POLITY AND GOVERNANCE                                                             

1. CJI names Justice Bobde as successor                                            

2. National Milk Sample Safety Quality Survey                                       

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS                                                          

1. FATF retains Pakistan on ‘Grey List’                                                 

2. Venezuela wins seat on UN rights council                                          

ECONOMY                                                                                             

1. 11th Nuclear Energy Conclave                                                          

SECURITY                                                                                             

1. Defence of Andaman and Nicobar Islands exercise 2019 (Danx-19)    

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

CJI names Justice Bobde as successor

GS PAPER - 02 POLITY - Appointment to various Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies.

Context :

• Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi sent a letter to the Centre recommending Justice SA Bobde, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, as his successor.

Appointment of the Chief Justice of India:

• The Constitution of India does not have any provision for criteria and procedure for appointing the CJI.

• Article 124(1) of the Indian Constitution says there “shall be a Supreme Court of India consisting of a Chief Justice of India”.

• The closest mention is in Article 126, which deals with the appointment of an acting CJI.

• In the absence of a constitutional provision, the procedure relies on custom and convention.

What is the convention?

• When the incumbent CJI retires (all Supreme Court judges retire at the age of 65), the senior-most judge in the SC becomes the CJI.

• Seniority, here, is not defined by age, but by the number of years an individual has been serving as a judge of the apex court.

• In an instance where two judges have served for the exact same time, because they were appointed as SC judges on the same day, other factors are considered to determine the seniority of the judges, like which judge has more years of experience in the high court and if either of them were nominated from the bar directly.

• A similar situation had risen ahead of the appointment of Dipak Misra, as both Justice Misra and Justice Chelameswar were sworn in on the same day as judges of the SC on October 10, 2011. Despite being four months younger, Justice Misra was anointed as the CJI in August 2017.

What is the procedure?

• The procedure to appoint the next CJI is laid out in the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) between the government and the judiciary:

  • The procedure is initiated by the Law Minister seeking the recommendation of the outgoing CJI at the ‘appropriate time’, which is near to the date of retirement of the incumbent CJI.

  • The CJI sends his recommendation to the Law Ministry; and in the case of any qualms, the CJI can consult the collegium regarding the fitness of an SC judge to be elevated to the post.

  • After receiving recommendation from the CJI, the law minister forwards it to the Prime Minister who then advises the President on the same.

  • The President administers the oath of office to the new CJI.

Does the government get a say?

• Except for the law minister seeking the recommendation from the incumbent CJI, and forwarding it to the Prime Minister, the government has no say in the appointment of the CJI.

• Vis-à-vis the appointment of the CJI and the appointment of SC judges, the key difference is that in the former, the government cannot send the recommendation of the CJI (or the collegium) back to them for reconsideration; while in the latter, the government can do so.

• However, if the collegium reiterates those names, then the government cannot object any further.

• The Memorandum of Procedure does not have any provision for the eventuality of the government disagreeing with the incumbent CJI’s recommendation on the new one.

Have there been exceptions to the aforementioned procedure?

• Since the establishment of the Supreme Court in 1950, there have been 46 CJIs.

• In all cases, the convention and the procedure were duly followed, except for two – Justice AN Ray and Justice MH Beg. Both exceptions took place when Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister.

• Justice AN Ray was appointed as CJI in 1973 despite being fourth in terms of seniority after Justices JM Shelat, KL Hegde and AN Grover.

• The reason was the involvement of these three judges in the landmark Kesavananda Bharati case, which had held that Parliament cannot make amendments to the Constitution that would alter its “basic structure”.

• Similarly, Justice MH Beg was appointed as the CJI in 1977 despite Justice HR Khanna being senior. This was because of Justice Khanna’s minority judgment in the ADM Jabalpur case.

• Justice Khanna had pronounced that he did not agree with the government’s argument that detention of persons during the Emergency cannot be questioned, even if mala fide and without the authority of law.

                                                                                                                                                          Source :- The Hindu

National Milk Sample Safety Quality Survey

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

Context :

• Food Safety and Standard Authority of India(FSSAI) has released the National Milk Sample Safety Quality Survey.

Key Highlights :

• The study collected a total 6,432 milk samples from 1,103 towns and cities between May and October 2018 in all States and Union Territories.

• About 40.5% of the total sample was processed milk, while the rest was raw milk.

• The study noted that processed milk, including that of major brands, failed to meet the prescribed quality norm in 37.7% of the total samples tested, because the presence of contaminants such as fats, Maltodextrin and sugar were above permissible limits.

• In the safety parameters 10.4% of the processed milk samples were non-compliant. It failed to comply with the FSSAI norm as contaminants like aflatoxin-M1, antibiotics and pesticides were found.

• In the case of raw milk, non-compliance was at an even higher rate of 47% of the total samples.

• FSSAI has claimed that the quality of milk in the country is largely safe. However, it has added that contamination due to Aflatoxin M1 and Antibiotic residues is a more serious problem than adulteration.

Aflatoxin-M1 :

• Aflatoxins are toxins produced by certain fungi which are generally found in agricultural crops like maize, peanuts, cotton seed and others. They are carcinogenic in nature.

• According to a World Health Organization (WHO) study, consumption of food containing aflatoxin concentrations of one milligram per kilogram or higher has been suspected to cause aflatoxicosis, the outcome of which consists of acute liver failure, jaundice, lethargy and nausea, eventually leading to death
   

  • The exposure to AFM1 from milk causes stunting among children.

                                                                                                                                                         Source :- The Hindu

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

FATF retains Pakistan on ‘Grey List’

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.

Context :

• The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has retained Pakistan on the “grey list” and has given it a stern warning that it will be blacklisted if it does not fulfil the global standards criteria for combating terrorist financing by February 2020.

Background :

• Pakistan was placed on the Grey List by the FATF in June last year and was given a plan of action to complete it by October 2019, or face the risk of being placed on the black list with Iran and North Korea.

More in the News:

• The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) took the decision after its five-day plenary

• Since Pakistan continues to be in the FATF ‘Grey List’, it would be difficult for the country to get financial aid from the IMF, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the European Union.           

                                                                                                                                                        Source :- The Hindu

Venezuela wins seat on UN rights council

GS PAPER -  02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate

Context :

• Venezuela has won a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, despite widespread criticism of its poor human rights record.

Concern  :

• Nicolás Maduro’s government is accused of jailing, torturing and arbitrarily arresting opposition figures.

• The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, reported in July that over the previous year and half there had been nearly 7,000 extrajudicial executions and that security forces were responsible for most of those deaths.

• More than 50 groups and many countries campaigned against Venezuela, pointing to Maduro and the country’s rights record.

• The election of Venezuela could add even more ammunition to critics of the United Nations, who doubt the global organization’s relevance.

• The human rights council has previously been accused of only singling out Israel or other countries without political clout.

• In 2018, the United States withdrew from the council in protest of what it described as an anti-Israel stance and a lack of reform.       

                                                                                                                        Source :- The Hindu

ECONOMY

11th Nuclear Energy Conclave

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

Context :

• Union Minister inaugurated the 11th Nuclear Energy Conclave in New Delhi.

Nuclear Energy Conclave :

• It is organised by the India Energy Forum.

• The theme of this year’s conclave is “Economics of Nuclear Power-Innovation towards safer and cost-effective technologies”.

• The conclave has evolved into a content-rich and one of the biggest events in India related to nuclear energy.

• Industry leaders from India and abroad take part in the event.

More in the news:

• The Minister of State for Atomic Energy highlighted some steps taken by the Government with respect to nuclear energy:
   

  • Earlier the Atomic power plants were restricted in Southern India, now the Government is setting up the nuclear plants in other parts of the country.

  • A nuclear plant is coming up in the Gorakhpur of Haryana.

• A “Hall of Nuclear Energy” was opened in in Delhi to educate the students and the general public about the applications of nuclear energy.

• Use of nuclear energy in diverse fields such as medicine, especially cancer care.

• Other steps highlighted include early movement on Fast Breeder Reactors (FBR) deployment and early deployment of indigenous Light Water Reactors (LWRs).
   

  • Light-water reactors (LWRs) are power reactors that are cooled and moderated with ordinary water. There are two basic types: the Pressurized-Water Reactor (PWR) and the Boiling-Water Reactor (BWR).

  • PWR is a power reactor in which the heat is dissipated from the core using highly pressurized water (about 160 bar) to achieve a high temperature and avoid boiling within the core. BWR is a nuclear reactor with water as a coolant and as a moderator, boiling in the core. The resulting steam is generally used directly to drive a turbine.

• It was underlined that owing to the waiver of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to India in 2008, the nuclear programme now has much less constraints.

• Access to the imported uranium can accelerate the nuclear program size as well as large scale thorium deployment.

                                                                                                                                                                    Source :- PIB

SECURITY

Defence of Andaman and Nicobar Islands exercise 2019 (Danx-19)

GS PAPER - 03 SECURITY - Security challenges and their management in border areas; linkages of organized crime with terrorism Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate

Context :

• Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC) conducted the second edition of Defence of A&N Islands 2019 (DANX-19).

DANX - 19 :

• It is a large-scale joint service exercise carried out for a period of five days.

• The Indian Army, the Indian Navy, the Indian Air Force and the Coast Guard take part in it.

• It is conducted by the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC).

• In addition to internal forces from ANC, accretional forces from the mainland comprising ships and aircraft, Special Forces from the newly formed Armed Forces Special Operations Division (AFSOD), also participated in this edition.           

                                                                                                                                                            Source :- PIB

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