Bihar Affairs
Air quality forecast system in Patna soon
The city will soon get an air quality forecasting system that can alert three days in advance aboutpollutionand air quality information, like Weather forecast.
The forecast will help the stakeholders identify local sources of pollution and initiate action in the affected areas as per the graded response Climate action plan.
Bihar State Pollution Control Boardhas started the ground work to launch the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), which is already being run in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Pune.
National and International Affairs
Rajya Sabhas productivity during winter session 102%:The final day of the winter session, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned sine die, with a productivity score of 102%.Jagdeep Dhankhar, the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, claims that in 13 sittings, functional time was 64 hours and 50 minutes as opposed to the entire allocated time of 63 hours and 26 minutes, and productivity was 102%.
1,920 unstarred questions were answered in the 13 sittings, while 82 starred questions were resolved.
After 28 hours of debate in which 160 members participated, nine bills were ultimately passed or returned during the session.
Although the term House of Elders is not listed in the official lexicon, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar had noted in my opening address on December 7 that it adequately captured the significance of this institution.
Spain passes new transgender law:The lower house of the Spanish Parliament approved a measure allowing individuals over the age of 16 to change their legally recorded gender without the need for medical supervision. According to the law, drafted by the center-left coalition government, minors between the ages of 14 and 16 must be accompanied by their parents or legal guardians and those between the ages of 12 and 13 will require a judges permission to make the move.
The law also abolishes a restriction that banned lesbian couples from registering their children under both parents names and forbids the use of so-called conversion therapies to repress sexual orientation or gender identity.
Up until recently, transgender individuals required the diagnosis of gender dysphoria, a psychological disorder in which the patient does not feel that their biological sex matches their gender identity.