Most Probable topics for UPSC Prelim 2020

Most Probable topics for UPSC  IAS Prelim 2020 : 26 June 2019

"Impressive" tortoise discovered in Arunachal Pradesh

              A tortoise considered beautiful enough to to be named "impressed" has been dicovered in Arunachal Pradesh. The Impressed Tortoise (Manouria impressa) in Yazali area of lower Subansiri district are found by a team of Herpetologists from the Forest Department and two NGO's - Help Earth and Turtle Survival Alliance.

# This is the first record of tortoise in India, taking the count to five and the non-marine Chelonian count to 29.

# Chelonian is an order of reptile that includes turtles, terrapins and tortoises. 

# India was known to be the home of only the Asian Forest Tortoise (Manouria emys) until the discovery of the impressed tortoise.

# The Asian Forest tortoise,  the largest in mainland Asia, found only in the north east, as are 20 of the other 28 species of Chelonians.

# The male impressed tortoise is smaller than the female which is 30 cm in length.

# This Manouria species is one-third the size of the Asian Forest Tortoise. 

Disability pension will now be taxed

According to the notification issued by the Finance Ministry, Disability pension for military personnel who retired normally from service and not invalidated will now be taxed.

# In the notification issued on June 24, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said that, "Such tax exemption will be available only to armed forces personnel who have been invalidated from services on the account of bodily disability attributable to or aggravated by such services and not to the personnel who have been retired on superannuation or otherwise".

# Disability Pension are of two type - War and Normal. War disability is 60% of the last salary drawn in case of 100% disability and normal disability is 30% of the last salary drawn in case of 100% disability.

# It goes down proportionally for lower percentage of disability.

NITI Aayog's Health index : Second edition

According to the second edition of NITI Aayog's Health Index, Kerala again tops the list for the best performing state in the health sector among the 21 large state, while Uttar Pradesh retained the worst performer tag.

# Kerala, which got an overall score of 74.01, was followed by Andhra Pradesh (65.13), Maharashtra (63.99), Gujarat (63.52), Punjab (63.01), Himachal Pradesh (62.41), Jammu and Kashmir (62.37), Karnataka (61.14) and Tamil Nadu (60.41).

# Uttar Pradesh continued to be at bottom of the list with its score falling to 28.61. Other states at the bottom of the list were Bihar (32.11), Odisha (35.97) and Madhya Pradesh (38.39).

# The report "Healthy States, Progressive India"- Report on rank of States and UT's has rank in three categories - larger States, smaller States and Union Territories "to ensure comparison among similar entities".# The index ranks the States and Union Territories based on 23 health-related indicators, including neonatal mortality rate, under-five mortality rate, proportion of low birth weight among new borns, proportion of districts with functional Cardiac Care Units, full immunisation coverage and proportion of specialists positions vacant at district hospitals.

# The report added that among the eight Empowered Action Group States, only three States - Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh - showed improvement in overall performance.

PAROLE

Parole is a system of releasing a prisoner with suspension of the sentence. The release is conditional, usually subject to behaviour, and requires periodic reporting to the authorities for a set period of time.

# Parole is considered a reformative process, and the provision (along with furlough) was introduced with a view to humanising the prison system.

# In India, parole and furlough are covered under the Prison Act of 1894. Prisoners convicted of multiple murder or under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act are not eligible to parole.

# Since prison is a subject of the state, the Prison Act of a particular state government defines the rules under which Parole is granted. State governments have their own Prisoner Release on Parole Rules.

# Parole is granted by the state executive - jail authorities submits the report to the state government- and competent authority takes the final decision on grants of parole on humanitarian consideration.

# If Parole is rejected, the convict can move the High Court challenging the order of the Competent Authority.

# Also, apart from the regular parole, the superintendent can also grant parole up to a period of seven day in emergent cases.

# A broadly similar but subtly different concept is furlough, which is given in case of long imprisonment. Furlough is seen as a matter of right, to be granted periodically irrespective of any reason and merely to enable the prisoner to retain family and social ties.

# Parole is not a matter of right and may be denied to a prisoner even when he makes out a sufficient case.