Comprehensive Current affairs 30 November 2020

One Nation, One Election.

PM Modi raised the pitch for “One Nation, One Election” and a single voter list for all polls in order to prevent the impact of the model code of conduct on development works every few months due to frequent elections.

About:

Modi also asked the presiding officers attending the meet to apply their mind to simplify the language of statute books and allow for an easier process to weed out redundant laws.

He said, “One Nation, One Election' isn’t just an issue of deliberation but also a need of the country. Elections are held at different places every few months and it hampers the developmental work. Therefore, it’s a must to have a deep study and deliberation on ‘One Nation, One Election’.”

On one voter list, he observed, “only one voter list should be used for Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha and other elections. Why are we wasting time and money?”

Emphasising need for coordination between all three wings of the state -- Legislature, Executive and Judiciary, he stated that everything, from their role to their decorum, was described in the Constitution itself.

Autonomous District Council.

Autonomous District Council (ADC)s are institutions of local governance created under sixth schedule with executive, legislative and judicialpowers.

Sixth Schedule consists of provisions for administration of tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura andMizoram.

There are 10 areas- three in Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram each and one in Tripura that are registered asautonomous districts.

Each autonomous district and regional council consists of not more than 30 members, of which four arenominated by the governor and the rest via elections.

BIS standards revised for two-wheeler helmets.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued the ‘Helmet for riders of Two Wheelers Motor Vehicles (Quality Control) Order, 2020.

Protective Helmets for Two-Wheeler Riders have been included under compulsory BIS certification and the publication of the Quality Control Order.

Key recommendations:

As per the directions of the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety for considering lighter helmets in India suiting the country's climatic conditions and that for ensuring compliance amongst citizen to wear the helmets, a Committee was formulated.

The Committee had experts from different fields, including expert doctors from AIIMS and also from BIS.

The Committee in March 2018 after detailed analysis in itsreport recommended lighter helmetsin the Country, and Ministry accepted the report.

Quality control order:

QCO would mean that only BIS certified two-wheeler helmets would be manufactured and sold in the Country for two wheelers.

This would help in avoiding sale of low-qualitytwo-wheeler helmets in the Country which would in turn help in protecting citizens involved in two-wheeler accidents from fatal injuries.

 China's Chang'e-5 lunar probe conducts 2nd braking, prepares to land.

China's Chang'e-5 lunar probe successfully completed its second braking at 8:23 p.m. Sunday (BJT), entering a circular lunar orbit 200 kilometers above the moon and getting ready for the landing operation, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of China National Space Administration (CNSA).

This follows its first braking one day earlier, which took place at a position about 400 kilometers above the moon and enabled it to be captured by the moon's gravitational field and fly in an elliptical lunar orbit.

The second braking brings it closer to the moon. Over the next week, the probe, composed of four parts – the orbiter, lander, ascender and Earth re-entry module – will perform multiple complicated tasks on a tight schedule.

The four parts will separate into two pairs. The lander and ascender will head to the moon and collect samples, while the orbiter and Earth re-entry module will continue to fly around the moon and adjust to a designated orbit, getting ready for the docking with the ascender.

The landing operation is expected in three days. Once touched down on the lunar surface, the lander will collect two kilograms of lunar sample.

It will shovel some surface material, drill a two-meter-deep hole and extract the soil from inside it, which will act as an archive of the moon, with the bottom recording information from a billion years ago, and the top more closely reflecting the present day.

Once the samples are secured, the ascender will take off from the lunar surface to transfer the moon samples to the re-entry capsule waiting in lunar orbit, which will then carry them back to earth.

The sampling work and the take-off of the ascender from the lunar surface need to be completed within 48 hours, according to Liu Jiangang, chief of the command team in Beijing.

 India set to double oil refining capacity in five years.

India plans to nearly double its oil refining capacity in the next five years offering a much more Aggressive Timeline than Previously.

• It was announced that India’s oil refining capacity could jump to 450-500 million tonnes in 10 years from the current level of about 250 million tonnes earlier. But now, it will be achieved in the next five years.

• Natural Gas currently accounts for about 6% of the energy consumed in the country.

• India would achieve its targets of increasing renewable energy capacity to 175 gigawatts by 2022 and 450 gigawatts by 2030 ahead of schedule.

• The country had renewable energy capacity of about 75 gigawatts at the end of 2018. Oil Refining and Natural Gas:

• Oil and gas sector is among the eight core industries in India.

• The government has allowed 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in many segments of the sector, including natural gas, petroleum products and refineries among others.

• India has been the fourth-largest Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) importer since 2011 after Japan, South Korea, and China.

• As of August 01, 2020, India’s oil refining capacity stood at 249.9 million metric tonnes (MMT), making it the second-largest refiner in Asia.

• Private companies own about 35.29% of the total refining capacity in FY20.

• The petroleum and natural gas sector attracted FDI worth US$ 7.82 billion between April 2000 and March 2020.

• The energy trade between India and US is likely to touch US$ 10 billion in FY20.

• The Oil Ministry plans to set up bio-CNG (compressed natural gas) plants and allied infrastructure at a cost of Rs 7,000 crore (US$ 1.10 billion) to promote the use of clean fuel. Some of the major initiatives taken by the Government of India to promote oil and gas sector are:3

• Indian Scheme ‘Kayakave Kailasa’ - enabled SC/ST entrepreneurs in providing bulk LPG transportation.

Plan to set up around 5,000 compressed biogas (CBG) plants by 2023.

• Plan to double natural gas production to 60 bcm and drill more than 120 exploration wells by 2022.

UNIQUE DOCUMENT IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (UDIN).

UDIN is a unique number given to documents attested by Chartered Accountants in Practice. It is an 18 digits system generated unique number which shall generated separately for each document.

Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), in its gazette notification dated 2nd August, 2019, had made generation of UDIN from ICAI website mandatory for every kind of certificate/tax audit report and other attests made by their members as required by various regulators.

This was introduced to curb fake certifications by non-CAs misrepresenting themselves as Chartered Accountants.

Brereton War Crimes Report.

The report, which was released last week and is widely being referred to as the‘Brereton War Crimes Report’, alleges that a group of 19 soldiers within the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) elite Special Air Services and commandos regiment had killed and brutalised at least 39 Afghan civilians, including children.

About:

The damning report was released after a four-year inquiry led by Army ReserveMajor General Paul Brereton following whistle-blower and local media reports ofalleged killings of unarmed Afghani civilians. Over four years, investigators looked into at least 57 incidents of misconduct and questioned over 400 witnesses under oath.

The inquiry found that, “credible evidence” of the “murder” of 39 prisoners, farmers and other civilians by19 special forces soldiers between 2005 and 2016.

The report described the soldier’sactions as a “disgraceful and a profound betrayal” of the ADF.

The final report was delivered on 6 November 2020. The redacted version was released publicly on 19 November 2020.

Key findings:

The report found evidence of 39 murders of civilians and prisoners by (or at the instruction of) members of the Australian special forces, which were subsequently covered up by ADF personnel.

The report stated 25 ADF personnel were involved in the killings, including those who were "accessories" to the incident.

The unlawful killings discussed by the report began in 2009, with most occurring in 2012 and 2013.

1 in 9 children infected by COVID-19: UNICEF.

An analysis report on COVID-19 infections was released recently by the UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund).

Highlights:

• The report was titled 'Averting a Lost COVID Generation'. It warns of significant and growing consequences for children as the pandemic approaches its second year.

• Children and adolescents under the age of 20 years accounted for 1 in 9 of COVID-19 infections, that is 11% of the 25.7 million infections.

• 140 million children are living in monetary poor household due to COVID-19.

• Schools are not a main driver of community transmission, and children are more likely to get the virus outside of school settings.

 • School closures due to COVID-19 affected almost 90 per cent of students around the world including 743 million girls.

• Internet channels reach only 24 per cent of schoolchildren globally, reflecting socio-economic inequality and a deep digital divide.

• Students in lower-income countries have missed more days of school than students in higher income countries.

• Refugees and asylum seekers are excluded from COVID-19-related social protection measures.

• 3 billion people globally have no access to a place to wash their hands; 700 children die every day from diseases caused by this lack of inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene.

• Gender-based violence is predicted to increase for every three months of COVID-19 lockdowns.

• Approximately 70 per cent of mental health services for children and adolescents are disrupted.

• One third of the countries witnessed a drop of at least 10% in coverage of health services.

• There was a 40% decline in the coverage of nutrition services for women and children across 135 countries.

• More than 250 million children under 5 could miss the life-protecting benefits of vitamin supplementation programmes.

Warnings:

• An estimated 2 million additional child deaths and 200,000 additional stillbirths could occur over a 12-month period with severe interruptions to services and rising malnutrition.

• An additional 6 to 7 million children under the age of 5 will suffer from wasting or acute malnutrition in 2020.

• A 14% rise in additional child deaths per month—mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

 • Globally, the number of children living in multidimensional poverty (no access to education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation or water) is estimated to have soared by 15% by mid-2020.

Recommendations:

• Bridge the digital divide to ensure all children were able to access school learning and guaranteed provision of nutrition and health services.

• The governments around the world are required to adopt measures to curb rise in child poverty.

• A six-point plan to protect children by UNIICEF:

• Ensure all children learn, including by closing the digital divide.

• Guarantee access to health and nutrition services and make vaccines affordable and available to every child.

• Support and protect the mental health of children and young people and bring an end to abuse, gender-based violence and neglect in childhood.

• Increase access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene and address environmental Degradation and Climate Change.

• Reverse the rise in child poverty and ensure an inclusive recovery for all.

• Redouble efforts to protect and support children and their families living through conflict, Disaster and Displacement .

Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Crypto currencies.

The 4th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Crypto currencies was recently held virtually.

Highlights:

• It was organised by Interpol, Europol and the Basel Institute on Governance.

 • It is an initiative of the Working Group on Cryptocurrencies and Money Laundering established in 2016 by the three organisations.

• It aims to strengthen knowledge, expertise and best practices for investigations into financial crimes and intelligence on virtual assets and crypto currencies.

• Over 2,000 representatives from 132 countries attended the Conference. Representatives from Law enforcement agencies, Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), International organisations and the private sector etc. participated.

• They met virtually to shape international cross-sector solutions against the criminal use of

Crypto currencies, exploring criminal flows and operations in the dark markets, ransomware and sex tortion, money laundering involving virtual assets, and the transfer of drug proceeds using crypto currencies.

• It served as an opportunity to underline the need for countries and jurisdictions to increase the exchange of tactical information and best practices.

• A multi-agency and multidisciplinary approach involving both the private and public sectors is a key to tackling criminal finances and the misuse of crypto currencies.

• By combining the expertise and data on financial crime held by the private sector with the investigative capabilities of law enforcement, collective capabilities can be enhanced.

Sustainable peatland management can prevent future pandemics.

Sustainably managing peatlands — peat-swamp forests found around the tropics — can protect humans from future pandemics, according to a new study. Peatlands were rich in biodiversity, including many potential vertebrate and invertebrate vectors, or carriers of disease.

These included numerous vertebrates known to represent a risk of spreading zoonotic disease, such as bats, rodents, pangolins and primates. Zoonotic diseases are those that jump from animals to humans.

 These areas also faced high levels of habitat disruption such as wild or human-made fires and wildlife harvesting that were perfect conditions for potential zoonotic emerging infectious diseases (EID) .

The study gave examples from around the world.

The first reported case of Ebola in 1976 was from a peat land area, as was the most recent outbreak in May 2020, it noted.

The cradle of the HIV/AIDS pandemic was believed to be around Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, another area with extensive peat lands.

Wildlife harvesting for consumption and trade was common in tropical forest nations. For instance, in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, fruit bats were captured in tropical peat-swamp forest areas and transported to local markets for sale as wild meat.

High densities of domestic and semi-wild animals reared on peat lands could also serve as a direct or indirect zoonotic EID vector to humans.

E.g predominantly peat land municipality of Palangka Raya in Indonesia. The area had over 1.8 million chickens, according to the Statistics of Palangka Raya Municipality, 2018.

The study also talked about large numbers of naturally cave-roosting edible-nest swiftlets being reared in special buildings in many peat land areas, with most nests exported to China.

Sustainably managing tropical peat lands and their wildlife was important for mitigating the impacts of the ongoing novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The move would also help in reducing the potential for future zoonotic EID emergence and severity.

Arctic has influenced Antarctica’s ice sheets.Study.

New research by Canada’s McGill University has shown that the Antarctic ice sheet was largely moulded in the last 40,000 years by its counterpart in the Arctic.

 As climate cooled during the last Ice Age, water became locked up in land ice in the Northern Hemisphere, leading to dropping sea levels in Antarctica. This consequently led to growth of the Antarctic ice sheet.

On the other hand, as the climate warmed during the period of deglaciation, the retreating ice in the Northern Hemisphere led to rising water levels around Antarctica.This, in turn, drove a retreat of the Antarctic ice sheet.

Comprehensive Current affairs 29 November 2020

Lok Virasat festival.

Films Division (FD) is organising Lok Virasat, a festival of films on folk art and painting starting from November 27, 2020.

About:

It is an exclusive bouquet of documentary films on folk art and paintings - Lok Virasat - is being showcased, between November 27–29, 2020 on FD website and You Tube channel.

The films being streamed include:

• The Kingdom of God, on the great Indian heritage of art and culture with focus on various folk-art traditions,

• Bhavai - Fading Memories, a film on Bhavai - a folk art of Gujarat,

• Naman – Khele, a film on the ancient folk art performed in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra,

• Sahi Jata, The Fusion Cult, a film on the unique fusion of muscle and music in the form of folk art on the back-drop of the ancient Orissa town of Puri and

• Therukoothu: Dancing forLife, a film depicting the age old Tamil folk art.

Several verdicts raise concerns of judicial overreach.

Vice President said the Supreme Court and high courts had delivered several far-reaching verdicts in furtherance of socio-economic objectives besides making correctional interventions but concerns were raised whether orders on Diwali fireworks, monitoring of investigations and making judicial appointments their preserve meant an intrusion into the domains of the legislature and the executive.

About:

Speaking at the 80th All India Presiding Officers’ Conference in Kevadia, he told there had been debates whether some issues should have been more legitimately left to the other organs of governance.

Deepavali fireworks, cess on registration and movement of vehicles from NCR through Delhi,

Banning use of vehicles of certain make after 10 or 15 years, monitoring police investigations,

Denying the executive any role in the appointment of judges by instituting collegium, invalidating the National Judicial Accountability Commission Act seeking to ensure transparency and accountability are being cited as instances of judicial overreach.

He said the legislature, the executive and the judiciary were bound to work within their respective domains as defined in the Constitution. “This warrants a spirit of mutual respect, responsibility and restraint. Unfortunately, there have been several instances of crossing the boundaries,” he added.

Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC)

Recently, Rajasthan government has planned two special investment regions along the

Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) to Generate Developmental opportunities for the State.

Highlights:

• The Government of India is developing various Industrial Corridor Projects as part of the

National Industrial Corridor programme which is aimed at development of futuristic industrial cities in India which can compete with the best manufacturing and investment destinations in the world.

• The same will create employment opportunities and economic growth leading to overall socio-economic development.

 • National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust (NICDIT) is under the administrative control of Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade

(DPIIT) for coordinated and unified development of all the industrial corridors which are at various stages of development and implementation.

About DMIC:

• It is the first Industrial Corridor project which was announced. DMIC Development Corporation (DMICDC) incorporated in 2008, is the implementing agency for the project.

• DMICDC has been registered as a company with 49% equity of Government of India, 26% equity of the JBIC (Japan Bank for International Cooperation) and the remaining held by government financial institutions.

• It aims to create smart, sustainable industrial cities by leveraging high speed, high capacity connectivity backbone provided by the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) to reduce logistic costs in an enabling policy framework.

• These new cities will come up in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

• The 1,504 kms long Western DFC is from J N Port in Mumbai, Maharashtra to Dadri in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

• The DFC project is one of the Indian Railways’ largest infrastructure projects, undertaken by the government at a cost Rs. 81,459 crore. This is the first time that India has embarked on the process of planned urbanisation with manufacturing as the key economic driver.

• Its vision is to create a strong economic base with a globally competitive environment and state of the art infrastructure to activate local commerce, enhance foreign investments and attain sustainable development.

 UN at launch of hygiene fund

The United Nations earlier this month launched the Sanitation and Hygiene Fund to provide accelerated funding to countries with the heaviest burden of diseases stemming from lack of sanitation services and have the least ability to respond to them.

It also aims to raise $2 billion over the next five years for these countries.

The fund is hosted by the UN Office for Project Services, which provides technical advice and project implementation to the UN and its partners.

The objectives of the Fund are:

Expanding household sanitation

Ensuring menstrual health and hygiene

Providing sanitation and hygiene in schools and healthcare facilities

Supporting innovative sanitation solutions.

SITMEX– 20.

The second edition of the India, Thailand and Singapore trilateral naval exercise SITMEX-20 has recently concluded in the Andaman Sea.

Highlights:

• The Prime Minister of India, during his keynote address at Shangri-La Dialogue in June 2018 announced the conduct of a trilateral naval exercise between India, Singapore and Thailand.

• The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Shangri-La Dialogue is Asia’s premier defence summit. It was launched in 2002.

• The first edition of SITMEX is hosted by Indian Navy, was conducted off Port Blair in

September 2019. SITMEX is conducted annually.

 • It aims to series of exercises are conducted to enhance mutual interoperability and imbibing best practices between Indian Navy, Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) and Royal Thai Navy (RTN).

• It also aims to strengthen mutual confidence and develop common understanding and procedures towards enhancing the overall maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region.

• It is in line with India’s SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) vision.

• The 2020 edition of the exercise is being hosted by RSN (Singapore).

• The Indian Navy deployed indigenous Anti-Submarine Warfare corvette INS Kamorta and missile corvette INS Karmuk for the exercise.

• Other Military Exercises between India and Thailand:

• MAITREE (Army)

• SIAM BHARAT (Air Force)

• Indo-Thai CORPAT (Navy), which was conducted recently.

• Other Military Exercises between India and Singapore are Bold Kurukshetra (Army), Joint

Military Training (Air Force) and SIMBEX (Navy)

National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).

NIIF is a fund created by the Government of India for enhancing infrastructure financing in the country.

This is different from the National Investment Fund.

NIIF was proposed to be set up as a Trust, to raise debt to invest in the equity of infrastructure finance companies such as Indian Rail Finance Corporation (IRFC) and National Housing Bank (NHB). The idea is that these infrastructure finance companies can then leverage this extra equity, manifold. In that sense, NIIF is a banker of the banker of the banker.

 NIIF is envisaged as a fund of funds with the ability to make direct investments as required. As a fund of fund it may invest in other SEBI registered funds.

Its creation was announced in the Union Budget 2015-16. The operational framework was approved on 20 August 2015.NIIF got registered with SEBI as Category II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) on December 28, 2015. A website was created on 8 June 2016.Mr. Sujoy Bose, Director and Global Co-Head, Infrastructure and Natural Resources, International Finance Corporation(IFC), Washington DC, was appointed as the first Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NIIF Ltd on 27 June 2016.

Financial Times (London) had adjudged NIIF as the Most Innovative structure in Asia Pacific under Finance category.

Objective

The objective of NIIF would be to maximize economic impact mainly through infrastructure development in commercially viable projects, both greenfield and brownfield, including stalled projects.

It could also consider other nationally important projects, for example, in manufacturing, if commercially viable.

Functions:

• Fund raising through suitable instruments including off-shore credit enhanced bonds, and attracting anchor investors to participate as partners in NIIF;

Servicing of the investors of NIIF.

• Considering and approving candidate companies/institutions/ projects (including state entities) for investments and periodic monitoring of investments.

Investing in the corpus created by Asset Management Companies (AMCs) for investing in private equity.

 • Preparing a shelf of infrastructure projects and providing advisory services.

• NIIF provides equity / quasi-equity support to those Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs)/Financial Institutions (FIs) that are engaged mainly in infrastructure financing. These institutions will be able to leverage this equity support and provide debt to the projects selected.

• Invest in funds engaged mainly in infrastructure sectors and managed by Asset Management Companies (AMCs) for equity / quasi-equity funding of listed / unlisted companies. provides Equity/ quasi-equity support / debt to projects, to commercially viable projects, both greenfield and brownfield, including stalled projects.

Bioluminescence.

Recently, blue tide was spotted along Maharashtra's shoreline which was produced due to fluorescent blue huefrom the process called bioluminescence.

Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism.

Blue light was characterised by the emission of light produced by phytoplanktons (microscopic marine plants), commonly known as dino flagellates.

The light is produced through a series of chemical reactions due to luciferase (oxidative enzymes) protein.

Parliamentary Panel Finds India's Response to Pandemic Ineffective

For the first time, a report was released by any parliamentary committee on the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The report was named ‘The Outbreak of Pandemic COVID-19 And its Management’ by a

Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health.

Highlights:

• Causes for the spike in COVID cases in India:

 • Low testing and shoddy contact tracing were responsible for the spike in cases.

• Too Many Guidelines

• The plethora of guidelines issued by the Health Ministry caused confusion and chaos.

• Many of these guidelines were contradictory and different quarantine rules imposed by the

State governments added to the panic.

• Absence of specific guidelines for the treatment resulted in private hospitals charging exorbitant fees.

• The number of government hospital beds in the country were not adequate to handle the increasing number of COVID and non-COVID patients.

Recommendations:

• The report recommends the government has to increase its investments in the public healthcare system.

• Make consistent efforts to achieve the National Health Policy targets of expenditure up to 2.5% of GDP within two years.

• Healthcare spending in the country with a population of 1.3 billion is abysmally low.

• Health Ministry should engage with agencies and actively participate in ongoing international treaties.

• Conduct more research and work towards training and capacity building for management of public health emergencies arising from use of bio-weapons.

• The government needs to be considerate and support the private health care sector.

• The healthcare workers who have laid down their lives, must be acknowledged as martyrs and their families be Adequately Compensated.

Concerns:

 • Strategic partnerships: The adverse effects of COVID-19 pandemic have taught the lesson on the importance of controlling biological agents and the need for strategic partnerships among different nations for bio-terrorism.

• Healthcare should never be limited to only those who can afford to pay but should move towards the noble Vision of Universal Health Coverage.

Basis of the Report:

• It is based on the deliberations that the committee had with the Department of Health and

Family Welfare which submitted an action plan to ensure security against biological weapons.

• These Include:

✓ Strengthening disease surveillance, including at animal-human interface, training and capacity building for management of public health emergencies arising from use of bio-weapons and

✓ Strengthening research and surveillance activities related to development of diagnostics, vaccines and drugs.

• Bioterrorism: A planned and deliberate use of pathogenic strains of microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, or their toxins to spread life-threatening diseases on a mass scale in order to devastate the population of an area.

Chairman of International Cricket Council.

New Zealand's Greg Barclay has been elected as the new independent chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

The head of the New Zealand Cricket team, NZC, Barclay beat Imran Khwaja in the second round of voting. Imran was interim chairman after Shashank Manohar stepped down from the post in July this year.

 In the first round of voting last week, Barclay had 10 votes to Khwaja's six, and needed 11 votes for a two-thirds majority of the 16-person ICC Board.

That vote arrived from Cricket South Africa in a second round of voting. Barclay is the second independent chairman of the world body, after Shashank Manohar of India.

About him:

A commercial lawyer by trade, Barclay has served as a director of NZC since 2012.

He was a director of 2015 Men's World Cup, held in Australia and New Zealand.

He is also an experienced company director holding board positions with various New Zealand and Australian companies.

Focus on mains:

Conspiracy Over Interfaith Marriages.

Context:

• Despite several laws, the social stigma for interfaith marriages still exists in the Indian Society.

Issue:

• Recently, several state governments have shown concerns about enacting proper laws to stop marriages which they refer to as ‘Love Jihad’.

• However, contemplating laws over interfaith marriage directly violates several rights of people such as right to freedom, personal liberty and right to life.

What are Interfaith Marriages?

• The matrimonial relationship developed between two individuals having different religious faiths. Although marrying into a different religion is a matter of choice of an adult, there are certain Issues Regarding the Same.

 Issues with Interfaith Marriages:

• Interfaith marriages are believed to be a forced conversion of one of the spouses (mostly women).

• As per the Muslim Personal law, in order to get married to a non-Muslim, conversion of religion is the only way.

• Hindu religion allows only monogamy and those who want to marry second time take another course.

• There is no provision regarding caste determination of children born out of such marriages.

• The Special Marriage Act, 1954 is not compatible with backwardness of the society.

• There is debate over the validity of Article 226 in context of annulling the interfaith marriage by high court.

About the Special Marriage Act:

• The Special Marriage Act is a special law enacted to provide for a unique form of marriage by registration wherein the parties to the marriage do not have to renounce their religion.

• This Act includes Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists marriages.

• This act applies to all Indian states, except Jammu & Kashmir.

• This Act applies not only to Indian citizens who belong to different castes and religions but also to Indian nationals who live abroad.

Requirements for the Special Marriage:

• The Fundamental Requirement Under this Act for a valid marriage is the consent of both parties to the marriage.

• If both parties to the marriage are willing to marry each other, that’s enough; caste, religion, race, etc. is not a restriction.

Conditions for Marriage:

 • The bridegroom must be at least 21, and at the time of the marriage, the bride must be at least 18 years of age. This is the minimum age limit respectively for a boy/girl to marry.

• At the time of their marriage, both parties must be monogamous; i.e., they must be unmarried and at that time should not have any living spouse.

• In order to be able to decide for themselves, the parties should be mentally fit, i.e., they must be sane at the time of Marriage.

Challenges with Contemplating Laws for Interfaith Marriage:

• Contemplating laws to regulate matrimonial relationships between two consenting adults would not be just against the constitutional guarantees but would offend the very notion of individuality and basic freedoms.

• Interference of the law in an individual’s choice of marriage violates the existing constitutional rights such as the Right to equality, Right to Freedom & Personal Liberty, Freedom of Religion and Right to Life.

• Article 21: It declares that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to the procedure established by law. This right is available to both citizens and non-citizens.

• Article 25 of the Indian constitution provides the freedom to practice any religion of one’s choice and personal laws of the religions have specified various laws relating to marriage for the followers of that religion. Hence, in India inter-faith marriages are allowed as the constitution allows one to convert to a different religion from what one was born with and further the personal laws of the religion have provisions.

Way Forward:

• In order to avoid inclusion of any further laws, there should be acceptance of the special marriage act, 1954 at the mental and social level.

• The rights should not be exploited; conversion of religion for marriage only is not at all wise.

 • The marriage of two adults is a complete matter of their own choice, neither a law is to impose any decision, nor any individual. The freedom of decision of his/ her marriage shall lie with the person only. The need is to accept the fact.