Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 14 August 2014

Google ‘polluted Internet’ with classified material: Survey of India

• Surveyor General of India Swarna Subba Rao has alleged that the Internet giant did not refrain from mentioning classified sites even after having been asked not to do so.

• The Survey of India, India’s national survey and mapping organisation under the Department of Science and Technology, is the complainant in the case. After initial probe by the Delhi Police, the case was handed over to the CBI as the investigation involved a company which is based in the US.

• Google had not taken permission from SoI before organising a mapping competition in February-March 2013 in which they asked citizens to map their neighbourhoods, especially details related to hospitals and restaurants.

• As per the National Map Policy 2005, “the responsibility for producing, maintaining and disseminating the topographic map database of the whole country, which is the foundation of all spatial data, vests with the Survey of India”.

• It was alleged that Google India had launched a nationwide contest and people might have passed on maps and other key details of strategic installations located in other cities and states to the U.S. company, the sources added.

• For SoI, it was clarified that the company never took any permission before undertaking the mapping exercise, and from national security point of view, civil and military Vital Areas, Vital Points (VPs) cannot be shown in the map/data published in public domain.

U.S. fighting alongside “terror” groups in Iraq?

• In its intensifying battle in Iraq against militant group Islamic State, the U.S. appeared to be edging closer towards fighting alongside factions of Turkish origin that the State Department has designated as “terrorist” groups.
• In recent days PKK fighters were said to be manning the front line near Kirkuk and “Aided by U.S. airstrikes on Islamic State positions, they also helped take back the key town of Makhmour from the Islamic State.”
• While lobbying efforts are concurrently underway in the U.S. to have the PKK de-listed from its terror designation, “that act would require a political will that at present is lacking and risks irking Turkey,” the Post said, leaving open-ended the question about which groups on the Kurdish list the U.S. ought to be covertly arming.

Women’s quota Bill lapses due to lack of consensus

• Dashing the hopes of women and all other sections who espoused the cause, the Women’s Reservation Bill has lapsed. After being passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010, the Bill, which provides for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and Legislative Assemblies, was sent to the Lok Sabha for approval, but did not see the light of the day for lack of political consensus and will.

• Article 107 (5) of the Constitution states: A Bill which is pending in the House of People or which having being passed by the House of the People is pending in the Council of States shall, subject to provisions of Article 108 (joint sitting of both the Houses), lapse on a dissolution of the House of People.

• The Bill was approved in the Rajya Sabha after unprecedented pandemonium leaving the Chairman with no option but to suspend seven members of the RJD and the Samajwadi Party who were adamant on stalling it at any cost.

• It would now be an uphill task for the NDA to take up the initiative particularly as it is woefully short of majority in the Rajya Sabha for passage of a controversial constitutional amendment Bill.

DGCA issues Ebola advisory for airlines

• DGCA will monitor whether airlines are keeping a record of all passengers who are returning to India after staying or transiting through four West African countries.
• With airlines forming the first line of defence against the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in India, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has become active in enforcing Government guidelines in this respect.
• In particular, the DGCA will monitor whether airlines are keeping a record of all passengers who are returning to India after staying or transiting through four West African countries and are passing on the information to Airport Health Officers. This will be tallied against Indian missions in these countries sending in advance details of passengers boarding from the affected countries.
• The DGCA has also supplied airlines with an announcement format that has to be included in in-flight announcements. The accent is on self reporting by passengers whose symptoms match with the onset of EVD.
• Passengers are also being provided with a form in which they have to fill their health details in case they have visited any of the four EVD hit countries over the past three weeks.
• For people heading out to West Africa, the advice is to avoid travel to the EVD affected countries if they are suffering from flue or taking medicines to combat an infectious disease. This is because in both cases there is a weakening of immunity making the person more susceptible to EVD. They will also be asked to avoid visiting hospitals treating EVD affected patients

Six-member National Judicial Commission to select judges for higher courts

• The Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014 passed in the Lok Sabha provides for setting up of a six-member National Judicial Commission to select and recommend judges to the High Courts and Supreme Court.

• The Constitution (121st Amendment) Bill, 2014 and the `National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill’ seek to give constitutional status to the NJC, comprising the Chief Justice of India (Chairperson); two other senior-most judges of the Supreme Court; the Union Law Minister and two eminent persons to be nominated by the Prime Minister, the CJI and the Leader of Opposition of the Lok Sabha. One of the eminent persons shall be nominated from amongst the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Minorities or women.

• The object of constituting the Commission is to enable participation of judiciary, executive and eminent persons and will ensure greater transparency, accountability and objectivity in the appointment of judges to higher judiciary.

• On the recommendations of the Commission, the President will appoint the High Court and Supreme Court judges. However, if for some reason, the President requests the Commission to reconsider certain recommendations and the recommendation is reiterated the President is bound to make the appointment.

• The Bill mandates the Commission to make regulations specifying the criteria of suitability with respect to the appointment of Judges of High Courts and Supreme Court, the procedure and conditions for selection and procedure for transfer of judges from one High Court to another.

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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