Current Affairs

NOBEL PRIZE FOR MEDICINE 2016

The Nobel prize in medicine has been awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi for his discoveries on how the body’s cells detoxify and repair themselves.

Autophagy is essentially the body’s internal recycling program - scrap cells are hunted down and the useful parts are stripped out to generate energy or create new cells. It is a crucial process to prevent cancerous growths, and, by maintaining a healthy metabolism, helps protect against conditions like diabetes.

Yoshinori Ohsumi used baker’s yeast to identify genes essential for autophagy. He then went on to elucidate the underlying mechanisms for autophagy in yeast and showed that similar sophisticated machinery is used in human cells.

Lok Sabha passes Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2016

The Lok Sabha has passed the Election Law (Amendment) Bill 2016 to amend electoral laws to allow a limited delimitation exercise in West Bengal for granting voting rights to people who became Indian citizens following the exchange of enclaves with Bangladesh.
The bill seeks to amend the Delimitation Act, 2002 and the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
It enables the Election Commission to carry out a limited delimitation of assembly and parliamentary constituencies in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal following the exchange of 51 Bangladeshi and 111 Indian enclaves in July last year.
The enclaves were exchanged pursuant to the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement and 2011 Protocol and Instruments of Ratification during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Bangladesh last year.
Currently, the Election Commission is looking into the issue of granting voting rights to the people who came from Bangladesh under the exchange of enclaves.
As far as their rehabilitation is concerned the State government will case and the Central government will provide all required assistance.

Three Information Commissioners appointed

Government of India has appointed three information commissioners in the Central Information Commission.

1. Shri Bimal Julka (IAS) - Madhya Pradesh
2. Amitava Bhattacharya (IAS) - Gujarat
3. Divya Prakash Sinha (IAS) - Manipur

The newly appointed commissioners will serve for the term of 5 years or until they reach the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier as per the provisions of the RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT 2005.

Thus the total strength of Information Commissioners including the Chief Information Commissioner has been increased to 11.