Daily Defence Capsule 20 March 2020

PM Calls for social curfew

• What is social distancing?
  • Keeping a distance of 1m from any person around. 
  • Avoiding any social gatherings for any reasons.
• What is social curfew?
  • Restrictions on going out. 
  • Social responsibility of staying inside. 
• How can they prevent virus spread? 
  • No close contact among people. 
  • People become conscious. 
• Are we safe that way?
  • It acts as an added protection. 
  • Adequate care and precautions are still required. 

Law vs virus

• No drunk drivers’ tests to be conducted in Gurugram.
  • This is to protect people from using the same breath analyser that an infected person may have breathed into. 
  • However, this can lead to a rise in cases of drunk driving. 
• 5000 prisoners may be released on bail or furloughs to avoid overcrowding.
  • Prisons are already over crowded. 
  • There is not much that is done, because prisoners don’t vote. 
  • Despite being isolated, the prisons have a potential of spreading coronavirus. 

Gang-rape convicts hanged

• Is death penalty a solution?
  • Deterrent means that it has the capacity to reduce the future instances of a crime. 
  • Solution means that it has the capacity to stop the future instances of a crime.
• What is rarest of the rare doctrine?
  • Supreme Court has come with the new concept of rarest of the rare.
  • Not everyone is to be given a death penalty. 
  • For e.g. an illiterate man is a result of failure of the state, thus, he is not to be given death sentence. 
  • Similarly, a person who has an old widow mother is not to be awarded death sentence because it would inflict a punishment on her as well. 
• Why not hang them immediately? 
  • Article 21 guarantees that every person is to be guaranteed a protection of life. 
  • Article 14 seeks to grant equality before law and equal protection of laws. 
  • Read together, these translate into the fact that every person is to be given adequate legal opportunity for protection of their life. 
• Are women safe? 
  • No, there are many issues that prevail. 
  • Many states have enacted laws providing for capital punishment in case of rapes.
  • However, there are many more reasons for the dismal state of women in Indian society
    • Attitude change, 
    • Glass ceiling, 
    • Representation to women,
    • gender stereotyping, etc

New definition of MSMEs soon 

• Currently defined on the basis of investment in plant and machinery 
• Could be de­ fined on the basis of turnover as it would improve GST compliance.
• The MSME sector currently contributed 24% of the GDP growth and 48% of exports, with an annual tur­nover of ₹1 lakh crore.

Armed forces set up eleven new quarantine facilities 

• To be spread all across the country. 
• Will help put a check on the spread. 
• All the three services will participate in it. 
• Four such fa­cilities are in operation at the moment, 
  • at Manesar and Jaisalmer, run by the Army; 
  • at Mumbai run by the Navy and 
  • at the Hindon air base run by the Indian Air Force (IAF).

Light machine guns ordered

• Defence Ministry has placed an order for 16,479 LMGs
• ₹880­ crore contract with the Israeli Weapon Indus­tries (IWI)
• The contracted Negev 7.62X51 mm LMG is a com­bat proven weapon and cur­rently used by several coun­tries and would greatly enhance the lethality and range of a soldier compared to the presently used wea­pon.
• The Army is also close to signing the final deal for the procurement of over 7.5 lakh AK­203 assault rifles most of which would be manufactured locally by an In­dia-­Russia Joint Venture ( JV) under technology transfer.

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