Prelims Focus – 21st February 2024

1.Section 41A of the CrPC

In News: Recently, the Bombay High Court termed the Section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) as ‘Abuse of Power’.

• Section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) is a huge provision that regulates the process of arrest in India.
  • It was added to avoid routine arrests.
• It provides for the requirement of a notice to be sent by the investigating agencies before making an arrest in certain conditions prescribed by the Code.
• It empowers a police officer carrying out a probe to issue notices to people connected to the case, directing them to appear before him.
• If the person involved complies with the notice, they shall no longer be arrested until there are precise motives, which need to be recorded in writing bythe police officer.

2.Red Sea Mission of EU 

In News:  The European Union (EU) has launched a naval mission in order to protect Red Sea shipping from Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

• It comes in response to a sequence of attacks on commercial vessels, disrupting maritime traffic, hampering trade, and driving up prices.
• It is called Aspides (Greek for ‘protect’) and aims to protect the important shipping lane of the Red Sea.
• It ambitions to offer maritime situational recognition, accompany vessels, and protect them towards feasible multi-domain attacks at sea.
• Unlike the U.S. And British forces, which have carried out retaliatory strikes on the Houthis, the EU challenge will now not partake in any army strikes and could only perform at sea.

3.Saturn’s Moon Mimas

In News:  Astronomers have recently studied on Saturn’s moon Mimas may have a liquid ocean around 20-30 km under its heavily cratered ice shell.

• Mimas was found in 1789 by English astronomer William Herschel.
• It is less than 123 miles (198 kilometers) in mean radius.
• The crater-blanketed Mimas is the smallest and innermost of Saturn’s important moons. 
• Its low density indicates that it consists almost entirely of water ice, which is the only substance ever detected on Mimas.
• It takes only 22 hours and 36 mins to complete an orbit. 
• Its maximum distinguishing characteristic is a massive effect crater – named Herschel
• Mimas appears to be frozen solid is puzzling because Mimas is closer to Saturn.

4.Green Anaconda 

Recent news: A new species of green anaconda has been discovered by scientists and named the northern green anaconda. It lives alongside the already known southern green anaconda.

Details:

• Green anacondas are really important in keeping the balance in nature because they are at the top of the food chain. 
• If their numbers go down, it can mean that something is wrong with the environment, so we need to protect them. 
• This research shows that it is important to understand and protect animals that we don’t even know about yet. 
• One kind of green anaconda is found in Peru, Bolivia, French Guiana, and Brazil, and the other kind is found in Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. 
• These two kinds of anacondas are different from each other because they have been apart for almost 10 million years.

5.Mission Basundhara 4.0

Recent news: The Assam Chief Minister has launched a survey of land in riverine areas as part of Mission Basundhara 4.0, with the goal of establishing settlements in these regions.

Details: 

• • Mission Basundhara is a program in Assam, India that aims to improve the accessibility of land revenue services for citizens. 
  • The program offers services such as land mutation, updating land records, and delivering services to people at their homes through an online platform. 
  • It was launched in October 2021 and a second version was launched in November 2022. 
  • The upcoming version, Mission Basundhara 3.0, will focus on simplifying the process of buying and selling land and resolving conflicts between families related to land boundaries.
  • The island areas of the Brahmaputra River, also known as “Char/Chapori” in the local language.
  • The characters exhibit a unique pattern of moving from one place to another.
• They undergo erosion upstream and deposition downstream, causing them to move in the downstream direction.

Download as PDF