Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 04 May 2015

:: National ::

Judicial activism is our duty against legislative adventurism: SC judge

• In an atmosphere of unease caused by jibes at judicial activism by the executive and legislature, a sitting Supreme Court judge asserted that it is a solemn duty performed by judges to curb “legislative adventurism and executive excesses.”

• Justice Kurian Joseph reiterated the importance of judicial activism even as a low-intensity conflict is simmering between the judiciary, legislature and executive on various issues, including the National Judicial Appointments Commission law and the long-dormant Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently asked the judiciary to be wary of delivering verdicts driven by “five-star activists.”

• Justice Joseph, who is one of the five judges on the Constitution Bench considering the validity of the National Judicial Appointments Commission law, said when the legislature’s law proves to be inadequate to administer justice, “courts dare and ought to say what the law is and what the law should be.”

• Delivering the 5th Lala Amarchand Sood Memorial Lecture on Judicial Legislation organised by the Bar Association of India in Shimla, Justice Joseph said: “Such judicial response is not the special attribute of an activist judge but a solemn role or function or duty of a judge, who is seen popularly as the court. Judicial activism is the obligatory response of the institution, the court, against injustice.”

• He reminded the audience of the Supreme Court’s interventions in the 2G spectrum and the coal block allocation scams in this regard. “The Supreme Court took upon itself, in public interest, the duty to make up for the lapses on the part of the executive. We all know the tremendous impact of the judgments on the public exchequer,” Justice Joseph said.

• He said the Supreme Court, by pioneering Public Interest Litigation petitions (PILs), had made constitutional social rights to housing, education, food, health and livelihood indivisible from the fundamental rights to life, equality and religion.

• Addressing the criticism that judicial activism disturbed the “delicate balance of separation of powers,” Justice Joseph said: “Adoption of separation of powers is partial and not total. Legislature and judiciary are independent, yet judiciary can interpret, review and implement laws made by the legislature.”

• He said for years the judiciary made up for the lackadaisical approach of the executive and elected representatives. The honourable judge pointed out that it was through judicial activism that the Supreme Court in 2001 ordered States to provide mid-day meals to schoolchildren.

• “Today about 100 million children get a cooked meal at school, making this the largest mid-day meal programme in the world. It paved the way for the landmark National Food Security Act, 2013,” he said.

Modi’s debut on Sina Weibo evokes mixed response (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: International :

Nepal needs 1 million tents for temporary rehabilitation

• Quake-hit Nepal urgently needs one million tents to provide temporary shelter to thousands of victims of the devastating temblor that killed over 7,300 people, Deputy Prime Minister Prakash Man Singh said.

• According to the Nepalese government, the earthquake have so far destroyed 1,60,786 houses and damaged 1,43,642, forcing thousands of people to stay in the open battling bad weather.

• “Nepal urgently needs around one million tents to provide shelter to the affected people as more than 300,000 buildings have collapsed during the earthquake,” Mr. Singh, who is also Nepali Congress general secretary, told PTI.

• Hundreds of buildings have developed cracks and people are scared to return to their houses, he said.

• Mr. Singh said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Benerjee will hand over some one lakh tarpaulins to the government of Nepal as relief material. Minister for Urban Infrastructure Development Narayan Khadka has left for Jhapa district near Kakarbhitta to receive the tarpaulins, he said.

• “As you know the monsoon season is fast approaching and it takes months to begin reconstruction works, so we need tents to shelter people. There is no tent manufacturing plant in Nepal, so we are seeking help from possible areas including India, Thailand and Pakistan for tents,” Mr. Singh said.

• He said the government is making all efforts to provide relief to the people. He asked people not be taken away by rumours aimed at tarnishing the image of the government.

• He dismissed comments made by some leftist leaders, who termed foreign assistance pouring to Nepal as interference in our affairs, saying “We need foreign aid, foreign experts and relief materials at this moment and those offering such help cannot be taken as interference.”

• “We also need specially trained foreign manpower to carry out rescue of the victims of the earthquake,” he insisted.

• He dismissed media reports that Indian aircraft involved in rescue and relief operations in Nepal have crossed the border and entered into the border of the northern neighbour.

• “All the foreign aircraft are operating under the command of the Nepal Army and there is no such possibility,” he said.

• “Aircraft have arrived not only from India but also from China and USA for relief works and all of them are functioning under the command of Nepal Army,” he added.

• He appreciated government of India for the assistance provided to the quake-hit Nepal.

• The government has made request to international communities for assistance and we need quick response as time is running out for the relief works, he said.

• “We are getting very positive response from all over the world including, India,” he added.

• Singh also dismissed media reports that relief materials provided by donors are misused in a large scale.

• The government is seriously monitoring the relief activities and there is no possibility of large scale misuse of funds and materials, he said.

• “We are working 17-18 hours a day during the time of emergency,” he said.

• Mr. Singh said the process of drafting the new constitution has been affected due to the devastating earthquake.

• “We will start deliberations on various issues of constitution drafting after a couple of weeks,” he said, adding that the contentious issues will be dealt in by framing questionnaire and the disputed matter will be decided by majority votes.

• “We will try to seek consensus among political parties in each and every step of constitution making,” he said.

• There are four contentious issues, forms of governance, electoral process, judiciary and federal structure.

• There has been almost agreement among parties in the three issues excluding the federal structure.

TNA, Centre need to work together: Kerry (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Business and Economy ::

Parliamentary panel criticises green budget cuts

• The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Environment and Forests has expressed displeasure over the fund cuts for the Ministry this financial year. The committee has found that the Plan allocation for centrally-sponsored schemes in the current year has gone down by almost 50 per cent. While the total allocation for Plan and non-Plan expenditure was Rs. 2,510 crore in 2014-15, it is down to Rs. 2,047 crore this year.

• In its report, tabled in both Houses of Parliament on April 27, it has noted that despite greater funding to States being provided under the 14th Finance Commission, the primary responsibility for environmental protection ought to rest with the concerned Union Ministry. It has further recommended the Ministry to take close monitoring and corrective steps and present an Action Taken Report in this regard. The committee has also found that funds allocated in previous years remain underutilised.

• The committee has come down heavily on the Centre for the drastic cut in allocation to the National River Conservation Plan. The complete lack of funding either under the Central Plan or State Plan in 2015-16, means that the existing funds are not even enough to carry out ongoing sanctioned works, the report notes. For the financial year 2015-16, against a projected requirement of Rs. 295 crore, a provision of only Rs. 40 crore has been made available.

• Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, Kerala Environment Minister told that the issue of reduced allotment was raised during the April 6 State Environment and Forest Minister’s conference in New Delhi. “A State like Kerala has 29.8 per cent forest cover, of which reserve forest area including area under wildlife sanctuaries constitutes 28 per cent. This has led to increased man-animal conflict,” he said. “From Kasargod to Thiruvananthapuram we are faced with deaths of several people due to animals coming out of the forests,” he said, and added that this year’s Rs. 239 crore allocation to the State was insufficient to address such issues.

• Prashant Kumar, Secretary, Forest Department, Madhya Pradesh, said, “Last year the budget for tiger conservation was Rs. 180 crore, this year it is only Rs. 161 crore. The Madhya Pradesh government being keen on tiger conservation has a lot of work to achieve on the ground, which requires adequate funds,” he said. However, he pointed out that it was still too early to judge the impact of the budget allocation as the financial year has just begun.

• Maharashtra’s Principal Secretary, Environment, Sitaram Kunte said that it was not possible to comment on the matter without adequately assessing the impact of present budgetary allocation on various projects.

• On devolution of greater share of responsibility to the States, Charan Singh, Reserve Bank of India Chair Professor of Economics at IIM, Bangalore said that since forests had been included as one of the areas for resource allocation under the 14th Finance Commission, Central budget cuts should not pose a big problem.

• “Rather than analysing the impact on individual schemes, States should find a way to better utilise the additional resources provided to it and utilise it in a responsible manner,” he said.

• Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech in 2014, in which he had raised the issue of various Ministries fighting each other and working in silos, he said that reducing the Centre’s role and increasing that of States in various areas of governance would address that problem effectively.

:: Science and Technology ::

Internet.org opens platform for developers

• Facebook has decided to throw open its Internet.org platform to all content and application developers who meet ‘certain guidelines’.

• “We’re introducing the Internet.org platform, an open programme for developers to easily create services that integrate with Internet.org. We’re also giving people more choice over the free basic services they can use,” a company release said.

• “Our goal with Internet.org is to work with as many developers and entrepreneurs as possible to extend the benefits of connectivity to diverse, local communities,” it said. “To do this, we’re going to offer services through Internet.org in a way that’s more transparent and inclusive,” the release added.

• Non-exclusive partnerships with mobile operators to offer free basic Internet services to people through Internet.org would be the key, it said.

• Internet.org typically allows subscribers of partner mobile networks to use a limited number of online services without further charge.

• Why will network operators participate in it? They join it in the hope that users will pay for wider Internet access once they have had a chance to try out the free content on offer.

• Since 2014, the project has been launched in a number of countries such as Zambia, India, Colombia, Guatemala, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, the Philippines and Indonesia.

• To access the facility, people must use special Android apps, Internet.org’s website, Facebook’s own Android app or the Opera Mini browser. They include the Wikipedia encyclopaedia, the Facts for Life health site run by the United Nations Children’s Fund, BBC News, Facebook, Accuweather, and a selection of local news and sports results providers.

• Facebook is now seeking to widen it by allowing other developers also to join a larger Internet.org platform.

• There is, however, a rider. It has set qualifying terms for developers who wish to join the platform.

• Websites that require high-bandwidth will not be included. Services should not use VoIP, video, file transfer, high resolution photos, or high volume of photos. Also, websites must be built to be optimized for browsing on both feature and smartphones, and in limited bandwidth scenarios. Further, websites must be properly integrated with Internet.org to allow zero rating, and, therefore, can’t require JavaScript or SSL/TLS/HTTPS.

• These riders are bound to kick up fresh controversy.

• The move to make Internet.org an open platform comes in the wake of a raging row over Net Neutrality. The debate has engulfed a wider section of the population. Even politicians have jumped into the fray, taking radical positions on the debate.

• Net Neutrality provides for equal treatment to all traffic on Internet. This essentially means that no priority will be given to any entity or company based on payment to service providers (primarily telecom companies).

• The Net Neutrality debate in India has taken a noisier overtone after mobile operator Airtel introduced ‘Airtel Zero’ and in the wake of a consultation paper issued by TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) on whether telecom firms can be allowed to charge different rates for different uses of Internet data such as email, Internet browsing and use of apps such as Whatsapp, Viber and Sky.

• Internet.org announced its partnership with Reliance Communications in February this year to provide free Internet access to 33 websites as part of its Internet.org initiative. However, the company remains the lone Indian telecom partner as of now on the Internet.org platform. This raised eyebrows with the proponents of free Internet saying that it violated the idea of Net Neutrality. This led to partners such as Cleartrip and NDTV walking out of the initiative as the Net Neutrality debate turned into a virtual war on cyber space.

• India has the world’s third largest Internet user base after China and the U.S.

PTI reports

• According to Internet.org Vice-President (Product) Chris Daniels, “The principles of neutrality must co-exist with programmes such as Internet.org that encourage bringing people online.”
• With the opening up of the platform, people would be able to search and use the services that met these guidelines, he said.
• When asked whether Facebook was talking to other telecom operators to join the platform, he said: “I will not say whether we are in discussions or not. We are open to all telecom operators and developers.”

POINTERS:

1. In India, Internet.org had partnered with Reliance Communications in February this year
2. India has the world’s third largest Internet user base after China and the U.S.

Surveymonkey CEO David Goldberg dies

• David Goldberg, a popular Silicon Valley executive and husband of Facebook second-in-command Sheryl Sandberg, has died suddenly at age 47, his company and family members said.

• Goldberg was CEO of online survey questionnaire provider SurveyMonkey. He died, the company said in a statement on its website. Family members also reported the death, via posts on Facebook.

• In an interview last month, Goldberg told the news site Business Insider of maxing out his credit cards in the early 1990s to fund one of his first Internet ventures, a music site, before going on to work at other tech companies, including Yahoo.

• In 2004, Goldberg married Sandberg, another longtime tech executive who now serves as Facebook’s chief operating officer.

• Sandberg launched an international conversation about the dearth of women in positions of power with her 2011 book “Lean In- Women, Work and the Will to Lead.”

• In it, Sandberg wrote of the adjustments she and her husband had to make to manage two high-profile careers while raising two children.

• Goldberg was a “true partner,” she wrote, and he helped make her career possible.

• “I truly believe that the single most important career decision that a woman makes is whether she will have a life partner and who that partner is,” Sandberg wrote.

• Goldberg’s brother asked on Facebook for friends and families to post their memories on David Goldberg’s Facebook page. Tributes rolled in from people who wrote of meeting him during his long tech career.

Google doodle celebrates Bartolomeo Cristofori's 360th birthday (Register and Login to read Full News..)

:: Sports ::

Dominant CSK down RCB by 24 runs

• A sensational bowling effort by Chennai Super Kings saw them defend a modest total as they crushed Royal Challengers Bangalore by 24 runs to regain their position at the top of the table in the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, in Chennai.

• Having posted a modest 148 for nine in 20 overs, CSK bowlers led by Ashish Nehra (3/19 in four overs) and Dwayne Bravo (2/19 in 3.4 overs) exhibited brilliant death over skills to bundle out RCB for 124 in 19.4 overs.

• Such was the dominance of CSK bowlers at the back end of the innings that RCB lost as many as seven wickets for 27 runs in only 5.5 overs.

• From a relatively comfortable 97 for three with another 52 runs to get, RCB’s slump started when Bravo effected a superb reflex run-out off his own bowling to get rid of opposition skipper Virat Kohli (48 off 44 balls).

• Kohli had hit two fours and a six during his knock as he added 63 runs for the fourth wicket with Dinesh Karthik (23) after they were left tottering at 34 for three.

• Once Kohli was gone, the procession started, with Karthik being snapped up in the deep off Nehra’s bowling in the 15th over. In his very next over, the veteran seamer removed Safaraz Khan (8) and Harshal Patel (0) to take his wickets tally to 17 in the tournament.

• Bravo, on his part, bowled an exceptional 18th over with clever change ups and the off-cutters which led to Mitchell Starc playing four dot balls.

• On his part, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni read the pitch perfectly as he knew that it would slow down with passage of time and strokemaking would be extremely difficult in the second half. His intuition turned out to be spot on as his bowlers vindicated his decision

Clinical KKR rout Sunrisers Hyderabad by 35 runs (Register and Login to read Full News..)

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Sources: Various News Papers & PIB

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