SC holds Rao guilty of contempt

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context:

     ★ The Supreme Court has held the former interim Director of the CBI, M. Nageswara Rao, guilty of contempt for disobeying its ordernot to transfer Joint Director A.K. Sharma investigating officer heading the probe in Muzaffarpur shelter home case.

Issue:

    ★ The Bench said it was unable to comprehend why Mr. Rao transferred Mr. Sharma as Additional Director-General of the CRPF on January 17 but did not communicate his decision to the court, despite being advised to submit an affidavit immediately.

     ★ A Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, termed his act “blatant” disobedience of the order and directed him and the agency’s legal adviser, S. Bhasuram, to sit in the courtroom for the remainder of the working hours. It also levied a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on the officers.

                                                                                                                      Source:- The Hindu

AMU issue referred to Constitution Bench

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.

Context:

    ★ The Supreme Court had referred the contentious issue of minority status for Aligarh Muslim University to a seven-judge Constitution Bench.

     ★ A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi agreed with the submission of the AMU that the correctness of the 2006 judgement of the Allahabad High Court, by which the minority tag to the university was taken away, needs to be examined in detail.

Background issue:

     ★ It said a five-judge Constitution bench in 1968 in the Aziz Basha case had held that AMU was a "central university" and not a minority institution. as it was set up the government and not by Muslims.

    ★ After the 1968 verdict, the AMU (Amendment) Act, 1972 and thereafter 1981 came into force.

    ★ Parliament passed an AMU Amendment Act, which accepted that AMU was set up by Muslims

    ★ The Allahabad High Court had in January 2006 struck down the provision of the 1981 amendment Act by which the university was accorded the minority status.

    ★ Recently, the Central government has filed a fresh affidavit in SC reversing the earlier position that the AMU, a Central University, cannot be granted minority status

                                                                                                                      Source:- The Hindu

India inks contract for 72,000 assault rifles

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests

Context:

     ★ India has signed a contract with a US firm under fast track procurement (FTP) for 72,400 Assault rifles.

     ★ The rifles, being used by US forces as well as several other European countries, are being bought under the fast-track procurement procedure.

More about the news:

    ★ Of the 72,400 rifles, 66,400 are meant for the Army, 2,000 for the Navy and 4,000 for the Air Force. The broad parameters for the weapon are an effective range of 500 m and weight of less than 3 kg. The new rifles will replace the Indian National Small Arms System (INSAS) rifles.

    ★ The Defence Ministry also issued the Expression of Interest (EoI) for a deal to buy 111 naval utility helicopters. This is the first project to be executed through the strategic partnership policy. Under this, the chosen Indian private company will team up with the Original Equipment Manufacturer to build the product in India.

     ★ The EoI follows the Request for Information (RFI). The Navy will likely issue a detailed Request for Proposal (RFP) at the end of the third quarter of this year to short-listed Indian companies.

                                                                                                                      Source:- The Hindu

voters want more women in LS: survey

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Functions and responsibilities of the Union and the States, issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure, devolution of powers and finances up to local levels and challenges therein.

Context:

    ★ More than 82% voters want more women in the next Lok Sabha, according to a survey by a citizen’s collective called Shakti.

Highlights:

     ★ The survey was conducted among 10 lakh voters across 24 States on a mobile application called Neta app. The application has more than two crore verified users and covers all 543 parliamentary constituencies.

     ★ The users were posed one simple question — Do you want more women in Lok Sabha 2019? And, in response as many as 82.2% of participants voted ‘yes.’

More about the news:

     ★ “Only 1.4% of independent candidates get elected. Therefore, it is important to focus on political parties and put pressure on them so that more women leaders stand for elections. We have seen from data from the Election Commission of India that more women get voted than men, but we needed to know whether voters were willing to elect women leaders and that’s the question we asked in our survey,” said Tara Krishnaswamy, co-convener, of Shakti.

     ★ The collective was set up in December last year to promote participation of women in politics.

                                                                                                                        Source:- The Hindu

India, Maldives reverse visa stand-off

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - India and its neighborhood- relations.

Context:

     ★ India and Maldives has exchanged formal diplomatic notes for the implementation of Visa Facilitation Agreement .

     ★ The agreement was signed in 2018 during Maldives President visit to India.

     ★ This Agreement will facilitate greater people to people contacts between India and Maldives

More about the Agreement:

     ★ It provides a very liberal visa regime for Maldivian nationals to visit India for tourism, business, education & medical purposes.

     ★ It also makes it easier for Indians to travel to Maldives for business purposes

     ★ Under the agreement, the government will free up the visa regime for Maldives citizens who travel to India for medical reasons and for education in particular.

     ★ This will include allowing Maldives citizens who receive a visa on arrival in India to change their visa status to medical visas if they require hospitalisation during their stay.

     ★ Medical visas will also be granted to attendants to accompany patients.

     ★ The government has also agreed to grant visas for parents and other dependants to live in India while their children attend school here.

     ★ The facilitation has been a long-pending demand of the Maldives government, given the difficulties faced by thousands of short-term visa applicants each year.

     ★ The agreement will ease visas on arrival for Indian businessmen, and bring cheer to Indians applying for work in the Maldives, as it stipulates that work permits will be issued within 15 days to Indian employees, and the visa fees will be paid by employers in the Maldives.

                                                                                                                     Source:- The Hindu

‘95% of registered realty firms have no PAN’

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context:

     ★ In an audit of assessments made by the Income Tax Department on the real estate sector, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) found that a whopping 95% of the companies registered with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) did not have a permanent account number (PAN).

     ★ In an analysis of the data of the RoCs in 12 States, the CAG also noted that there were several companies that the tax net had failed to capture and that the department had no mechanism to ensure that all the registered companies had PAN or that they filed their income tax returns (ITR) regularly.

                                                                                                              Source:- The Hindu

Fifth International Dam Safety Conference

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context:

     ★ The 5th International Dam Safety Conference–2019 is held during February 2019 in Bhubaneswar as a joint initiative of the Government of India, Government of Odisha and the World Bank under aegis of the on-going World Bank assisted Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) as a part of institutional strengthening.

Dam Safety Conference:

     ★ Dam Safety Conferences are being organized as an annual event in different DRIP States in collaboration with the Implementing Agencies and leading academic institutes to provide a common platform for all stakeholders including non-DRIP States.

     ★ The basic objective of these annual events is to give exposure to non-DRIP States as well as other stakeholders across the Country and World, to the best global practices and technological advancements to address the emerging dam safety challenges.

     ★ As these events are being organised in various regional centres of the country, they also make aware the overseas delegates with culture and traditions of India.

Dam Safety in India:

     ★ Globally India ranks third after China and the USA in terms of the number of large dams with 5264 large dams in operation and 437 large dams under construction.

     ★ The total storage capacity of the impounded water by these dams is about 283 billion cubic meters (BCM).

     ★ About 80% of our large dams are over twenty-five years old. About 209 dams are over 100 years old and were built in an era when design practices and safety considerations were much below the current design and safety norms.

     ★ Dams play a vital role in water security and foster rapid and sustained growth in agricultural, rural, urban and industrial development, which have been key priorities for the Govt. of India since independence.

                                                                                                                           Source:- PIB

Various initiatives taken towards combating and adapting to climate change

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context:

     ★ The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has released a publication titled “India – Spearheading Climate Solutions” on climate actions in India.

     ★ The publication mentions the key initiatives undertaken by India under various sectors towards combating and adapting to climate change.

Initiatives of Government toward combating Climate change:

India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) :

     ★ which covers eight major missions on Solar, Enhanced Energy Efficiency, Sustainable Habitat, Water, Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, Green India, Sustainable Agriculture and Strategic Knowledge on Climate Change

International Solar Alliances (ISA) :

     ★ ISA was jointly launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the then President of France, Francois Hollande in Paris on the side-lines of CoP 21 in 2015.

     ★ The vision and mission of the alliance is to provide a dedicated platform for cooperation among solar resource rich countries that lie completely or partial between the Tropics of Capricorn & Cancer.

State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC):

     ★ State governments have drafted climate strategies aligned with the eight National Missions under the NAPCC.

     ★ The strategies focus on issues ranging from climate mitigation, energy efficiency, and resource conservation to climate adaptation.

FAME Scheme – for E-mobility:

     ★ Union Government in April 2015 launched Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME) – India Scheme with an aim to boost sales of eco-friendly vehicles in the country.

     ★ It is a part of the National Mission for Electric Mobility.

Atal Mission for Rejuvenation & Urban Transformation (AMRUT) – for Smart Cities

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana – for access to clean cooking fuel

UJALA scheme - for embracing energy efficient LED bulbs

Swachh Bharat Mission

                                                                                                                                  Source:-PIB

4th meeting of National Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges under POSHAN Abhiyan

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes

Context:

     ★ The Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India held the 4th meeting of National Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges under POSHAN Abhiyan under the Chairmanship of Vice- Chairman, NITI Aayog.

     ★ The detailed report on progress in implementation of POSHAN Abhiyaan was also presented by MWCD before the Council.

POSHAN Abhiyan:

     ★ The Government of India has set-up POSHAN Abhiyan (National Nutrition Mission) on 8th March, 2018.

KEY FEATURES:

     ★ The NNM, as an apex body, will monitor, supervise, fix targets and guide the nutrition related interventions across the Ministries.

     ★ The programme through the targets will strive to reduce the level of stunting, undernutrition, anemia and low birth weight babies.

     ★ It will create synergy, ensure better monitoring, issue alerts for timely action, and encourage States/UTs to perform, guide and supervise the line Ministries and States/UTs to achieve the targeted goals.

     ★ The scheme aims to ensure holistic development and adequate nutrition for pregnant women, mothers and children.

     ★ It is to ensure that malnutrition doesn’t affect children’s cognitive development or physical growth. 

     ★ The initiative seeks to reduce the level of stunting, undernutrition and low birth weight by 2% each, and anaemia by 3%.

     ★ It aims to reduce stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022.  A key idea of the initiative is to incentivise Anganwadi Workers (AWs) for using ICT-based tools, making it easier to implement and monitor the programme.

     ★ The Union government had signed a loan deal worth US $200 million with the World Bank for the POSHAN Abhiyan.   

                                                                                                                      SOURCE:- PIB

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