Current affairs- April 25 , 2016
Legal system too expensive for most: Study
According to the nationwide “Access to Justice” survey, legal system in India
is too expensive to access for most citizens in the country.- The survey was conducted across 305 locations in 24 States between November 2015 and February 2016 to hear the voice and explore the profile of people making use of judicial system in India.
Important observations made:
- 90% of the litigants earn less than Rs. 3 lakh per annum and the median expected cost of litigation for this group is around Rs. 16,000.
- For most, the judicial system of our country is shut because they cannot access lawyers in the first place and the quality of legal aid is poor.
- Though legal aid
aims to provide free legal services to the weaker sections who otherwise
can’t afford it, the survey found that that just 1% of the respondents
make use of this service.
- Accountability
of legal aid lawyers towards their clients and lack of communication
between the two are serious concerns plaguing the system.
- The financial
barrier is not just limited to accessing courts. The main reason
individuals could not meet the conditions of bail was found to be lack of
funds. Also, around half the litigants cited expense as a major deterrent
for filing appeals in the High Court if their cases were not resolved in
their favour.
Panama disease stalks banana cultivation in Kerala
The Panama disease caused by a soil-borne fungus is threatening banana crops across Kerala, posing a potential
crisis for farmers.
Main concern:
Scientists are concerned that the sporadic cases of infestation
could turn into an epidemic. Most of the popular cultivars have shown signs of
infestation.
How to prevent it?
Scientists have recommend soil treatment with fungicides for control of the disease.
About the disease:
Also called Fusarium Wilt of banana, Panama is caused by the soil-borne fungus
Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Cubense (Foc). The fungus enters the plant
through the roots and goes on to colonise the plant through the vascular
system.
- It causes discoloration
and wilting of leaves, and eventually kills the
plant.
- The fungus spreads through
infected planting material, soil and water.
Background:
In the 1950s, Panama wiped out the Gros Michel banana, the
dominant cultivar. Over the years, it spread from Panama to neighbouring
countries. A new virulent strain of the disease known as Tropical Race 4 (TR4)
is now threatening banana crops in Asia, Australia, Africa and the Middle East.
Ministry asks RBI to examine Workers’ Bank
proposal
The Labour Ministry has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to
form a panel headed by a former Deputy Governor of the central bank to look
into a proposal of creating a Workers’ Bank using Employees’
Provident Fund (EPF).
What the Workers’ Bank does?
It aims to improve the earnings of Employees’
Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) by investing its corpus in
various instruments. As on 31 March 2015, EPFO’s total corpus stood at Rs.6.34
lakh crore.
Background:
The proposal was mooted by the trade unions about a decade ago and
has been discussed by Labour Ministry and Employees’ Provident Fund
Organisation (EPFO) for several years now.
- A theme paper to the
government was submitted in 2004 on setting up ‘Workers’ Capital Trust’.
- The idea was modelled on
similar experiences in countries like Canada, Netherland, Switzerland and
South Africa where a collective pension fund system invests worker’s
savings in equities of domestic and global markets.
National corridor body plan shelved
The Centre has decided to shelve its plan to set up a National
Industrial Corridor Authority (NICA).
Why?
The Authority has been put on the back burner due to the delay
foreseen by the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet Secretariat in getting
Parliamentary approval for it to be conferred ‘statutory’ status on the lines
of the National Highways Authority of India.
About NICA:
It was the proposed nodal body to oversee work relating to all
national ‘industrial corridors’, in the face of hurdles in implementation.
- The plan to set up NICA
was announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his maiden Budget speech
in July 2014.
- The centre had planned to
go in for a Constitutional amendment and ensure passage of ‘NICA Act’ in
Parliament. The Constitutional amendment was to remove doubts on whether
the topic ‘industrial corridor’ falls under the ‘State List’ or ‘Union
List’ of Constitution.
- The aim was to grant NICA overarching powers including primacy over State bodies on all aspects of ‘industrial corridors’ thus allowing it comprehensive operational freedom.
What next?
To fill the gap, the government has decided to make the Delhi-Mumbai
Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC) the coordinating body for corridors, to move ahead with proposals relating to corridors
in the works.
- As per the new plan,
DMICDC head will have the powers to approve proposals relating to
corridors. These will then be forwarded to the DMIC Trust for final
clearance.
- The Trust — currently managed by the Secretaries of Department of Economic Affairs, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and that of NITI Aayog — could be expanded to include the Secretaries of Shipping, Road Transport and Urban Development (for including ‘smart cities’ in these corridors).
Why make DMICDC the coordinating agency?
Making DMICDC the coordinating agency only needs a Cabinet nod and
is easier than obtaining Parliamentary approval for NICA.
CGMP compliant facility
Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare
recently inaugurated the first of its kind Current Good Manufacturing Practise
(CGMP) compliant facility within the Central Government for manufacture
of DPT and TT vaccine at the Central Research Institute (CRI),
Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh. This makes CRI the first
Central Government Institute to have cGMP compliant infrastructure for vaccine
production.
- Recent
advancements in regulatory requirements and introduction of cGMP concept
in vaccine manufacturing had led to the need for creation of cGMP
compliant infrastructure and processes.
What are CGMPs?
CGMP refers to the Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations
enforced by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). CGMPs provide for
systems that assure proper design, monitoring, and control of manufacturing
processes and facilities.
- Adherence to the CGMP
regulations assures the identity, strength, quality, and purity of drug
products by requiring that manufacturers of medications adequately control
manufacturing operations. This includes establishing strong quality
management systems, obtaining appropriate quality raw materials,
establishing robust operating procedures, detecting and investigating
product quality deviations, and maintaining reliable testing laboratories.
- This formal system of
controls at a pharmaceutical company, if adequately put into practice,
helps to prevent instances of contamination, mix-ups, deviations,
failures, and errors. This also assures that drug products meet their
quality standards.
‘Pulakeshin’s victory over Harsha was in 618 AD’’
Researchers from the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI)
claim to have fixed the date of Emperor Harshavardhan’s defeat
to the Chalukya King Pulakeshin II by decoding a copper plate.
Accordingly, they have fixed the date at 618 AD.
- The copper plate also
records the grant of 50 ‘nivarthanas’ (a unit of land) by
Pulakeshin from the village Brahmana-Vataviya to a Vedic scholar,
Nagasharma.
Background:
Pulakeshin, who ruled from the Chalukyan capital of Badami,
challenged Harsha’s conquests. The former had established himself as ‘lord paramount’ of the south, as Harsha had
of the north.
- Unwilling to tolerate the
existence of a powerful rival in the south, Harsha had marched from Kanauj
with a huge force. The battle was fought primarily with elephants, on the
banks of the Narmada.
- After the defeat,
Harshavardha was compelled to accept the river as the demarcation and
retire from the battlefield after losing most of his elephant force.
Facts
- President Pranab Mukherjee
recently inaugurated the war monument at Khongjom in Manipur on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of
the last battle of independence of the Manipuris against the British army.
- A huge 9,300 sq km coral
reef system has been found below the muddy waters off
the mouth of the river Amazon. The 600-mile-long
(nearly 966 kilometer) reef ranges from about 30-120 m deep and stretches
from French Guiana to Brazil’s Maranhao state.
- National
Panchayati Raj Day (National Local
Self-Government day) was celebrated across the country on 24 April
annually. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj has been celebrating the National
Panchayati Raj Day (NPRD) on 24 April since 2010, as on this day, the 73rd
Constitutional Amendment came into force in 1993.
- The Indian
Olympic Association (IOA) has declared Salman Khan
as the first Bollywood celebrity to be the goodwill ambassador for the
Indian contingent at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics scheduled to start on
August 5, 2016.
