CJI claims online court proceedings susceptible to abuse.
Attorney
General of India K.K. Venugopal on Monday pushed for live-streaming court
proceedings to make hearings accessible to all.
But
Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde, heading a three-judge Bench of the
Supreme Court, sounded a cautionary note, saying it was susceptible to
“abuses.”
He
reminded the Supreme Court of its own judgment of September 2018 in favour of
“opening up” the apex court through live-streaming. The order has remained
unimplemented. Mr.Venugopal hinted that the pandemic offered a fresh
opportunity.
Justice
Chandrachud was one of the three judges on the Bench that gave the verdict on
live-streaming in September 2018. In fact, he had noted in his separate opinion
that live-streaming would be the true realisation of the “open court system.”
Mr.Venugopal had assisted that Bench as amicus curiae. His suggestions were
later adopted as guidelines in the 2018 judgment.
The
issue of live-streaming came up as a Special Bench led by the CJI was taking
stock of the virtual court system initiated after the lockdown. Justice
Chandrachud, on the Bench along with Justice L. NageswaraRao, said each High
Court could make rules for itself and trial courts under it for the virtual
system. Uniform rules would prove difficult owing to the difference in
connectivity and e-literacy.
Naidu launches Parampara series-2020.
India's
Vice President Venkaiah Naidu today said that music and dance can provide
relief from the anxiety caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Launching
the virtual festival of ‘Parampara Series 2020-National Festival of Music and
Dance’ organized by NatyaTarangini in partnership with the United Nations, he
said that music and dance make lives more fulfilling by rejuvenating and
energising.
He
added that they bring harmony into lives and nourish inner spirit by dispelling
gloom and despair.
He
appreciated Natya Tarangini for organising the ‘Parampara Series’ continuously
since past 23 years, and adopting innovative efforts to make it happen for the
24th year, even in difficult times like this.
Productive-Linked Incentive Scheme.
The
Government is planned to extend the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to
eight more sectors to boost Domestic Manufacturing.
Highlights:
•
It is an outcome- and output-oriented scheme where incentives will be paid only
if the manufacturers make the goods.
•
It will give cash incentives for five to seven years and all the sunrise and
important sectors are proposed to be covered in this. The sectors may be
automobile, networking products, food processing, advanced chemistry and solar
PV manufacturing.
•
The Need for the scheme are
✓ Sunrise sectors are
promising sectors but they may need support in the initial stage.
✓ Export base can be
developed in sectors under PLI scheme.
✓ There is a growing
demand in the world for diversification in supply chains and India can become a
major player.
•
With the view to make India a manufacturing hub, the government launched the
PLI scheme for mobile phones (electronic manufacturing) and it was extended to
pharma products and medical equipment sectors.
•
It is for Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing. It proposes a financial
incentive to boost domestic manufacturing and attract large investments in the
electronics value chain including electronic components and semiconductor
packaging.
•
The electronics manufacturing companies will get an incentive of 4 to 6% on
incremental sales (over base year) of goods manufactured in India for a period
of next 5 years.
•
It shall only be applicable for target segments namely mobile phones and
specified Electronic Components.
•
The government estimates that with the PLI scheme, domestic value addition for
mobile phones is expected to rise to 35-40% by 2025 from the current level of
20-25% and generate additional 8 lakh jobs, both direct and indirect.
UNSG welcomes Armenia-Azerbaijan ceasefire agreement.
UN
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the joint statement yesterday by
the United States, Armenia and Azerbaijan announcing that a previously reached
humanitarian cease-fire agreement will take effect from today, said
spokesperson of UN Secretary StephaneDujarric, in a statement in NewYork.
Guterres
commended the facilitation efforts of the United States, with the support of
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group
Co-Chairs.
The
secretary-general expected the parties to abide by all their commitments and to
work jointly together with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to take concrete
steps toward a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said the
statement.
Armenia
and Azerbaijan have been at loggerheads over the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh
since 1988. Peace talks have been held since 1994 when a cease-fire was
reached, but there have been sporadic minor clashes. A new round of armed
conflict broke out along the contact line on September 27.
BRICS parliamentary forum meeting held.
LokSabha
Speaker Om Birla today said that BRICS countries need to intensify their
collective fight against terrorism which poses the biggest threat to humankind.
Virtually addressing the meeting of the 6th BRICS Parliamentary Forum, Mr Birla
said, as people’s representatives, parliamentarians can no longer be silent
bystanders and they must unite to fight the challenges of terrorism and violent
extremism.
He
emphasized that the funding of all terrorist activities must be stopped
immediately and the conditions that are conducive to the spread of terrorism
and violent extremism need to be addressed and resolved at the earliest.
Mr
Birla stressed that the Parliaments of BRICS countries must use international
platforms to highlight their collective resolve to support all treaties and
agreements that prevent terrorism.
The
LokSabha Speaker mentioned that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the tragic
death of millions of people, severe economic challenges and disruption of
everyday life. He added that if ever there was any greater need for
international unity and cooperation then it is now.
Mr
Birla said, despite their differences, BRICS countries share a common vision of
a just and fair world, free of poverty, hunger and disease and where every
human being is born equal in dignity.
He
said, BRICS countries have to ensure that the outbreak of the pandemic does not
jeopardize the progress towards achievement of the Agenda 2030 of Sustainable
Development Goals and that they remain committed to work together to achieve
the goals of Zero hunger, poverty eradication and an inclusive and just world.
RBI claims COVID to erode fiscal consolidation efforts of
states.
The
additional outgo to combat the impact of COVID-19 will significantly erode the
fiscal consolidation achieved by the State governments in the past three years,
the RBI said in a report on Tuesday.
•
In its study of the State budgets of 2020-21,the RBI has dwelled on ‘COVID-19
and its Spatial Dimensions in India’ and said that Gross Fiscal Deficit (GFD)
of the States would spiral during the current fiscal.
•
Observing that the quality of spending and the credibility of State budgets
will assume critical importance, it said, “The next few years are going to be
challenging for the States. They have played an important role in the frontline
of the defence against the pandemic. Going forward, they need to remain
empowered to provide growth impulses to the Indian economy and build resilience
against future pandemics as well.
•
“Sustaining the recovery from the pandemic will reshape State finances,
entailing boosting investment in health care systems and other social safety
nets in line with the States’ demographic and co-morbidity profiles,” it added.
•
States’ responses by delaying or cutting down expenditures, even wages and
salaries, also need to be taken into account in the assessment of the
pandemic’s effects on State finances.
7)
.FinMin expects economy to bounce back as the fastest growing from next year.
The
Indian economy may contract or stagnate this fiscal but it will bounce back to
be among the fastest growing in the world next year, Finance Minister
Sitharaman said.
••Demand
revival and the government’s focus on infrastructure, agriculture and related
sectors, along with support to sovereign funds and pension funds will drive
economic growth, she said at the India Energy Forum by CERAweek. The highest
level seen in manufacturing PMI since 2012 signalled revival, she said.
Sitharaman
said demand for durable goods, agricultural equipment, tractors, vehicles are
all going up in India. “The festival season has commenced in India, as a result
of which I expect the demand to go up, and therefore be sustainable also,” she
said.
Infrastructure
spending is the government’s top priority, she said. The sector is attracting
domestic and foreign funds, she added.
The
finance minister said investment in efficient and clean energy was another
focus area of the government. These included the country’s ambitious plan to
expand clean energy generation, incentives to produce ethanol from stored
grains and incentives to use biomass to produce energy.
Affordability of Nutritious Diets in Rural India.
According
to a recently published paper, titled “Affordability of nutritious diets in
rural India”, by an economist of the International Food Policy Research
Institute, three out of four rural Indians cannot afford a Nutritious Diet.
Background:
•
Economic Survey’s Thalinomics provided a rosier picture of meal costs.
•
According to Thalinomics average worker in India’s organised manufacturing
sector, the affordability of a plate of vegetarian food — comprising rice or
roti, dal and sabzi — has improved 29% since 2006-07. For non-vegetarians,
affordability has risen 18%.
•
The Survey found that a worker who would have spent 70% of their daily wage on
two vegetarian thalis a day for a household of five in 2006-07 would only have
to spend 50% of their income for the meals in 2019-20
•
This year, the most affordable meal was in Jharkhand, where two vegetarian
thalis for a household of five required about 25% of a worker’s daily wage.
Current Study:
•
Current study uses the wages of unskilled workers who make up a larger
proportion of the population than industrial workers, and includes items such
as dairy, fruit and dark green leafy vegetables that are essential as per
India’s official dietary guidelines.
•
The study used the latest available food price and wage information from the
National Sample Survey’s 2011 Dataset.
Key Findings:
•
The National Institute for Nutrition’s guidelines for a nutritionally adequate
diet call for adult women to eat 330 gm of cereals and 75 gm of pulses a day,
along with 300 gm of dairy, 100 gm of fruit, and 300 gm of vegetables, which
should include at least 100 gm of dark green leafy vegetables. Selecting the
cheapest options from actual Indian diets —wheat, rice, bajra, milk, curd,
onions, radish, spinach, bananas — the study calculated that a day’s meals
would cost ₹45 (or ₹51 for an adult man).
•
Three out of four rural Indians cannot afford a nutritious diet. Even if they
spent their entire income on food, almost two out of three of them would not
have the money to pay for the cheapest possible diet that meets the
requirements set by the government’s premier nutrition body.
•
Even if they spent all their income on food, 63.3% of the rural population or
more than 52 crore Indians would not be able to afford that nutritious meal.
•
If they set aside just a third of their income for non-food expenses, 76% of
rural Indians would not be able to afford the recommended diet. This does not
even account for the meals of non-earning members of a household, such as
children or older adults.
Importance of the Findings:
•
The findings are significant in the light of the fact that India performs
abysmally on many nutrition indicators even while the country claims to have
achieved food security. Global Hunger Index showed that India has the world’s
highest prevalence of child wasting, reflecting acute under nutrition.
•
On indicators that simply measure calorie intake, India performs relatively
better, but they do not account for the nutrition value of those calories.
•
The observations made in the study go against the observations made in the
recent Economic Survey. This year’s Economic Survey’s ‘Thalinomics’, had noted
that the affordability of meals had increased in India.
Study finds Himalayan region to be tectonically active
The
Himalayan or the Indus Suture Zone (ISZ) in the Ladakh region has been found to
be tectonically active. Suture zone is the zone where the Indian and Asian
Plates join each other. Until now, it was supposed to be a locked zone.
It
has been observed that sedimentary beds are tilted and thrust broken. There is
a remote fault zone in the suture zone which is tectonically active. The rivers
at this zone are associated with uplifted terraces. The bedrock further shows
brittle deformation at a shallower depths.
This
region of the Indus Suture Zone (ISZ) was last active some 78000 — 58000 years
back. However the recent Earthquake of 2010 near the village Upshi that
occurred due to a thrust rupture.
The
study also says that the Suture Zone of the Himalayas has been active in the
recent years of the earth history.
This
is thus one of the major reason for the frequent earthquakes in the northern
India recently. Himalayas comprise of three thrusts- Main Central Thrust, Main
Frontal Thrust and Main Boundary Thrust. The study says, Main Frontal Thrusts
are locked and the overall deformation is occurring in the Main Frontal Thrust.
OSIRIS-REx Mission
NASA’s
OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has recently touched down on the surface of asteroid
Bennu to collect rock and dust samples.
About OSIRIS-REx Mission:
•
The OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification,
Security, Regolith Explorer) spacecraft was launched in 2016 for the journey to
Bennu.
•
It is the United States’ first asteroid sample return mission, aiming to
collect and carry a pristine, unaltered sample from an asteroid back to earth
for scientific study.
•
It is essentially a seven-year-long voyage and will conclude when at least 60
grams of samples are delivered back to the Earth (in 2023).
•
The mission promises to bring the largest amount of extraterrestrial material
back to the Earth since the Apollo era.
•
The spacecraft contains five instruments meant to explore Bennu including
cameras, a spectrometer and a laser altimeter.
•
The spacecraft’s robotic arm called the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition
Mechanism (TAGSAM), made an attempt to “TAG” the asteroid at a sample site and
collected a sample.
•
The departure window for the mission will open up in 2021, after which it will
take over two years to reach back to Earth.
About Asteroid Bennu:
•
It is an ancient asteroid, currently more than 200 million miles from Earth.
•
It offers scientists a window into the early solar system as it was first
taking shape billions of years ago and tossing ingredients that could have
helped seed life on Earth.
•
It hasn’t undergone drastic changes since its formation over billions of years
ago and therefore it contains chemicals and rocks dating back to the birth of
the solar system. It is also relatively close to the Earth.
•
It is known that this asteroid is a B-type asteroid, implying that it contains
significant amounts of carbon and various other minerals.
•
Because of its high carbon content, it reflects about 4% of the light that hits
it, which is very low when compared with a planet like Venus, which reflects
about 65% of the light that hits it. Earth reflects about 30%.
•
Around 20-40% of Bennu’s interior is empty space and scientists believe that it
was formed in the first 10 million years of the solar system’s formation,
implying that it is roughly 4.5 billion years old.
