POLITY AND GOVERNANCE                                                             

1. Postal ballot facilities for Absentee voters                                          

2. Government notifies new RTI rules                                                   

3. Indian Railways launches ‘Operation Dhanush’ against ticket touts      

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY                                                      

1. Global action on reactive nitrogen                                                    

SECURITY                                                                                             

1. Indo-French Joint Exercise Shakti-2019                                            

2. INS Baaz                                                                                         

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

Postal ballot facilities for Absentee voters

GS PAPER - 02 POLITY - Salient features of the Representation of People's Act.

Context :

• Election Commission of India has started working on detailed guidelines and SoPs to facilitate the process of postal ballot paper for Absentee voters of essential services, Senior citizens of more than 80 years and marked PwD electors.

• There are two aspects of this issue viz., the creation of requisite infrastructure and suitable legal framework to facilitate the process.

More in the news:

• On the legal front, the Commission made a recommendation to the Union Government (Ministry of Law and Justice) on 2nd September, 2019 following which the Government amended the Representation of the People’s Act, 1951 (RP Act), and the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.

• Salient features of these amendments are as follows:
   

  • A concept of ‘absentee voter’ has been introduced and defined for the elections;
     

    • ‘Absentee voter’ means a person belonging to such class of persons as may be notified, under clause (c) of section 60 of the RP Act, 1951 and who is employed in essential services as mentioned in the said notification, and includes an elector belonging to the class of senior citizens or persons with disabilities;
       

      • ‘person with disability’ means a person flagged as person with disability in the database for the electoral roll;

      • ‘senior citizen’ means an elector belonging to the class of absentee voters and is above 80 years of age;

      • These two categories of voters – ‘senior citizen’ and ‘PwD electors’ can vote either as absentee voter or as a regular voter on the poll day.

• The Commission is also taking a number of steps including personal contact under its SVEEP initiatives to make the electors aware of this new facility so that such electors can exercise their voting right in the manner they intend to do.
   

  • Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation program (SVEEP), is the flagship program of the Election Commission of India for voter education, spreading voter awareness and promoting voter literacy in India.

Voting through Postal Ballot:

• In 2013, the EC decided to expand the ambit of postal ballot voting in the country. Previously, only Indian staff in missions abroad and defence personnel in a limited way, could vote via postal ballots.

• Categories of voters who can use the postal ballot: service voters; special voters; wives of service voters and special voters; voters subjected to preventive detention; voters on election duty and Notified voters.           

                                                                                                                                 Source :- PIB

Government notifies new RTI rules

GS PAPER - 02 POLITY - 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 :

• Government of India has notified the Right to Information Rules,2019.

Right to Information Rules,2019:

• The rules have reduced the tenure of central and state information commissioners from five to three years.

• The rules has given the government the discretion to decide on conditions of service for which no express provisions are made in the rules.

• The Chief Information Commissioner’s salary has been fixed at ₹2.5 lakh and an Information Commissioner’s at ₹2.25 lakh.

• The maximum age limit remains at 65 and there will be only one possibility of reappointment as Information Commissioner or elevation as Chief Information Commissioner at the central or state level.

Issue :

• The critics have said that the rules would affect the independence of ‘Information Commissions who will function like caged parrots.

                                                                                                                       Source :- The Hindu

Indian Railways launches ‘Operation Dhanush’ against ticket touts

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential

Context :

• Indian Railways’ Central Railway zone conducted ‘Operation Dhanush’ against ticket touts involved in e-ticketing.

Operation Dhanush :

• The Operation was conducted against the ticket touts involved in e-ticketing.

• The operation was carried out in all the five divisions falling under the Central Railway Zone.

• The operation was launched after it was suspected that the tickets were booked by unauthorized ticket agents using dubious software.

                                                                                                                             Source :- Livemint

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

Global action on reactive nitrogen

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY - Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.

Context :

• The member states of the United Nations has endorsed a proposed road map for action on nitrogen challenges called Colombo Declaration on Sustainable Nitrogen Management.

  • A UN Environment Programme on ‘Sustainable Nitrogen Campaign’ is slated for October 23-24 in Colombo.

Need for Sustainable Nitrogen Management :

• Nitrogen poses a threat to the health of humans, animals and plants, and to livelihoods globally.

  • It has many forms: Ammonia and nitrogen dioxide are dangerous air pollutants;

  • nitrate is devastating ecosystems in our rivers, seas and soils; and

  • nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide

• The current lack of policy coherency risks nitrogen trade-offs, while failing to harvest synergies at local, regional and global scales

Colombo Declaration:

• The aim of the Colombo Declaration is to halve nitrogen waste by the year 2030.

• The Declaration was developed with technical support from International Nitrogen Management System (INMS).

• The declaration calls upon UN agencies, international organizations, development partners, philanthropic agencies, academic and civil society organizations to support its implementation.

• The event also endorsed the UN plans for a campaign called Nitrogen for Life.

  • The campaign aims at sustainable management of Nitrogen.

• The campaign is based on the Sustainable Management Resolution that was adopted during the fourth session of the UN Environment Assembly that was held in Nairobi, Kenya in March,2019.

Significance :

• Sustainable nitrogen management would help prevent millions of premature deaths, help ensure food security, and simultaneously help protect wildlife and the ozone layer.

• An ambitious goal to ‘Halve Nitrogen Waste’ from all sources globally by 2030 would save $100 billion per year, while mobilising innovation to beat pollution globally.

                                                                                                                  Source :- Down To Earth

SECURITY

Indo-French Joint Exercise Shakti-2019

GS PAPER - 03 SECURITY  - Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate

Context :

• The Indo-French joint bilateral Exercise Shakti will commence in October 2019 in Rajasthan.

Exercise Shakti :

• This joint bilateral exercise between the armies of India and France commenced in the year 2011.

• It is a biennial exercise (takes place once every two years) and occurs alternatively in India and France.

• The joint exercise will focus on counter-terrorism operations in the backdrop of semi-desert terrain under the United Nations Mandate.

• The training will focus primarily on high degree of physical fitness, sharing of drill at tactical level and learning of best practices from each other.

• The exercise aims at enhancing understanding, cooperation and interoperability between the two Armies.

                                                                                                                                                                         Source :- PIB

INS Baaz

GS PAPER - 03 SECURITY - Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate

Context :

• Recently, Indian Navy Chief has visited the INS Baaz,the southernmost air station of the Indian Armed Forces.

INS Baaz :

• The Indian Naval Station (INS) ‘Baaz’ was commissioned in July 2012, and is the southernmost air station of the Indian Armed Forces.It is a part of the Andaman and Nicobar Command.

• INS Baaz is located at Campbell Bay on the Great Nicobar island,the southernmost and largest island in the UT of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

  • This island is also the location of the Indira Point and is less than 250 km by sea from Banda Aceh in Indonesia.

• The primary functions of the INS Baaz include helping build Maritime Domain Awareness by providing information via airborne surveillance using aircraft and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

• The base also helps to ensure maritime security in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea and substantially enhances the Indian Navy’s maritime surveillance capability.

• The base also assists the local population in times of need such as facilitating evacuation during medical emergencies.

• Further,the location of the base has been described as India’s “window into East and Southeast Asia and is in close vicinity of the Six Degree Channel also called the Great Channel.

                                                                                                                                        Source :- Indian Express

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