ART AND CULTURE                                                                           

1. Ayodhya verdict | Addendum quotes Tulsidas, Ain-i-Akbari for birthplace proof                                                                                                                           

2. World Heritage Week in Muziris to showcase culture                                        

GEOGRAPHY                                                                                       

1. Defence Minister inaugurates Sisseri Bridge built by BRO                                

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE                                                             

1. Supreme Court holds ex-Ranbaxy promoters guilty of contempt in Daiichi Sankyo case                                                                                                       

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS                                                          

1. Myanmar’s Rohingya Crisis: International Court Judges Authorize Investigation                                                                                                                           

ECONOMY                                                                                             

1. Supreme Court clears the path for ArcelorMittal to acquire bankrupt Essar Steel                                                                                                                   

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY                                                    

1. Centre drops plan to bring in changes to Forest Act of 1927                           

ART AND CULTURE

Ayodhya verdict | Addendum quotes Tulsidas, Ain-i-Akbari for birthplace proof

GS PAPER - 01 ART AND CULTURE - Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

Context :

• Ain-i-Akbari, a 16th century document which deals with the administration of Mughal Emperor Akbar, mentions the time of birth of Lord Ram in the Treta Yuga in the city of Ayodhya, the Supreme Court said.

Ain-i-Akbari :

• Ain-i-Akbari is a 16th century document.

• Written by: Akbar’s court historian Abu'l Fazl in Persian language.

• Deals with: the administration of Mughal Emperor Akbar.

• Background: Beginning in 1589, Abu’l Fazl worked on the ‘Akbar Nama’ for thirteen years. The Akbar Nama is divided into three books:
   

  • The first book dealt with Akbar’s ancestors.

  • The second recorded the events of Akbar’s reign.

  • The third is the Ain-i Akbari. It deals with Akbar’s administration, household, army, the revenues and geography of his empire. It provides rich details about the traditions and culture of the people living in India. It also got statistical details about crops, yields, prices, wages, and revenues.

• In the early twentieth century, the Akbar Nama was translated into English by Henry Beveridge.

                                                                                                                                                                   Source :- The Hindu

World Heritage Week in Muziris to showcase culture

GS PAPER - 01 ART AND CULTURE - Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

Context :

• Muziris Heritage Week will be celebrated from November 19-25 in connection with UNESCO World Heritage Week.

Muziris :

• Muziris was a port city on the Malabar Coast. Muziris was also known as Murachipattanam.

• The exact location of Muziris is unknown and is generally speculated to be situated around present day Kodungallur, Kerala.

• In Ramayana, Murachipattanam is the place where Sugreeva’s (one of the Monkey King) sleuths passed through while looking for the abducted Sita.

• Sangam literature describes Roman ships coming to Muziris laden with gold to be exchanged for pepper.

• According to historians, in 1341, when the profile of the water bodies in the Periyar River basin on the Malabar Coast underwent a major transformation, Muziris got destroyed due to flood and earthquake.

• The Government of Kerala has initiated the Muziris Heritage Project to reinstate the historical and cultural significance of the legendary port of Muziris.           

                                                                                                                       Source :- The Hindu

GEOGRAPHY

Defence Minister inaugurates Sisseri Bridge built by BRO

GS PAPER - 01 GEOGRAPHY - Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

Context :

• Defence Minister has inaugurated the Sisseri River Bridge at Lower Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh.

Sisseri River Bridge:

• Sisseri River Bridge is a 200-metre long bridge between Jonai Pasighat Ranaghat Roing road.

• The river bridge provides better connectivity between Siang and Dibang Valley.It was constructed under Project Brahmank of Border Roads Organisation (BRO).

• The government has built this bridge under Border Area Development Programme (BADP).           

                                                                                                                                                                   Source :- PIB

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

Supreme Court holds ex-Ranbaxy promoters guilty of contempt in Daiichi Sankyo case

GS PAPER - 02 POLITY - role of NGOs, SHGs, various groups and associations, donors, charities, institutional and other stakeholders.

Context :

• Recently, the Supreme Court of India has held former Ranbaxy promoters guilty of contempt for violating its order.

Contempt of Court :

• The expression ‘contempt of court’ has not been defined by the Constitution.

• As per the Contempt of Courts Act 1971, contempt refers to the offence of showing disrespect to the dignity or authority of a court.

• The act divides contempt into civil and criminal contempt.
   

  • Civil contempt: It is willful disobedience to any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other processes of a court or wilful breach of an undertaking given to the court.

  • Criminal contempt: It is any publication which may result in:
     

    • Scandalising the court by lowering its authority.

    • Interference in the due course of a judicial proceeding.

    • An obstruction in the administration of justice.

• However, innocent publication and distribution of some matter, fair and reasonable criticism of judicial acts and comment on the administrative side of the judiciary do not amount to contempt of court.

Constitutional Provisions :

• Article 129: Grants Supreme Court the power to punish for contempt of itself.

• Article 142(2): Enables the Supreme Court to investigate and punish any person for its contempt.

• Article 215: Grants every High Court the power to punish for contempt of itself.

Issue with Contempt of Court :

• Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution gives the right to freedom of speech and expression to all citizens, while “contempt provisions” curb people’s freedom to speak against the court’s functioning.

• The law is very subjective which might be used by the judiciary arbitrarily to suppress their criticism by the public.

                                                                                                                        Source :- The Hindu

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Myanmar’s Rohingya Crisis: International Court Judges Authorize Investigation

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

Context :

• International Criminal Court Judges have approved a request from prosecutors to open an investigation into crimes committed against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority

Background :

• Muslim Rohingya face heavy discrimination in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar, where they are regarded as having illegally immigrated from Bangladesh, even though many families have lived in Myanmar for generations. Most are denied citizenship and basic civil rights.

• In August 2017 in response to an insurgent attack. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh to escape what has been called an ethnic cleansing campaign involving mass rapes, killings and the torching of homes.

• There are grounds to believe widespread acts of violence were committed “that could qualify as the crimes against humanity of deportation across the Myanmar-Bangladesh border and persecution on grounds of ethnicity and/or religion against the Rohingya population.”

• Myanmar’s government and military have consistently denied violating human rights and said its operations were justified in response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents.           

                                                                                                                                                                   Source :- AIR

ECONOMY

Supreme Court clears the path for ArcelorMittal to acquire bankrupt Essar Steel

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 Supreme Court has recently given its judgement in the Essar Insolvency case.

• The Judgement has paved the way for ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel to take over debt-laden Essar Steel.

Background :

• In 2018, Supreme Court (SC) used its extraordinary powers under article 142 to give ArcellorMittal and Numetal a chance to pay off the non-performing assets (NPAs) of corporate debtors as a precondition to buy Essar steel.

• ArcellorMittal paid off the debts owed by Essar and resubmitted a resolution plan for Essar following which Essar’s Committee of Creditors (CoC) approved Arcellor’s final negotiated resolution plan.

• The National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) observation in 2019 that financial and operational creditors should get equal treatment had stalled the takeover. The ruling was challenged in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT)

• The NCLAT had also ruled that in a resolution plan, there can be no difference between a financial creditor and the operational creditor in the payment of dues.

• Essar’s CoC moved the SC in an appeal against the NCLAT observations.

SC Observation :

• Equitable treatment is to be accorded to each creditor depending upon the class to which it belongs whether they are secured or unsecured, financial or operational.

• Explaining why financial creditors are favoured over operational creditors of a bankrupt company in a corporate resolution process, the bench observed that financial creditors provide working capital to enable companies to run their business operations while the operational creditors, on the other hand, were beneficiaries of amounts lent by financial creditors.

•  The SC has held that treating the financial and operational creditors equally is akin to treating unequals equally. The principle of equality cannot be used to treat unequals equally as it might destroy the very objective of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) to resolve stressed assets in a time-bound and efficient manner.

• The equality-for-all approach which involves recognizing the rights of different classes of creditors as part of an insolvency resolution process, would lead to a situation wherein the secured financial creditors will, in many cases, be incentivized to vote for liquidation rather than resolution. This would defeat the entire objective of the IBC.

• The court clarified that corporate resolution is ultimately in the hands of the majority vote of the CoC and that the tribunals have no “residual equity jurisdiction” to interfere in the merits of a business decision taken by the requisite majority of the CoC in conformity with the law (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code).

Impact of Judgement :

• Banks will recover Rs. 42,000 crore against admitted debts of Rs. 49,473 crore- a recovery of about 85% compared to the average recovery of 53% in other resolution cases. This would help banks in boosting their capital adequacy.

• Speedy Resolution: The verdict is likely to reduce legal wrangling between financial and operational creditors and accelerate resolution process.

  • It will attract investors who were getting wary of the nation’s bankruptcy process.

• India is trying to attract foreign capital to its bad loan cleanup, as it battles the worst nonperforming loan ratio among the world’s major economies.

• The removal of mandatory 330-day deadline will facilitate resolution, the ultimate objective of the IBC.

                                                                                                                                                          Source :- The Hindu

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

Centre drops plan to bring in changes to Forest Act of 1927

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has withdrawn a draft amendment that proposed updates to the Indian Forest Act, 1927.

Background :

• In March 2019, the government proposed the draft law called as Indian Forest Act, 2019.

• Activist groups and some State governments had protested against this proposed law.

Key features of Draft Indian Forest (Amendment) Bill of 2019 :

• Definition of Forests: It defines forest as any government or private or institutional land recorded or notified as forest/forest land in any government record and the lands managed by government/community as forest and mangroves. It also includes any land which the central or state government may by notification declare to be forest for the purpose of the Act.

• Definition of community: The amendment defines community as “a group of persons specified on the basis of government records living in a specific locality and in joint possession and enjoyment of common property resources, without regard to race, religion, caste, language and culture”

• New category of forest- Production Forests: forests with specific objectives for production of timber, pulp, pulpwood, firewood, non-timber forest produce, medicinal plants or any forest species to increase production in the country for a specified period.

• Forest development cess: It proposes a forest development cess of up to 10% of the assessed value of mining products removed from forests, and water used for irrigation or in industries. This amount would be deposited in a special fund and used for forest restoration, conservation and protection.

• Empowering Forest Bureaucracy:

  • The bill brings in forest bureaucracy to manage “village forests” through joint forest management committee (JFMC).

  • Forest Officers can issue search warrants, enter and investigate land within their jurisdiction

  • Forests officers will get indemnity for using arms to prevent forest related offences.

  • Forest officials will get powers to remove tribals from areas earmarked for conservation

Issue :

• Forest officers can issue search warrants, enter and investigate land within their jurisdictions. Forest officers will get indemnity for using arms to prevent forest-related offenses. Too many powers in the hands of the forest officers might lead to arbitrariness.

• Forest officials will get powers to remove tribals from areas earmarked for conservation which can go against tribal interests and the rights granted under the Forest Rights Act 2006.

• The proposed law allows the government to open any patch of the forest it deems fit for commercial plantations. This can serve as a blow to conservation efforts. 

                                                                                                                                     Source :- The Hindu

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