Parliament passes the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019    

Institutions of Eminence Status                                                                                  

The Code on Wages Bill, 2019                                                                                   

Third phase of Toll-Operate-Transfer project                                                           

Armoured and Specialised Vehicles of Armed/ Paramilitary Forces Exempted from BS-VI Emission Norms                                                                                       

Pashmina Products Receive BIS Certification                                                          

World Breastfeeding Week 1st – 7th August                                                             

Parliament passes the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019

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

Context :

• Rajya Sabha passed the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019.

  • In the month of july lok sabha has passed the bill.

Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019 :

• The Bill amends the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.  The Act provides special procedures to deal with terrorist activities, among other things.

Key Features of the bill :

• Who may commit terrorism: Under the Act, the central government may designate an organisation as a terrorist organisation if it:

  • commits or participates in acts of terrorism,

  • prepares for terrorism,

  • promotes terrorism, or

  • is otherwise involved in terrorism. 

  • The Bill additionally empowers the government to designate individuals as terrorists on the same grounds. 

• Approval for seizure of property by NIA:

  • Under the Act, an investigating officer is required to obtain the prior approval of the Director General of Police to seize properties that may be connected with terrorism.

  •  The Bill adds that if the investigation is conducted by an officer of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the approval of the Director General of NIA would be required for seizure of such property. 

• Investigation by NIA:

  •  Under the Act, investigation of cases may be conducted by officers of the rank of Deputy Superintendent or Assistant Commissioner of Police or above. 

  • The Bill additionally empowers the officers of the NIA, of the rank of Inspector or above, to investigate cases.

• Insertion to schedule of treaties:

  • The Act defines terrorist acts to include acts committed within the scope of any of the treaties listed in a schedule to the Act. 

  • The Schedule lists nine treaties, including the Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings (1997), and the Convention against Taking of Hostages (1979). 

  • The Bill adds another treaty to the list.  This is the International Convention for Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (2005).

Critics View :

• This is a potentially dangerous amendment which will empower officials of Union Ministry to brand any person ‘a terrorist‘, without following due process. The name of such a person will be included in the ‘Fourth Schedule’ proposed to be added in the parent Act. The only statutory remedy available to such a person is to make an application before the Central Government for de-notification, which will be considered by a Review Committee constituted by the Government itself.

• The amendment does not provide any legal consequence in case an individual is designated a terrorist. The inclusion of one’s name in the Fourth Schedule as a terrorist per se will not lead to any conviction, imprisonment, fine, disqualifications or any sort of civil penalties. So this is simply a power for the government to brand any one as a terrorist.

• An official designation as a terrorist will be akin to ‘civil death’ for a person, with social boycott, expulsion from job, hounding by media, and perhaps attack from self-proclaimed vigilante groups following.

                                                                                                             Source :- PIB ; Business Line

Institutions of Eminence Status

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• The Union government granted the institute of eminence (IoE) status to 14 more higher educational institutions.

• The ministry of human resource development (HRD) named seven private and an equal number public institutions for the IoE tag, following the approval of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

Background :

• The empowered expert committee headed by former Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami had  (15) Public institutions and (15) Private institutions  - taking the total list to 30 for considering to give status of Institutions of Eminence.

                                                                                                                       Source :- PIB ; The Hindu

The Code on Wages Bill, 2019

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

Context :

• Rajya Sabha passed The Code on Wages Bill, 2019

• Lok Sabha has already passed the bill on July 30, 2019. The Bill will become an Act after Presidential assent.

The Code on Wages Bill, 2019 :

• The bill aims to transform the old and obsolete labour laws into more accountable and transparent ones and seeks to pave the way for the introduction of minimum wages and labour reforms in the country.

• It regulates the wages and bonus payments in all employments where any industry, trade, business, or manufacturing is being carried out.

• The bill subsumes the following four labour laws:

  • The Payment of Wages Act, 1936

  • The Minimum Wages Act, 1948

  • The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965

  • The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.

Key Features of the bill :

• It universalizes the provisions of minimum wages and timely payment of wages to all employees irrespective of the sector and wage ceiling and seeks to ensure "Right to Sustenance" for every worker and intends to increase the legislative protection of minimum wage.

• It has been ensured in the bill that employees getting monthly salary shall get the salary by 7th of next month, those working on a weekly basis shall get the salary on the last day of the week and daily wagers should get it on the same day.

• The provisions of the bill will apply to all the employees.

  • At present, the provisions of both the Minimum Wages Act and Payment of Wages Act apply on workers below a particular wage ceiling working in Scheduled Employments only.

  • Many unorganized sector workers like agricultural workers, painters, persons working in restaurants and dhabas, chowkidars, etc. who were out of the ambit of minimum wages will get legislative protection of minimum wages after the bill becomes an Act.

• The Central Government is empowered to fix the floor wages by taking into account the living standards of workers. It may set different floor wages for different geographical areas.

  • The minimum wages decided by the central or state governments must be higher than the floor wage.

• It simplifies the methodology to fix minimum wage by doing away with the “type of employment” as one criterion. The minimum wage fixation would primarily be based on geography and skills.

• In order to ensure transparency and accountability, the bill seeks to reform the inspection regime by introducing web based random computerised inspection scheme, jurisdiction-free inspections, calling of information electronically, the composition of fines, etc.

• To streamline the claims of workers, the limitation period for filing claims for minimum wages, bonus, equal remuneration has been raised to 3 years.

• It prohibits gender discrimination in matters related to wages and recruitment of employees for the same work or work of similar nature.

                                                                                                                         Source :- PIB

Third phase of Toll-Operate-Transfer project

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment. Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

Context :

• The National Highways Authority of India organised a road show for the third phase of Toll-Operate-Transfer project for prospective bidders.

Toll-Operate-Transfer (TOT)  :

• ToT model, highway stretches built through public funding is proposed to be auctioned and assigned to a concessionaire for a period of 30 years government.

  •  The concessionaire is also responsible for the operation and maintenance of the tenure. 

  • The model concession agreement concession contract, with several expansions, high toll traffic variation, risks.

  •  The government can also increase the concession period in later stages wants it.

                                                                                                                            Source :- PIB

Armoured and Specialised Vehicles of Armed/ Paramilitary Forces Exempted from BS-VI Emission Norms

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

Context :

• The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has issued notification, exempting the armoured and other specialised vehicles of Indian armed forces and paramilitary forces from the new stringent vehicular emission norms (BS-VI) which are set to take effect from 1st April, 2020.

• The Ministry has also granted exemption to these vehicles from BS-IV compliance.

Why such a movie :

• Because these vehicles operate in remote and inhospitable terrains with most challenging operational and environmental conditions.

  • Due to security challenges and requirements of specialized operations, the development of suitable engine compliant with the above norms would require considerable time.

• Further, it is difficult to maintain ideal transportation and storage conditions of fuel in these conditions.

Barath stage vehicle :

• Bharat Stage norms are the automotive emission norms which the automotive manufacturers have to comply to sell their vehicles in India.

• These norms are applicable to all two wheelers, three wheelers, four wheelers and construction equipment vehicles.

• To curb growing menace of air pollution through the vehicles emission, the Government of India has decided to leapfrog from the exiting BS – IV norms to the BS- VI, thereby skipping the BS – V norms, and to implement the BS – VI norms with effect from 1st April 2020.

• Only those vehicles will be sold and registered in India from 1st April 2020 onwards, which comply to these norms. The norms are stringent and at par with global standards.

Difference between BS-IV and the new BS-VI:

• The major difference in standards between the existing BS-IV and the new BS-VI auto fuel norms is the presence of sulphur.

• The newly introduced fuel is estimated to reduce the amount of sulphur released by 80%, from 50 parts per million to 10 ppm.

• As per the analysts, the emission of NOx (nitrogen oxides) from diesel cars is also expected to reduce by nearly 70% and 25% from cars with petrol engines.

                                                                                                                              Source :- PIB

Pashmina Products Receive BIS Certification

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Issues relating growth and development, employment

Context :

• Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has published an Indian Standard for identification, marking and labelling of Pashmina products to certify its purity.

Pashmina :

• Pashmina is a fine type of cashmere wool. The textiles made from it were first woven in Kashmir.

• The wool comes from a number of different breeds of the cashmere goat; such as the changthangi or Kashmir pashmina goat from the Changthang Plateau in Tibet and part of the Ladakh region and few parts of Himachal Pradesh.

• Often shawls called shahmina are made from this material in Kashmir and Nepal; these shawls are hand spun and woven from the very fine cashmere fibre.

• Traditional producers of pashmina wool are people known as the Changpa.

Benefits :

• The certification will help curb the adulteration of Pashmina

• Also protect the interests of local artisans and nomads who are the producers of Pashmina raw material.

• It will also assure the purity of Pashmina for customers.

• It will ensure better prices for the goat herding community in Ladakh as well as for the local handloom artisans producing genuine Pashmina products.

Pashmina goat :

• The Changthangi or Pashmina goat is a special breed of goat indigenous to the high altitude regions of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir.

• They are raised for ultra-fine cashmere wool, known as Pashmina once woven. The Textiles are handspun and were first woven in Kashmir.

• The Changthangi goat grows a thick warn undercoat which is the source of Kashmir Pashmina wool – the world’s finest cashmere measuring between 12-15 microns in fiber thickness.

• These goats are generally domesticated and reared by nomadic communities called the Changpa in the Changthang region of Greater Ladakh.

• The Changthangi goats have revitalized the economy of Changthang, Leh and Ladakh region.

                                                                                                                               Source :- PIB

World Breastfeeding Week 1st – 7th August

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to Health.

Context :

• Ministry of Women and Child Development, is organizing a number of activities on the theme “Empower Parents, Enable Breastfeeding” during the World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) being observed from 1st to 7th August 2019.

  • The focus this year is on protection, promotion, and support of breastfeeding.

The objectives of World Breastfeeding Week are:

• To create awareness among the parents about breastfeeding

• Encourage parents to adopt breastfeeding

• Creating awareness about the importance of initiation and exclusive breastfeeding, and adequate and appropriate complementary feeding

• Providing advocacy material about the importance of breastfeeding.

Importance of Breastfeeding :

• It promotes better health for mothers and children alike.

• It prevents infections like diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections in early infancy and thus reduce infant mortality

• It decreases the risk of mothers developing breast cancer, ovarian cancer, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease and

• It protects infants from obesity-related illnesses, diabetes and increases the IQ.

The correct norms of infant and young child feeding are:

• Initiation of Breastfeeding within an hour of birth

• Exclusive breastfeeding for first six months of life i.e. only breast Milk ‘NO’ other milk, food, drink or water

• Appropriate and adequate complementary feeding from six months of age while continuing breastfeeding

• Continued breastfeeding up to the age of two years or beyond

                                                                                                                           Source :- PIB

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