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7th FEBRUARY 2019 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS
SC may curb advocates from speaking on cases
GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Context:
★ The Attorney General of India filed contempt proceedings against Prashant Bhushan for tweeting wrong facts about government on an ongoing case which could mislead the court.
★ The Supreme Court agreed to examine the possibility of imposing curbs on advocates airing their views in the media about pending cases and the judges handling them.
Freedom carries with it responsibility:
★ Court observed that advocates often share details of cases and attack judges on media but code of conduct of judges does not allow them to defend themselves against criticisms on media, which maligns the judiciary.
★ Recently another SC bench criticized lawyers for attributing political color to judges branding it as contempt of court and asked the Bar to protect honest judges.
★ Advocates have to balance their freedom of speech and the responsibility associated with their court work.
Source:- The Hindu
Unregulated deposit schemes to be banned
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 Cabinet on February 6 approved the proposal to amend Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018.
Need of the Scheme:
★ As in the recent past, there have been rising instances of people in various parts of the country being defrauded by illicit deposit taking schemes.
★ The worst victims of these schemes are the poor and the financially illiterate, and the operations of such schemes are often spread over many States.
★ As per information provided by RBI, during the period between July, 2014 and May, 2018, 978 cases of unauthorized schemes were discussed in State Level Coordination Committee (SLCC) meetings in various States/UTs and were given to the respective regulators/law enforcement agencies in the states.
★ A large number of such instances have been reported from the eastern part of the country.
Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018:
★ Aim: To put an end to the hazard of illicit deposit schemes and prevent such schemes from duping the poor and gullible.
★ The Bill defines “Deposit Taker” and “Deposit” comprehensively;
★ “Deposit Takers” include all possible entities (including individuals) receiving or soliciting deposits, except specific entities such as those incorporated by legislation;
★ “Deposit” is defined in such a manner that deposit-takers are restricted from camouflaging public deposits as receipts, and at the same time, not to curb or hinder acceptance of money by an establishment in the ordinary course of its business.
Key provisions:
★ The Bill contains a substantive banning clause which bans Deposit Takers from promoting, operating, issuing advertisements or accepting deposits in any Unregulated Deposit Scheme.
★ The principle is that the Bill would ban unregulated deposit taking activities altogether, by making them an offence ex-ante rather than the existing legislative-cum-regulatory framework which only comes into effect ex-post with considerable time lags;
★ The Bill creates three different types of offences, namely,
★ running of Unregulated Deposit Schemes,
★ fraudulent default in Regulated Deposit Schemes, and
★ wrongful inducement in relation to Unregulated Deposit Schemes.
★ The Bill provides for severe punishment and heavy pecuniary fines to act as deterrent.
★ The Bill has adequate provisions for disgorgement or repayment of deposits in cases where such schemes nonetheless manage to raise deposits illegally.
★ The Bill provides for attachment of properties / assets by the Competent Authority, and subsequent realization of assets for repayment to depositors;
★ Clear-cut time lines have been provided for attachment of property and restitution to depositors;
★ The Bill enables creation of an online central database, for collection and sharing of information on deposit-taking activities in the country;
Background:
★ The Finance Minister in the Budget Speech 2016-17 had announced that a comprehensive Central legislation would be brought in to deal with the menace of illicit deposit taking schemes
★ The Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018, which was introduced in Parliament on 18th July, 2018.
Source:- The Hindu; PIB
Panel defers resort project at Andamans
GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Context:
★ An expert committee of the Union Environment Ministry has “deferred” clearance to a Rs 100 crore proposal by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation Limited (ANIIDCL) to develop an island resort, as well as put up “premium tents” and “tree houses”, on the grounds that it doesn’t account for the biodiversity of the islands’ coast.
More about the news:
★ The project has been postponed on the grounds that the area is ecologically fragile, rich in biodiversity and solid waste management is a major concern and thus it necessitates a field visit to assess the potential impact of tourism on the area.
★ Environmentalist have also raised concerns over Coastal Regulation Zone 2018 notification as it had allowed infrastructure development along the Indian coasts, thus putting the fragile coastal ecology at stake.
★ A NITI Aayog report notes that though the footfall of domestic tourists in Andaman and Nicobar Islands rose steadily between 2011 and 2016, the arrival of foreign tourists have remained stagnant.
★ In order to boost tourism, the Centre has revived an Island Development Agency that is mandated with coordinating infrastructure projects in Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands.
Source:- The Hindu
First career portal for students launched in Rajasthan
GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential
Context:
★ Rajasthan Government, in collaboration with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has launched Rajiv Gandhi Career Portal to provide employment-oriented education to students from classes 9 to 12.
★ The minister announced the formation of Rajiv Gandhi Career Counselling Cell.
Rajiv Gandhi Career Portal:
★ The portal aims to provide career guidance with information on entrance examinations, scholarships and employment-oriented courses.
★ The portal will provide information to students on over 200 vocational, 237 professional courses besides online information on over 455 employment areas, 10,000 colleges in the country, 960 scholarship schemes and over 955 entrance examinations.
★ The portal is expected to benefit 23 lakh students, help reduce dropouts at various stages in schools and improve retention in jobs.
★ According to UNICEF’s studies, students in Rajasthan primarily rely upon their teachers and family members for career information and 69% also use internet for their career-related queries.
Source:- Times of India
Centre bans Kashmir outfit
GS PAPER - 03 INTERNAL SECURITY - Security challenges and their management in border areas; linkages of organized crime with terrorism Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate
Context:
★ The Union Home Ministry has banned the Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen (TuM) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for promoting terrorism and radicalising and recruiting youth for terrorist activities in India.
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967:
★ UAPA is anti-terrorist law aimed at effective prevention of unlawful activities associations in India.
★ Its main objective is to make powers available for dealing with activities directed against integrity and sovereignty of India.
★ It bans certain terrorist associations, punishes membership and association with such organizations and punishes terrorist activities.
★ The law been legislated to impose reasonable restrictions in interests of sovereignty and integrity of India on exercise of freedom of speech and expression, to assemble peaceably without arms and to form associations.
★ Crime under the Act – to support any secessionist movement; to support a foreign power’s claim over Indian territories; threatening economic security of India; raising funds for terrorist activities (including the production and circulation of Fake Indian Currency Notes)
Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen (TuM):
★ Set up in the 1990s, TuM claims to be fighting for the “liberation of Kashmir.”
★ The TuM carried out a number of terrorist attacks besides subversive acts, namely grenade attacks, weapons snatching incidents, supporting other terrorist outfits such as Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), etc. in terms of financial and logistic support in the recent past.”
Source:- The Hindu
Govt. diktat may cost privacy in WhatsApp
GS PAPER- 02 GOVERNANCE - Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential;
Context:
★ The Indian government’s proposal to make it mandatory for online platforms to trace the origin of unlawful messages is ‘overbroad’ and will require WhatsApp to re-architect the product into one without privacy, a spokesperson for the instant messaging app said.
More about the issue:
★ The government has recently published 609 pages of suggestions and comments from a range of relevant parties on a new set of guidelines for intermediaries that it issued at the end of last year.
★ End-to-end encryption on WhatsApp or Signal ensures that no one can read the messages shared between two users — no government, no third-party, no cyber criminals, not even the company itself.
★ Companies will have to help government agencies in locating the origin of content, if required to do so by law. For many, this could mean choosing between breaking their end-to-end encryption in India, or stopping the service in the country altogether.
★ Internet companies with more than 50 lakh users will be required to register themselves in India, and have an office in the country.
★ First, all intermediary companies will have to deploy technology based automated tools or appropriate mechanisms, with appropriate controls, for proactively identifying and removing or disabling public access to unlawful information or content.
★ The firm, however, did not elaborate on the plans for India, its largest market with over 200 million users, if the proposal is accepted.
Source:- The Hindu
Cabinet approves unified regulator for IFSCs
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 Cabinet on February 6, 2019, approved the establishment of a unified authority for regulating all financial services in International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs) in India through the International Financial Services Centres Authority Bill, 2019.
Key Fact:
★ India’s first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) became operational on April 11, 2015 at GIFT City in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
International Financial Service center:★ The International Financial Services Centre is the institution that caters to customers outside the jurisdiction of the domestic economy.★ These centres deal with flows of finance, financial products and services across borders.Functions of IFSC:★ An IFSC helps bring back the financial services and transactions that are currently carried out in offshore financial centers by Indian corporate entities and overseas branches of financial institutions to India by offering business and regulatory environment.★ The centre works on the similar lines as that of other leading international financial centers in the world like London and Singapore.★ It provides Indian corporates easier access to global financial markets.★ IFSC also compliments and promotes further development of financial markets in India. |
Need for Unified Authority:
★ At present, the banking, capital markets and insurance sectors in IFSC are regulated by multiple regulators such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).
★ The nature of business in the IFSCs requires a high degree of inter-regulatory coordination and regular clarifications in the existing regulations governing financial activities in IFSCs.
★ Hence, a need was felt for having a unified financial regulator for IFSCs in India to provide world class regulatory environment to financial market participants.
★ The unified authority would provide the much needed thrust for further development of IFSC in India.
Key features:
Management of Authority:
★ The Authority will consist of a Chairperson, one Member each to be nominated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).
★ Two members will be dominated by the Central Government and two other whole-time or full-time or part-time members will also be there.
Functions of Authority:
★ The Authority will regulate financial services, financial products and financial institutions in an IFSC which has already been permitted by the Financial Sector Regulators for IFSCs.
★ It will also regulate such other financial products, financial services or institutions notified by the Central Government from time to time.
★ It will recommend to the Central Government such other financial products, financial services and financial institutions which may be permitted in the IFSCs.
★ Powers: All the powers enjoyed by the respective financial sector regulatory such as RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, under the respective Acts will be exercised by the Authority in the IFSCs.
Process and Procedure:
★ The Authority will follow such processes and procedures which are governed in accordance with the provisions of the respective Acts of Parliament applicable to financial products, services or institutions.
★ The Central Government, after due appropriation made by Parliament by law, may grant few funds to the authority for its purposes.
★ The transactions of financial services in the IFSCs will be done in the foreign currency as specified by the Authority in consultation with the Central Government.
Source:- The Hindu; PIB
Cabinet approves MoU on India-Norway Ocean Dialogue
GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests
Context:
★ The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister has approved the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Norway on India-Norway Ocean Dialogue.
Benefits:
★ The MoU will promote cooperation in the areas of mutual interest pertaining to the development of blue economy.
★ Norway is a global leader in the area of Blue Economy and has cutting-edge technologies and expertise in areas such as fisheries, hydrocarbons, renewable energy, sustainable harnessing of ocean resources and maritime transport.
★ The proposed MoU will contribute to create opportunities for collaboration in areas such as exploitation of hydrocarbons and other marine resources, as well as management of ports and tourism development for the mutual benefit of all stakeholders within the framework of the Joint Task Force (JTF).
★ It will contribute to the objective of Food Security through infusion of new technologies in fisheries and aquaculture.
★ It will further offer a platform for businesses in both countries to execute profitable ventures.
Source:- PIB
Abolition of Institution of Income-Tax Ombudsman and Indirect Tax Ombudsman
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 Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the proposal for Abolition of Institution of Income-Tax Ombudsman and Indirect Tax Ombudsman.
Necessity of abolition:
★ The approval comes in the wake of alternative complaint redressal mechanisms chosen by public and the institution of Ombudsman could not prove to be more effective than regular existing parallel channels of grievance redressal.
★ The Institution of Income-Tax Ombudsman was created in the year 2003 to deal with grievances of public related to settlement of complaints relating to Income Tax. However, the Institution of Ombudsman failed to achieve its objectives.
★ It was observed that institution of new complaints have in turn fallen to single digits.
★ Also, tax payers started preferring alternate methods of grievance redressal like CPGRAMS (Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System), AaykarSevaKendras etc. further, it was also decided in 2011 to close vacant offices of Indirect Tax Ombudsman.
Source:- PIB
National Institutes of Food Technology, Enterpreneurship and Management 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:
★ The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the introduction of National Institutes of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management Bill, 2019.
Objective:
★ To confer the status of Institutions of National Importance to National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM) at Kundli, Haryana, and the Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT) at Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu.
Benefits:
★ The legislation would provide for functional autonomy to the institutes to design and develop courses, undertake research activities and leverage enhanced status in their academic pursuits, so that they become world class institutes.
★ The institutes would implement the reservation policy of the Government and would also undertake special outreach activities for the benefits of concerned stakeholders.
★ It would enable the institutes to provide world class teaching and research experience by adopting innovative practices.
Source:- PIB
Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog
GS PAPER - 03 AGRICULTURE - economics of animal-rearing.
Context:
★ The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal for establishment of Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog for Conservation protection and development of cows and their progeny.
Background:
★ The creation of Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog for the conservation, protection and development of cows and their progeny will provide the policy framework and direction to the cow conservation and development programmes in the country and for ensuring proper implementation of laws with respect to the welfare of cows.
Impact of Rashtriya kamadenu Aayog:
★ The setting up of Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog will lead to conservation, protection and development of cattle population in the country including development and conservation of indigenous breeds.
★ It will result in increased growth of livestock sector which is more inclusive, benefitting women, and small and marginal farmers.
★ The Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog will work in collaboration with Veterinary, Animal Sciences or Agriculture University or departments or organizations of the Central/State Government engaged in the task of research in the field of breeding and rearing of cow, organic manure, biogas etc.
Source:- PIB
GSAT-31
GS PAPER - 03 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - Achievement of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.
Context:
★ India’s telecommunication satellite, GSAT-31 was successfully launched on February 06, 2019 from Kourou launch base, French Guiana by Ariane-5 VA-247.
GSAT - 31:
★ GSAT-31 is configured on ISRO’s enhanced I-2K Bus, utilising the maximum bus capabilities of this type.
★ This satellite will augment the Ku-band transponder capacity in Geostationary Orbit.
★ GSAT-31 will provide continuity to operational services on some of the in-orbit satellites.
★ The satellite derives its heritage from ISRO’s earlier INSAT/GSAT satellite series.
★ The satellite provides Indian mainland and island coverage.
Source:- PIB
Darwaza Band-Part Two’ to Sustain Sanitation Gains
GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Context: