Current affairs- March 31,2016
Women can enter temples
The Bombay High Court has
come out in favor of women’s right to worship. The court has observed that
there is no law that can prevent women from entering a place of worship.
Background:
These observations by the court
were made during the hearing of a public interest litigation petition
challenging the prohibition of entry of women in the Shani Shingnapur Temple in
Maharashtra.
§ The petition seeks the entry of women not just into the temple,
but also inside its sanctum sanctorum.
§ The petition says that the prohibition is
arbitrary, illegal and in violation of fundamental rights of citizens.
What the law says?
Under the Maharashtra
Hindu Place of Worship (Entry Authorisation) Act, 1956, if any temple or person prohibits any person from entering a
temple then he or she faces a six-month imprisonment.
Important observations made by
the court:
§ If a male can go and pray before the deity
then why not women?
§ It is the state government’s duty to protect
the rights of women and the government should give wide publicity to the Act
and issue circulars, informing the general public at large about the Act and
its provisions.
Stay on floor test in
Uttarakhand
A Division Bench of
Uttarakhand High Court has decided to keep the March 29 order of High Court
allowing floor test in abeyance till April 6.
Why?
This decision is based special
appeals filed by the Centre and opposition parties in Uttarakhand over
ambiguities in the March 29 order of the court where Mr.Rawat was permitted a
floor test.
§ The centre had approached the court
questioning the permission for voting while the state is under President’s Rule
and the opposition parties had approached the court questioning the rights of
nine disqualified MLAs to participate in the ballot.
What the March 29 order says?
In its order on March 29th,
the High Court allowed Mr. Rawat to take a floor test in Vidhan Sabha to test
his majority.
Why can’t floor test be taken
now?
According to the centre, after
the imposition of President’s Rule, the State legislature cannot function
and all its functions can only be discharged by or under the authority of
Parliament. Also, voting is not permitted under President’s rule.
Virtual Earth-Space Telescope
Reveals New Details About the Milky Way
Scientists have created a virtual
Earth-space telescope system with the highest
resolution of any astronomical observation ever made.
About the telescope:
Researchers created this
telescope by combining the Russian RadioAstron satellite with the ground-based telescopes. The RadioAstron satellite was
combined with the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, The Very Large Array
in New Mexico, the Effelsberg Telescope in Germany, and the Arecibo Observatory
in Puerto Rico. This combined system produces a virtual radio telescope more than
100,000 miles across.
What has been found out?
With this, scientists have
unveiled an unusually hot quasar jet in the Milky Way.
§ Scientists have pointed out these quasar jets
at a quasar called 3C 273, more than 2 billion
light-years from Earth.
§ Quasars like 3C 273 propel huge jets of
material outward at speeds nearly that of light. These powerful jets emit radio
waves. The emission was about 100 billion degrees.
§ The observations also showed, for the first
time, substructure caused by scattering of the radio waves by the tenuous
interstellar material in our own Milky Way Galaxy.
What are Quasars?
Quasars are supermassive black
holes at the cores of galaxies. Quasars, also called
quasi-stellar radio sources, are the most energetic and distant members of a
class of objects called active galactic nuclei (AGN).
§ Their spectra contain very broad emission
lines, unlike any known from stars, hence the name “quasi-stellar.” Their
luminosity can be 100 times greater than that of the Milky Way.
§ Quasars are believed to be powered by
accretion of material into supermassive black holes in the nuclei of distant
galaxies, making these luminous versions of the general class of objects known
as active galaxies.
§ Quasars also emit visible light, ultraviolet
rays, infrared waves, X-rays, and gamma-rays.
Budget sets priorities for
government spending
Budget 2016-17 has introduced a
new classification
system for the Centre’s spending.
The new system divides Centrally
Sponsored Schemes (CSS) into three categories:
1. Core of the Core.
2. Core
3. Optional Schemes.
Key facts:
§ The new system has accorded the Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme the highest priority by deeming it
‘Core of the Core’.
§ This system has been put in place as a run-up
to the next financial year, when the Plan/Non-Plan distinction in government
expenditure will be done away with.
§ As per the new system, the Core of the Core
schemes will retain their expenditure allocation framework. For example,
MGNREGA had 75 per cent of the material expenditure from the Centre and 25 per
cent from the states.
§ The Core schemes will have a 60:40 formula,
while the Optional schemes will have a 50:50 formula, with the states having
the flexibility to decide whether to invest in these or not.
§ Under the new classification, eight schemes
will be classified as Core of the Core. including MGNREGA and all the umbrella
schemes for the upliftment of minorities, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled
Tribes.
§ The Core schemes, 33 in number, include
schemes as far-ranging as the Krishi Unnati Yojana, the Smart Cities programme,
and the modernisation of the police force.
Background:
This system is based on the
recommendations of a sub-committee of chief ministers formed by Niti Aayog for
the rationalisation of the CSS. The exercise, to rationalise Plan and Non-Plan
schemes of all Ministries and Departments, was undertaken by the committee for
effective outcome based monitoring of implementation of the programmes and
schemes and to ensure optimum utilisation of resources.
Is it a good move?
A. Yes and why?
The classification is trying to
segregate the schemes by importance. The state governments were earlier taking
their own decisions regarding many of these schemes. Now the Centre has said
that some are important schemes and the states can take their own decisions
regarding the others.
B. No and why?
It is meaningless to have
30-odd specific-purpose transfers (where central funds are transferred for a
specific use) without any standard of outcomes. Also, the new system does not
address this issue of linking expenditure to outcomes, it simply re-classifies
the expenditure.
ADB lowers India’s growth
forecast to 7.4 % for 2016-17
The Asian Development Bank
has lowered India’s growth forecast to 7.4% from an earlier estimate of 7.6%
for the financial year ending March 31, 2017.
Why?
According to ADB, this is
mainly due to the failure of the government to push through the Goods and
Services Tax and the Land and Labour Reforms.
Other important observations
made by the bank:
§ India is one of the fastest growing large
economies in the world and will likely remain so in the near-term. India’s
gross domestic product is forecast to grow to 7.8% for the fiscal year to March
2018.
§ During the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016, a
pickup in manufacturing, private consumption, and capital expenditure by the
government helped offset a double-digit decline in exports.
§ Imports contracted largely due to a sharply
lower oil bill, while inflation remained broadly subdued on the back of lower
global commodity prices, although there was a pickup in food prices in the
second half.
§ Measures to encourage more foreign direct
investment resulted in a dramatic surge in investment. Ongoing efforts to curb
spending and increased tax revenues saw the government achieve its budget
deficit reduction target.
§ After two years of decline, consumer inflation
is likely to accelerate, fuelled by the salary hike for civil servants and a
mild pickup in global oil prices, with inflation expected to average 5.4% in
the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017, rising to 5.8% in next year.
§ During the subsequent financial year, a weak
global economy will continue to weigh on exports, particularly India’s refined
petroleum products, offsetting a further pickup in domestic consumption, due in
part to an impending salary hike for government employees on the implementation
of the seventh pay commission award.
§ Public investment will remain strong as the
government taps savings from lower oil costs to boost spending.
§ Strengthened public banks and corporate
deleveraging will result in an uptick in bank credit and boost private
spending, including on infrastructure.
§ With government policy actions in place, the
ADB expects the business environment to improve.
The bank also notes that India
still faces significant challenges to finance the infrastructure it needs to
deliver sustainable growth, with funding requirements estimated at around $200
billion a year through 2017-18. But, public banks’ non-performing assets and an
overleveraged corporate sector leave limited scope for more private investment
in infrastructure and highlight the need for policy actions. However, in
2017-18, strengthened public banks and corporate de-leveraging are expected to
result in an uptick in bank credit and boost private spending, including on
infrastructure.
‘Market access for India’s
services key to BTIA’
Commerce Minister Nirmala
Sitharman recently said that obtaining greater access to the market for
services in the European Union (EU) is key for the progress of the Broadbased Trade
and Investment Agreement (BTIA)between the EU and India.
§ India and EU are hoping to make progress on
the trade deal during the 13th EU India Summit in Brussels.
Obstacles:
India has not been granted data secure status by the EU, and this has mainly hampered the progress of
negotiations around the liberalisation of trade in services in the BTIA talks.
Being considered ‘data secure’ is crucial for a number of services especially
in the IT and ITES sectors.
About Broadbased Trade and
Investment Agreement (BTIA):
On 28th June 2007, India and
the EU began negotiations on a broad-based Bilateral Trade and Investment
Agreement (BTIA) in Brussels, Belgium.
§ These negotiations are pursuant to the
commitment made by political leaders at the 7th India-EU Summit held in
Helsinki in October 2006 to move towards negotiations for a broad-based trade
and investment agreement on the basis of the report of India-EU High Level
Technical Group.
§ India and the EU expect to promote bilateral
trade by removing barriers to trade in goods and services and investment across
all sectors of the economy. Both parties believe that a comprehensive and
ambitious agreement that is consistent with WTO rules and principles would open
new markets and would expand opportunities for Indian and EU
businesses.
§ The negotiations cover Trade in Goods, Trade
in Services, Investment, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical
Barriers to Trade, Trade Remedies, Rules of Origin, Customs and Trade
Facilitation, Competition, Trade Defence, Government Procurement, Dispute
Settlement, Intellectual Property Rights & Geographical Indications,
Sustainable Development. So far, 15 rounds of negotiations have been held
alternately at Brussels and New Delhi.
SC upholds rules to support
Good Samaritans
The Supreme Court has upheld a
Central notification issuing standard operating procedure (SOP) for
the protection and examination of ‘Good Samaritans’ — those who help road accident victims — and make it binding on
all State governments and authorities.
§ The court has endorsed the January 21, 2016
notification issued by the Transport Ministry as a positive signal for a
concerted effort to change the public’s attitude of turning away from helping a
road accident victim reach critical medical care.
§ The court said wide publicity should be given
by the Centre and the States about the guidelines.
Background:
The SOP was framed by the
government on the orders passed by the Supreme Court on a PIL plea filed by NGO
SaveLIFE Foundation in 2012, highlighting the fact that more lives of accident
victims can be saved if a law can be made to protect Good Samaritans from legal
and procedural hassles at the hands of police and hospitals.
§ Following this, the Centre issued a series of
guidelines on May 12, 2015, to protect Good Samaritans. These included assuring
them anonymity and protecting them from any civil or criminal liability for
taking the victim to the nearest hospital. The government had also indicated
that an SOP should be further evolved in this regard.
§ In the January 16 notification, the government
highlighted that bystanders or passers-by, who chose to help a person in
distress on the road, should be “treated respectfully and without
discrimination on the grounds of gender, religion, nationality, caste or any
other.”
§ Other SOPs include complete anonymity in case
the Good Samaritan does not want to reveal his name or details, use of
video-conferencing in case of any further interaction with him by the
authorities and provision for the police to examine him at his residence or
office or any place of his convenience. This should be done only once and in a
time-bound manner.
PM for simultaneous LS,
Assembly elections
According to a report,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in favour of simultaneous polls for the Lok
Sabha and State Assemblies.
Why?
It is due the administrative
issues arising out of frequent and successive elections in various states. The
Prime Minister is concerned that the way the electoral calendar of the country
is set up, there are polls every year in some part of the country or the other.
With the Model Code of Conduct coming into force in one State or the other and
even for the Centre in some cases, this leads to administrative lethargy, and
issues.
Background:
The decision is also based on
the 78th report of the parliamentary standing committee of Law and Justice that
had been asked to go into the issue in detail. The report was submitted in
December 2015.
§ The committee recommended a two-phase election
schedule to make the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls coterminous, but had raised
uneasiness in different political parties.
§ The first general elections to the Lok Sabha
was held simultaneously with all State Assemblies in 1951-52. That practice
continued in three subsequent general elections held in the years — 1957, 1962
and 1967.
§ However, due to the premature dissolution of
some Legislative Assemblies in 1968 and 1969, the cycle got disrupted.
§ In 1970, the Lok Sabha was itself dissolved
prematurely and fresh elections were held in 1971. The term of the fifth Lok
Sabha was extended till 1977 under Article 352. After that, the eighth, tenth,
fourteenth and fifteenth Lok Sabha could complete their five year terms. The
sixth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth ones were dissolved
prematurely.
§ As a result of premature dissolutions and
extension of terms of both the Lok Sabha and various State Assemblies, the last
48 years have seen separate elections to the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies.
Skin bank
Karnataka recently got its first skin bank,
the sixth in the country. It was inaugurated at the
State-run Victoria Hospital.
§ Doctors hope that the skin bank may help save
the lives of countless burn victims, as harvested skin is the best form of
“biological dressing” available today.
§ Although artificial skin is available, it is
prohibitively expensive. The government has agreed to fund all skin grafts done
at the skin bank. A nominal charge may be executed.
Working of the skin bank:
§ Like any other organ donation, skin donation
needs to be pledged by a living person or needs to be offered for donation by
the family soon after death.
§ The skin is harvested within 6 hours of death
either at hospital or home. The harvesting is done from hidden areas such as
the back and the thigh with no bleeding or deformity to the body. The skin
donation does not hamper the rituals of last rites.
§ The process is fairly simple and takes less
than 45 minutes. The donor could be anyone above 16 years of age.
§ The donor should not have skin disease or skin
cancer and should be negative for HIV and Hepatitis C.
§ No blood group matching is required.
§ The harvested skin is processed and stored as
per international protocol in the skin bank ready for dispensing and safe use
in burns care as the best biological dressing. This dressing not only saves the
life but also relieves the pain, reduces infection increasing chances of
survival significantly, especially when the burn area exceeds 40%.
Centre to promulgate
ordinance on Enemy Property Bill
The Union Cabinet has
recommended repromulgating an Ordinance to amend the nearly 50-year-old Enemy
Property Act to guard against claims of succession or transfer of properties
left by people who migrated to Pakistan and China after the wars.
Background:
Enemy Property Ordinance was
ratified by the Lok Sabha in January 2016 and when it went to Rajya Sabha, it
was referred to a Select Committee. The duration of this Ordinance is going to
expire in the first week of April 2016. Hence, union cabinet has decided to
repromulgate the ordinance till the receipt of the report of the Select
Committee.
§ A bill to replace the executive order was also
introduced in Parliament in the Budget session. While it was cleared by the Lok
Sabha, the opposition in the Rajya Sabha forced the government to refer it to a
Select Committee of the Upper House. Since there were little chances of the
bill replacing the ordinance getting Parliamentary nod soon, the Rajya Sabha
was prorogued recently to ensure a fresh ordinance could be issued.
An ordinance lapses if it is
not replaced by an Act of Parliament within six weeks or 42 days of the
beginning of a Parliament session.
Enemy Properties Bill:
Enemy Properties Bill includes
amendments to plug the loopholes of the Enemy Property Act, 1968.
The amendments include:
§ Once an enemy property is vested in the
Custodian, it shall continue to be vested in him as enemy property irrespective
of whether the enemy, enemy subject or enemy firm has ceased to be an enemy due
to reasons such as death and others.
§ The law of succession does not apply to enemy
property. There cannot be transfer of any property vested in the Custodian by
an enemy or enemy subject or enemy firm and that the Custodian shall preserve
the enemy property till it is disposed of in accordance with the provisions of
the Act.
§ A new section has been inserted in the Bill to
say that “the Custodian, may, after making such inquiry as he deems necessary,
by order, declare that the property of the enemy or the enemy subject or the
enemy firm described in the order, vests in him under this Act and issue a
certificate to this effect and such certificate shall be the evidence of the
facts stated therein”.
Background:
The Enemy Property Act was
enacted in the year 1968. It provided for the continuous vesting of enemy
property in the custodian. The Union Government through the Custodian of Enemy
Property for India is in possession of enemy properties spread across many
states in the country.
§ To ensure that the enemy property continues to
vest in the Custodian, appropriate amendments were brought in by way of an
Ordinance in the Enemy Property Act, 1968 by the then Government in 2010.
§ However, the ordinance lapsed on 6 September
2010. Later on 22 July 2010, it was introduced in Lok Sabha in form of a Bill
but was withdrawn and another bill with modified provisions was introduced in
the Lok Sabha on 15 November, 2010. This bill was thereafter referred to the
Standing Committee. However, the said bill could not be passed during the 15th
term of the Lok Sabha and it lapsed.
Enemy properties:
In the wake of the Indo-Pak war
of 1965 and 1971, there was migration of people from India to Pakistan. Under
the Defence of India Rules framed under the Defence of India Act, the
Government of India took over the properties and companies of such persons who
had taken Pakistani nationality. These enemy properties were vested by the
Union Government in the Custodian of Enemy Property for India.
After the 1965 war, India and
Pakistan signed the Tashkent Declaration on 10 January 1966. The Tashkent
Declaration inter alia included a clause, which said that the two countries
would discuss the return of the property and assets taken over by either side
in connection with the conflict. However, the Government of Pakistan disposed
of all such properties in their country in the year 1971 itself.
Sharmila acquitted in 2006
suicide bid case
Manipuri civil rights
activist Irom Sharmila was recently acquitted in a case of attempted suicide
registered in 2006 when she undertook a fast-unto-death.
§ Sharmila launched her fast-unto-death in
October 2006 demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.
Armed Forces (Special Powers)
Act:
It is an Act empowering armed
forces to deal effectively in ‘Disturbed Areas’. Any area which is declared
‘Disturbed’ under the disturbed areas act enables armed forces to resort to the
provisions of AFSPA.
Who declares an area as
disturbed?
The choice of declaring any
area as ‘disturbed’ vests both with state and central government.
Special powers provided to
armed forces:
After an area comes under the
ambit of AFSPA, any commissioned officer, warrant officer, non-commissioned
officer or another person of equivalent rank can use force for a variety of
reasons while still being immune to the prosecution.
Ambit:
§ The act was passed on 11 September 1958 by the
parliament of India to provide special legal security to the armed forces
carrying out operations in the troubled areas of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam,
Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura (seven sisters).
§ In 1990 the act was extended to the state of
Jammu and Kashmir to confront the rising insurgency in the area.
§ In Manipur, despite opposition from the
Central government, state government withdrew the Act in some parts in Aug,
2004.
The government can declare
AFSPA in the following conditions:
§ When the local administration fails to deal
with local issues and the police proves inefficient to cope with them.
§ When the scale of unrest or instability in the
state is too large for the police to handle.
However, the decision of
the government to declare a particular area ‘disturbed’ cannot be challenged in
a court of law.
Norms for clinical trials
eased
With the aim to speed up
innovation and research in India, the Health Ministry has amended the Drug and Cosmetics
Act, exempting clinical trials conducted at academic institutions
from taking the hitherto mandatory permission from the Drug Controller General
of India (DCGI).
Background:
The latest amendment to the
Drug and Cosmetics Act follows recommendations by the Professor Ranjit Roy
Choudhury Committee, which had suggested that academic research should be
approved by the Institutional Ethics Committees.
§ The once booming clinical trials in India came
under the Supreme Court scrutiny in 2013, after at least 370 deaths were
attributed to Serious Adverse Events (SEAs) during such trials.
§ In September 2013, the apex court ruled that
no new clinical trials be permitted until the regulatory mechanism was
reformed.
Criticisms:
§ Public health experts say the move is a
setback for those working towards a safer, more transparent clinical trials
regime.
§ With the latest amendment chances of misuse
are also higher. The only defence for this decision can be that this is
academic, not commercial, research.
Violation of rights:
In 2013, the Supreme Court
banned trials after a public interest litigation petition brought to light that
trials conducted in various parts of the country had violated patient rights as
informed consent was not taken, and the patients subjected to clinical trials
included newborns, children, pregnant women and mentally challenged persons.
Facts
Sand-eating tadpoles
Researchers have discovered a
sand-eating tadpole that lives fully in total darkness until it fully develops
into a young frog. The discovery was made in Western Ghats. These frogs belong
to the Indian Dancing Frog family,Micrixalidae. They get that name from their habit of waving their legs as a
sign of territorial and sexual display while sitting on boulders in streams.
Key facts:
§ The purple tadpoles were discovered from the
deep recesses of streambeds in the Western Ghats and they possess muscular eel-like
bodies and skin-covered eyes, which helps them to burrow through gravel beds.
§ Though they lack teeth, they have serrated jaw
sheaths, to possibly prevent large sand grains from entering the mouth while
feeding and moving through sand.
§ Unlike most tadpoles that swim early on, the
Micrixalidae tadpoles hang onto underwater rocks with their powerful suckering
mouths. When their arms grow strong enough they dig underground, where they
live most of their lives, only to emerge in forest streams to reproduce.
§ Other unusual features of the tadpoles were
ribs and whitish globular sacs storing calcium carbonate, known as “lime
sacs”. Only four families of frogs are reported to have ribs, but the
latest discovery shows that at least some of Micrixalidae also have ribs, even
as tadpoles; this adaptation may provide for greater muscle attachment, helping
them wriggle through sand.
Amazon’s biggest campus
outside the US
E-commerce giant Amazon has
begun work on its biggest campus outside the US in Gachibowli, Hyderabad. The new state-of-the-art campus is expected to be ready by 2019
and will house thousands of employees managing back-end operations for Amazon’s
various global business and technology teams.
New Myanmar President
Myanmar has sworn in Htin Kyaw, a close aide of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as the
country’s first civilian President in more than 50 years.
