Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 19 July 2017

::National::

9 Judge bench to decide whether privacy is a fundamental human right

• A nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court will hear the question whether privacy is a fundamental human right and is part of the basic structure of the Constitution
• The nine judges will be Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar, Justices J. Chelameswar, S.A. Bobde, R.K. Agrawal, Rohinton Fali Nariman, A.M. Sapre, D.Y. Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S. Abdul Nazeer.
• The decision taken by a five-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice Khehar is on the basis of a bunch of petitions contending that the Aadhaar scheme, is a violation of the citizens’ right to privacy.
• The petitioners have argued that right to privacy is part of Article 21, the right to life, and interspersed in Article 19, though not explicitly stated in the Constitution.
• Two judgments of the Supreme Court — the M.P. Sharma case verdict pronounced by an eight-judge Bench in 1954 shortly after the Constitution came into force in 1950 and the Kharak Singh case verdict of 1962 by a six-judge Bench — had dominated the judicial dialogue on privacy since Independence.
• Both judgments had concluded that privacy was not a fundamental or ‘guaranteed’ right.
• Though smaller Supreme Court Benches have, over the years, differed and held that privacy is indeed basic to our Constitution and a fundamental right, the arithmetical supremacy of the MP Sharma and Kharak Singh cases continues to hold fort.
• Now, by forming a Bench of nine judges, Chief Justice Khehar’s Supreme Court has decided to determine once and for all whether privacy is negotiable or not. The nine-judge Bench seeks to bring a quietus to the divergent judicial pronouncements of the past.
• “We have to first determine whether right to privacy is a fundamental right or not before going into the issue (on the constitutionality of the Aadhaar scheme),” Chief Justice Khehar observed.

China says India should not use Doklam area as a “policy tool”

• India should not use “trespass” into the Doklam area as a “policy tool” to achieve its “political targets,” China said. It asked India to immediately withdraw its troops.
• The Foreign Ministry said it was in “close communication” with foreign missions in Beijing, but refused to confirm whether it held any special briefing for them.
• “Since the illegal trespass by Indian troops, many foreign diplomats in China felt shocked and [wanted] to confirm whether it was true,” spokesman Lu Kang said.

Bleaching has damaged the world’s northernmost coral reef

• Bleaching has damaged the world’s northernmost coral reef in Japan, a researcher said, the latest example of a global phenomenon scientists have attributed to high ocean temperatures.
• Healthy coral reefs protect shores from storms and offer habitats for fish and other marine life, including ecologically and economically important species.
• After coral dies, reefs quickly degrade and the structures that coral build erode. While coral can recover from mild bleaching, severe or long-term episodes are often lethal, experts say.
• About 30% of the coral reef off the coast of Tsushima island in Japan, which lies in the temperate zone some 1,000 km southwest of Tokyo, suffered bleaching when Hiroya Yamano’s research team observed the area last December.
• Since 2015, all tropical coral reefs have seen above-normal temperatures, and more than 70% experienced prolonged high temperatures that can cause bleaching.
• Early in 2017, the rise in water temperature caused significant bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia for the second consecutive year and also in American Samoa, which was severely affected in 2015.
• The U.S .National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said last month that coral reef bleaching may be easing after the three years of high ocean temperatures, the longest such period since the 1980s.
• Its experts said satellite data showed widespread bleaching was no longer occurring in all three ocean basins — Atlantic, Pacific and Indian —“indicating a likely end to the global bleaching event”.

Strong winds in eastern Antarctica are causing ice to melt

• Strong winds in eastern Antarctica are causing ice to melt in the west Antarctic peninsula, located as far away as 6,000 km, according to a study.
• The study found that winds in east Antarctica can generate sea disturbances that spread around the continent at 700 kmph via a type of ocean wave known as the Kelvin wave, reports Efe news.
• The study comes a week after it was revealed that one of the largest icebergs, of around 5,800 sq.km., had broke off from the Larsen C ice shelf of the Antarctic peninsula.
• According to the study, when the waves encounter the underwater topography of the peninsula they push the warmer water toward the ice along the coast, near the warm current that goes around the South Pole.
• It is this combination of available warm water offshore, and a transport of this warm water onto the shelf, that has seen rapid ice shelf melt along the West Antarctic sector over the past several decades.
• Mr. Spence underlined the implications that small rises in temperature could have on the ice sheets and warned that the melting in western Antarctica could contribute to an increase in the sea level by a metre by the end of the century, at the current rate of emissions.

::International::

U.S. certified that Iran is complying with an international nuclear agreement

• U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to certify again that Iran is complying with an international nuclear agreement that he has strongly criticised, but only after hours of arguing with his top national security advisers.
• Mr. Trump has repeatedly condemned the deal brokered by President Barack Obama as a dangerous capitulation to Iran, but six months into his presidency, he has not abandoned it.
• The decision was the second time his administration certified Iran’s compliance, and aides said a frustrated Mr. Trump had told his security team that he would not keep doing so indefinitely.
• By law, the administration is required to notify Congress every 90 days whether Iran is living up to the deal, which limited its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of many international sanctions.
• Mr. Trump did not want to certify Iran’s compliance the first time around either, but was talked into it on the condition that his team come back with a new strategy to confront Tehran.

::Business and Economy::

Sensex saw the biggest fall of the year

• Retreating from its record high that it reached in the previous session, the BSE Sensex sank about 364 points to post its biggest single-day plunge in eight months, dragged by FMCG giant ITC whose shares fell almost 13% due to increased levies on cigarettes.
• The NSE Nifty also declined about 89 points to slip below the psychological 9,900-mark.
• Cigarette major ITC emerged as the worst performer after its stock dived 12.6% to Rs. 284.60 following the GST Council’s decision to raise the cess on cigarettes by 48.50 paise to 79.20 paise per stick.
• Other cigarette stocks such as Godfrey Phillips and VST Industries also tanked by up to 7.83%.
• Market sentiment was also impacted by mixed global cues as setbacks for a healthcare overhaul in the U.S. raised doubts over prospects for a range of reforms backed by President Donald Trump.

Sixteen Asia Pacific nations are discussing in detail norms on e-commerce

• Sixteen Asia Pacific nations, including India, are understood to be discussing in detail norms on e-commerce as part of negotiations on the proposed mega Free Trade Agreement known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
• Incidentally, technical level talks of the RCEP are being held from July 18 to 28 in Hyderabad.
• India has been opposing binding norms on opening up the e-commerce sector at the level of RCEP as well as the global level (WTO) talks on grounds including that it (India) is yet to have a comprehensive national policy on the topic.
• However, it is understood that many RCEP nations including Australia, Japan and China, are pushing for inclusion of a host of elements for ‘Terms Of Reference’ for RCEP negotiations concerning e-commerce.
• This is with a view to have some binding commitments from the RCEP members on liberalising e-commerce and ensure that the final pact has a separate chapter on e-commerce.

Top mobile operators pitched for doubling the interconnection usage charge

• Top mobile operators, including Bharti Airtel pitched for doubling the interconnection usage charge (IUC) while newer rival Reliance Jio has suggested a zero IUC regime at a workshop organised by regulator TRAI on the issue, according to sources.
• These charges are payable by the operator whose subscriber makes a call to the operator whose subscriber receives the call thereby impacting the tariff.
• The older operators and Reliance Jio had been at loggerheads over the issue for some time now.

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