30th sep Prelims Sure Shot

 

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

Formerly known as United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund is special program of UN devoted to aiding national efforts to improve the health, nutrition, education, and general welfare of children.

 

It was created in 1946 to provide relief to children in countries devastated by World War II.

It is headquartered in New York City. It was awarded Nobel Prize for Peace in 1965.

Since 1996 UNICEF programs have been guided by Convention on Rights of the Child (1989)

Global Bird Rescue Week

Global Bird Rescue (GBR) is an annual event hosted by FLAP Canada that uses the Global Bird Collision Mapper (GBCM) to document bird-building collisions across the globe, each year during the first week in October.

Bird Count India has now partnered with a citizen science initiative called Global Bird Rescue (GBR) for a week long campaign (from September 30 to October 6) to document bird-building collisions across the country.

 

 

The Representation of People Act 1951

Features –

• Actual conduct of elections
• Poll
• Administrative machinery for the conduct of elections
• By-elections
• Election offences
• Election disputes
• Registration of political parties

The Representation of People Act, 1951 is an act of Parliament of India which provides the conduct of elections of the Houses of Parliament and to the House or Houses of the Legislature of each State, the qualifications and disqualifications for membership of those Houses, the corrupt practices and other offences at or in connection with such elections and the decision of doubts and disputes arising out of or in connection with such elections.

The Act was endorsed by the provisional parliament under Article 327 of Indian Constitution, before the first general election. The act also manages issues like qualification and disqualification of members of both houses of Parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) and the state legislatures (State Legislative Assembly and State Legislative Council).

Some Important Provisions of the Act-

1. Part 21 of the Indian Constitution drafted by the Constituent Assembly had mentioned for a provisional parliament. The provisional parliament enacted Representation of People’s Act 1951, so that general elections could be conducted according to the rules mentioned.
2. Citation is Article No 43 of 1951.
3. Representation of People’s Act contains 13 parts (2 parts added as amendments). Each part is divided into different sections making it a total of 171 numbered sections (including those sections which were repealed later.).
4. Expressions not used in 1951 act, but listed in Representation of the People Act 1950 (43 of 1950) have the same meaning.
5. Chief Electoral Officer is mentioned in section 13A.
6. Corrupt practices are mentioned in section 123.
7. Election means an election to fill a seat or seats in either House of Parliament or in the House or either House of the Legislature of a State other than the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
8. Section 8 deals with Disqualification of representatives on conviction for certain offences.

 

During Indian PM visit to the USA, a MoU instead of an actual agreement, was singed for the $2.5 billion investment planned by Indian PSU Petronet in American LNG company Tellurian’s Driftwood LNG terminal

Reasons for delay in reaching agreement:

• Price drops in LNG
• India’s demand shortfall given the recent downturn in manufacturing
• Expected LNG supply from Indian market and 
• Negative experience with locking in contracts for a long period

About Petronet

• It was formed as a Joint Venture by the Government of India to import LNG and set up LNG terminals in the country.
• It involves India’s leading oil and natural gas industry players with its promoters being GAIL, ONGC, IOCL and BPCL.
• It has set up the country’s first LNG receiving and regasification terminal at Dahej, Gujarat, and another terminal at Kochi, Kerala.