The government has also invited written comments from industry on the Bill.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working on a series of improvements to the NavIC, or Indias equivalent of the Global Positioning System (GPS), so that more people are motivated to install it and use it. Plans are also afoot to make its reach global rather than circumscribe it to India and a limited territory around it.

NavIC ( with Indian Constellation), or the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), is a constellation of seven satellites that is akin to the American GPS, the European Galileo and the Russian GLONASS, and can be used to track location. The first of these satellites (IRNSS-1A) were launched in 2013 and thelatest in 2018.

Currently, NavIC satellites orbit earth in a geostationary or geosynchronous (GEO) orbit, or about 36,000 km from earth. MEO orbits occupy a space between GEO and Low Earth Orbit (LEO), or about 250-2,000 km from earth.

UN Climate summits are held every year, for governments to agree steps to limit global temperature rises.

They are referred to as COPs, which stands for “Conference of the Parties”. The parties are the attending countries that signed up to the original UN climate agreement in 1992.

COP27 is the 27th annual UN meeting on climate. It will take placein Sharm el-Sheikh from 6 to 18 November.

This will be the fifth time a COP has been hosted in Africa.

The region’s governments hope it will draw attention to the severe impacts of on the continent. The IPCC says Africa is one ofthe most vulnerable regionsin the world.

Currently,<a href="https://climatechampions.UNFCCC.int/is-eastern-africas-drought-the-worst-in-recent-HISTORY-and-are-worse-yet-to-come/”>17 million people are estimatedto be facing food insecurity in east Africa because of drought.