Aspirants Times: CSE Pre Special 2010 (Polity, Constitution And Social Issues)

Polity & Constitution

Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishing the structure, procedures, powers and duties, of the government and spells out the fundamental rights, directive principles and duties of citizens. Passed by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949, it came into effect on 26 January 1950.

The date 26 January was chosen to commemorate the declaration of independence of 1930. It declares the Union of India to be a sovereign, democratic republic, assuring its citizens of justice, equality, and liberty and to promote among them all fraternity. The words "socialist", "secular" and "integrity" and to promote among them all "Fraternity"; were added to the definition in 1976 by constitutional amendment. India celebrates the adoption of the constitution on 26 January each year as Republic Day. It is the longest written constitution of any sovereign country in the world, containing 395 articles in 22 parts, 12 schedules and 94 amendments, for a total of 117,369 words in the English language version. Besides the English version, there is an official Hindi translation.

After coming into effect, the Constitution replaced the Government of India Act 1935 as the governing document of India. Being the supreme law of the country, every law enacted by the government must conform to the constitution. Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, as chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, was the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. The majority of the Indian subcontinent was under British colonial rule from 1858 to 1947. This period saw the gradual rise of the Indian nationalist movement to gain independence from the foreign rule.  The movement culminated in the formation of the Dominion of India on 15 August 1947, along with the Dominion of Pakistan. The constitution of India was adopted on 26 January 1950, which proclaimed India to be a sovereign democratic republic.

 It contained the founding principles of the law of the land which would govern India after its independence from British rule. On the day the constitution came into effect, India ceased to be a dominion of the British Crown.

Evolution of the Constitution
(Acts of British Parliament before 1935)

After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British Parliament took over the reign of India from the British East India Company, and British India came under the direct rule of the Crown.

The British Parliament passed the Government of India Act of 1858 to this effect, which set up the structure of British government in India. It established in England the office of the Secretary of State for India through whom the Parliament would exercise its rule, along with a Council of India to aid him.

It also established the office Governor-General of India along with an Executive Council in India, which consisted of high officials of the British Government.

The Indian Councils Act of 1861 provided for a Legislative Council consisting of the members of the Executive council and non-official members. The Indian Councils Act of 1892 established provincial legislatures and increased the powers of the Legislative Council.

These acts increased the representation of Indians in the government, but it was limited in its powers. The Government of India Acts of 1909 and 1919 further expanded the participation of Indians in the government.

(Government of India Act 1935)
The provisions of the Government of India Act of 1935, though never implemented fully, had a great impact on the constitution of India. Many key features of the constitution are directly taken from this Act.

The federal structure of government, provincial autonomy, bicameral legislature consisting of a federal assembly and a Council of States, separation of legislative powers between center and provinces are some of the provisions of the Act which are present in the Indian constitution.

The Cabinet Mission Plan

In 1946, at the initiative of British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, a cabinet mission to India was formulated to discuss and finalize plans for the transfer of power from the British Raj to Indian leadership and providing India with independence under Dominion status in the Commonwealth of Nations.

The Mission discussed the framework of the constitution and laid down in some detail the procedure to be followed by the constitution drafting body. Elections for the 296 seats assigned to the British Indian provinces were completed by August 1946. The Constituent Assembly first met and began work on 9 December 1946.

(Indian Independence Act 1947): The Indian Independence Act, which came into force on 18 July 1947, divided the British Indian territory into two new states of India and Pakistan, which were to be dominions under the Commonwealth of Nations until their constitutions were in effect. The Constituent Assembly was divided into two for the separate states.

The Act relieved the British Parliament of any further rights or obligations towards India or Pakistan, and granted sovereignty over the lands to the respective Constituent Assemblies.  When the Constitution of India came into force on 26 January 1950, it overturned the Indian Independence Act. India ceased to be a dominion of the British Crown and became a sovereign democratic republic.

Constituent Assembly

The Constitution was drafted by the Constituent Assembly, which was elected by the elected members of the provincial assemblies. Jawaharlal Nehru, C. Rajagopalachari, Rajendra Prasad,Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and Nalini Ranjan Ghosh were some important figures in the Assembly.

There were more than 30 members of the scheduled classes. Frank Anthony represented the Anglo-Indian community, and the Parsis were represented by H. P. Modi and R. K. Sidhwa.

The Chairman of the Minorities Committee was Harendra Coomar Mookerjee, a distinguished Christian who represented all Christians other than Anglo-Indians.

Ari Bahadur Gururng represented the Gorkha Community. Prominent jurists like Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer, B. R. Ambedkar, Benegal Narsing Rau and K. M. Munshi, Ganesh Mavlankar were also members of the Assembly. Sarojini Naidu, Hansa Mehta, Durgabai Deshmukh and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur were important women members.

The first president of the Constituent Assembly was Sachidanand Sinha later, Rajendra Prasad was elected president of the Constituent Assembly. The members of the Constituent Assembly met for the first time in the year 1946 on 9 December.

Drafting

In the 14 August 1947 meeting of the Assembly, a proposal for forming various committees was presented. Such committees included a Committee on Fundamental Rights, the Union Powers Committee and Union Constitution Committee.

On 29 August 1947, the Drafting Committee was appointed, with Dr Ambedkar as the Chairman along with six other members. A Draft Constitution was prepared by the committee and submitted to the Assembly on 4 November 1947.

The Assembly met, in sessions open to the public, for 166 days, spread over a period of 2 years, 11 months and 18 days before adopting the Constitution. After many deliberations and some modifications, the 308 members of the Assembly signed two hand-written copies of the document (one each in Hindi and English) on 24 January 1950.

Two days later, the Constitution of India became the law of all the Indian lands. The Constitution of India has undergone 94 amendments in the less than 60 years since its enactment.

Structure

The Constitution, in its current form, consists of a preamble, 22 parts containing 448 articles, 12 schedules, 5 appendices and over 109 amendments to date. Although it is federal in nature with strong unitary bias, in case of emergencies it takes unitary structure.

Parts

Parts are the individual chapters in the Constitution, focused in single broad field of laws, containing articles that address the issues in question.

(Preamble)
» Part I- Union and its Territory
» Part II- Citizenship.
» Part III - Fundamental Rights
» Part IV - Directive Principles and Fundamental Duties.
» Part V - The Union.
» Part VI - The States.
» Part VII - States in the B part of the First schedule (Repealed).
» Part VIII - The Union Territories
» Part IX - Panchayat system and Municipalities.
» Part X - The scheduled and Tribal Areas
» Part XI - Relations between the Union and the States. 
» Part XII - Finance, Property, Contracts and Suits
» Part XIII - Trade and Commerce within the territory of India
» Part XIV - Services Under the Union, the States and Tribunals
» Part XV - Elections
» Part XVI - Special Provisions Relating to certain Classes.
» Part XVII - Languages
» Part XVIII - Emergency Provisions
» Part XIX - Miscellaneous
» Part XX - Amendment of the Constitution
» Part XXI - Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions
» Part XXII - Short title, date of commencement, Authoritative text in Hindi and Repeals
» Part XXIII - Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions
» Part XXIV - Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions

Schedules

Schedules are lists in the Constitution that categorizes and tabulates bureaucratic activity and policy of the Government.

First Schedule (Articles 1 and 4): States and Union Territories  – This lists the states and territories on of India, lists any changes to their borders and the laws used to make that change.

Second Schedule (Articles 59, 65, 75, 97, 125, 148, 158, 164, 186 and 221) — Emoluments for High-Level Officials  – This lists the salaries of officials holding public office, judges, and Comptroller and Auditor-General of India.

Third Schedule (Articles 75, 99, 124, 148, 164, 188 and 219) — Forms of Oaths  – This lists the oaths of offices for elected officials and judges.

Fourth Schedule (Articles 4 and 80)  – This details the allocation of seats in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of Parliament) per State or Union Territory.

Fifth Schedule (Article 244)  – This provides for the administration and control of Scheduled Areas[Note 1] and Scheduled Tribes[Note 2] (areas and tribes needing special protection due to disadvantageous conditions).

Sixth Schedule (Articles 244 and 275) — Provisions for the administration of tribal areas in Assam.
Seventh Schedule (Article 246) — The union (central government), state, and concurrent lists of responsibilities.

Eighth Schedule (Articles 344 and 351) — The official languages.

Ninth Schedule (Article 31-B) - This covers land and tenure reforms; the accession of Sikkim with India. It may be reviewed by the courts.

Tenth Schedule (Articles 102 and 191) — "Anti-defection" provisions for Members of Parliament and Members of the State Legislatures.
Eleventh Schedule (Article 243-G) — Panchayat Raj (rural development).

Twelfth Schedule (Article 243-W) — Municipalities (urban planning).

Federal Structure

The constitution provides for separation of powers between the Union and the States. It enumerates the powers of the Parliament and State Legislatures in three lists, namely Union list, State list and Concurrent list.

Subjects like national defense, foreign policy, issuance of currency are reserved to the Union list. Public order, local governments, certain taxes are examples of subjects of the State List, on which the Parliament has no power to enact laws in those regards, barring exceptional conditions.

Education, transportation, criminal law are a few subjects of the Concurrent list, where both the State Legislature as well as the Parliament have powers to enact laws. The residuary powers are vested with the Union.

The upper house of the Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, which consists of representatives of States, is also an example of the federal nature of the government.

Parliamentary Democracy

The President of India is elected by the Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies, and not directly by the people. The President is the Head of the State, and all the business of the Executive and Laws enacted by the Parliament are in his/her name.

However, these powers are only nominal, and the President must act only according to the advise of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers.
 
The Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers enjoy their offices only as long as they enjoy a majority support in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament, which consists of members directly elected by the people.

The ministers are answerable to both the houses of the Parliament. Also, the Ministers must themselves be elected members of either house of the Parliament. Thus, the Parliament exercises control over the Executive.

A similar structure is present in States, where the directly elected Legislative Assembly enjoys control over the Chief Minister and the State Council of Ministers.

Independent Judiciary

The Judiciary of India is free of control from either the executive or the Parliament. The judiciary acts as an interpreter of the constitution, and an intermediary in case of disputes between two States, or between a State and the Union.

An act passed by the Parliament or a Legislative Assembly is subject to judicial review, and can be declared unconstitutional by the judiciary if it feels that the act violates some provision of the Constitution.

Constitutional remedy against any action of the government is available in a High Court or the Supreme Court, if the action violates any of the fundamental rights of an individual as enumerated in the Constitution.

Changing the constitution

Amendments to the constitution are made by Parliament. However they must be approved by a super-majority in each house, and certain amendments must also be ratified by the states.

The procedure is laid out in Article 368. Despite these rules there have been over ninety amendments to the constitution since it was enacted in 1950.
The Supreme Court has ruled, controversially, that not every constitutional amendment is permissible. An amendment must respect the "basic structure" of the constitution, which is immutable.

In 2000 the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) was setup to look into updating the constitution of India.

Judicial review of laws

Judicial review is actually adopted in the Indian constitution from the constitution of the United States of America. In the Indian constitution, Judicial Review is dealt under Article 13. Judicial Review actually refers that the Constitution is the supreme power of the nation and all laws are under its supremacy. Article 13 deals that. All pre-constitutional laws, after the coming into force of constitution, if in conflict with it in all or some of its provisions then the provisions of constitution will prevail and the provisions of that pre-constitutional law will not be in force until an amendment of the constitution relating to the same matter. In such situation the provision of that law will again come into force, if it is compatible with the constitution as amended. This is called the Theory of Eclipse.

In a similar manner, laws made after adoption of the Constitution by the Constituent Assembly must be compatible with the constitution, otherwise the laws and amendments will be deemed to be void-ab-initio.
 
In such situations, the Supreme Court or High Court interprets the laws as if they are in conformity with the constitution. If such an interpretation is not possible because of inconsistency, and where a separation is possible, the provision that is inconsistent with constitution is considered to be void. In addition to article 13, articles 32, 124, 131, 219, 226 and 246 provide a constitutional bases to the Judicial review in India.

Politics of India

Politics of India take place in a framework of a federal parliamentary multi-party representative democratic republic modeled after the British Westminster System.
 
The Prime Minister of India is the head of government, while the President of India is the formal head of state and holds substantial reserve powers, placing him or her in approximately the same position as the British monarch.
 
Executive power is exercised by the government. Federal legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the Parliament of India. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
 
According to its constitution, India is a "sovereign socialist secular democratic republic." India is the largest state by population with a democratically-elected government.
 
Like the United States, India has a federal form of government, however, the central government in India has greater power in relation to its states, and its central government is patterned after the British parliamentary system.
 

Aspirants Times: India-Britain Relation (Declaration on Civilian Nuclear Cooperation)

India on feb 11 signed a “declaration” on civilian nuclear cooperation with the U.K. which officials described as a “general umbrella agreement.” 

The two sides are expected to make a public announcement in the coming days. The U.K. becomes the eighth country with which India has signed a civilian nuclear pact since breaking out of restrictions imposed on it.  The agreement was signed by Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Srikumar Banerjee and British High Commissioner Richard Stagg. The pact will provide a legal framework for British companies that have expertise in supplying components.

According to the Nuclear Industry Association of the UK, 185 British companies in the island nation which include the nuclear plant operators, those engaged in decommissioning, waste management, nuclear liabilities management and all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle.  The British nuclear industry exports nuclear goods and equipment worth over 1.11 billion dollars and can supply 70-80 per cent parts of a new nuclear reactor.

Since September 2008, when the Nuclear Suppliers Group lifted the embargo on India's participation in international nuclear commerce, India has signed civil nuclear cooperation agreements with France, USA, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Argentina and Namibia. India has also finalised a civil nuclear cooperation deal with Canada, which is expected to be signed soon.

India-UK Bilateral Relations

India’s multi-faceted bilateral relationship with the UK has intensified over the past few years. Recent dialogues at the highest level have underlined the bilateral strategic partnership in all areas. The UK is an important interlocutor in the bilateral, EU, G8 and global contexts.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh visited the UK on 19-20 September 2004 and met PM Tony Blair. During the visit, the two Prime Ministers adopted a Joint Declaration titled 'India-UK: Towards a new and dynamic partnership' which envisages annual Summits and meetings between Foreign Ministers. It also outlined areas for future cooperation in civil nuclear energy, space, defence, combating terrorism, economic ties, science and technology, education and culture.

The then PM Tony Blair mooted the idea of India joining G-8 discussions. At his invitation PM visited the UK on 7-8 July 2005 for the “G-8 Plus 5” Gleneagles Summit (India, China, South Africa, Brazil and Mexico). He visited India on 6-8 September 2005 in his capacity as EU President for the EU/ India Summit on September 7, and also for the bilateral Summit held on September 8 in Udaipur. PM met the then PM Blair in St. Petersburg in July 2006 during the meeting of the Outreach Countries with G8 leaders.

Prime Minister Dr. Singh visited UK from 9-11 October 2006 and held the third annual India-U.K Summit. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s visit to India (20-21 January 2008). The fourth India-UK Annual Summit was held in Delhi on January 21, 2008 during the visit of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Building on the achievements of the two declarations (2002, 2004), the two sides issued a joint statement on India-UK Strategic Partnership.

The two sides agreed

On the importance of more representative and effective international institutions to address global challenges. The UK reaffirmed its firm support for India’s candidature for a permanent membership in an expanded UNSC.

To cooperate in developing collaboration between small and medium enterprises, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.To forge a closer partnership of two knowledge societies in the field of higher education. In particular, it was agreed to establish an Education Forum to work towards an early conclusion of an education partnership agreement and to enter into a MoU on an Indo-UK Higher Education Leadership Development programme to develop leadership skills in higher education.

To establish a Science Bridge Initiative shall be established to build institution to institution relationship on equal partnership with joint funding under the principle of parity. To promote cooperation in civil nuclear energy and would work towards a bilateral agreement for this purpose. The UK supports the India-US civil nuclear cooperation initiative.
Both sides expressed satisfaction over the announcement of UK-India agreement on the second phase of UK-India Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation study aimed at identifying the barriers to local carbon technology transfer. Remain committed to build on existing cooperation on counterterrorism including establishment of bilateral dialogue on terrorist financing.

Prime Minister met Prime Minister Brown on the sidelines on the UNGA Summit in New York on 26 September 2008. The two leaders discussed the global economic crisis, terrorism, and other bilateral and regional issues. Prime Minister of UK Gordon Brown was on a half-day visit to New Delhi on 13th December 2008 as part of his visit to the region following Mumbai terror attacks. He met the Prime Minister and conveyed his condolences on the Mumbai terror attacks.

India-UK Round Table

The 11th India-UK Round Table was held in India in 2-5 May 2008 at Shimla. The issues discussed include prospects for the world economy, the demographic dimension, health care, the dialogue of cultures & education, research and innovation. The next round of India-UK RT will be held in Dichley, UK on 3-5 July 2009 (both days inclusive). Economic and Commercial Relations

Bilateral economic linkages have strengthened through increased trade and investment flows. Two-way bilateral trade in goods has crossed £ 8.11 billion in 2007-08 and is expected to cross £ 10 billion before 2010. Trade in Services is estimated to be more than £3.5 billion in 2007-08 and thus the total bilateral trade in goods and services amount to £ 11.6 billion in 2007-08. The export basket from India has undergone substantial diversification and more than 50% of India’s exports now constitute non-traditional and hi-tech goods like petroleum products, engineering products and pharma products.

UK fourth largest investor in India

UK is the fourth largest investor in India and the cumulative investment by UK from April 2000 till September 2008 was $ 5,058 million. For the period April-September 2008, the total investment by UK was $ 695 million. The UK is the most preferred nation for investments by Indian companies in 2008 so far, accounting deals worth $6 billion. (till August 08). India has emerged as the third largest foreign investor in the UK and the second largest overseas investor in London and Northern Ireland in terms of number of acquisitions / investments. India is the second largest creator of jobs in the UK with opening of offices by over 500 Indian companies. London Stock Exchange hosts 52 Indian companies, with a combined market cap of £

Aspirants Times: India-Turkey Relation (Joint Declaration on Scientific and Technological
Cooperation)

India and Turkey on February 9, 2010 desired to develop and expand cooperation in science and technology and in other areas of common interest and launched an Advanced Science and Technology Dialogue, besides offering to actively study the possibilities of working together in mutually identified projects in areas such as telecommunications, computerization, non-technology space research, bio-technology and environmental technology and convene a joint workshop in 2010.

On the occasion of the visit of the President of the Republic of Turkey, Abdullah Gul, to India, a joint statement was issued in which both sides:
Considering the importance of science and technology for the economic and social development of both the countries have desired to develop and expand cooperation in the field of science and technology in areas of common interest besides noting that together with economic and commercial relations, cooperation in science and technology offer great potential as a driver of bilateral relations. The joint statement has recognized that cooperation in science and technology will not only advance the state of science and technology to the benefit of both countries but also strengthen the bonds of friendship and understanding between people of both countries.

The statement also reaffirmed the Agreement on Cooperation in the field of Science and Technology between the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the Government of the Republic of India signed on 17 September 2003,
 
It also declared that the two countries launch an Advanced Science and Technology Dialogue, which will strive to promote the maximum use of the opportunities that have risen for mutually beneficial interaction in the field of science and technology, which would add to the strength of the two national economies, and to the welfare and prosperity of the people of both the countries.
 
The dialogue will also strengthen this interaction with special emphasis on high-technology and frontier areas of research and application and will encourage and support broadened and expanded relations between the scientific and technological communities in both countries by creating favorable conditions for cooperation.
 
Advanced Science and Technology Dialogue will also encourage cooperation through exchange of ideas, information, skills and technologies; exchange of scientists and technical experts; the onvening of joint seminars, scientific conferences, and meetings; training and enhancing the skills of scientists and technical experts; the conduct of joint research projects and studies and other forms of scientific and technological cooperation as may be mutually agreed upon,
 
India and Turkey will actively study the possibilities of working together in mutually identified projects in areas such as telecommunication, computerisation, information technology, space research, biotechnology and environmental technology.
 
Both sides will actively explore the possibilities for joint research and development activities making use of best practices in this field and encourage, facilitate and support the development of direct contacts and cooperation between government agencies and organizations, universities, science and research centers, institutes and institutions, private sector firms and other entities of the two countries.

Aspirants Times: Union Budget 2010-11: An Effort to Boost Up Economy

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented the Union Budget for 2010-11 in the Lok Sabha on Feb 26. Finance Minister said that Indian economy was facing grave uncertainty. Growth had started decelerating when interim and full budget for 2009-10 were presented. Also he said that at home there was added uncertainty because of subnormal southwest monsoon. Indian economy now in a far better position than it was eight years ago.

India weathered economic crisis well, said Mukherjee, adding, the first challenge before the Government is to quickly revert to high GDP growth path of 9 per cent. According to him second challenge is to harness economic growth to make it more inclusive and consolidate gains. Country has seen impressive recovery in the past few months and can witness faster recovery in the coming months. The Finance Minister added the focus shifted to non-governmental actors, enabling the government to concentrate on supporting and delivering services to the economically backward sections.

Admitting that financial year 2009-10 was challenging for the Indian economy, Mukherjee said 18.5 per cent manufacturing growth in December was the highest in two decades. He said figures for merchandise exports for January are encouraging after turnaround in November and December last year. Reasoning the double digit food inflation last year, the minister said it was due to bad monsoon and drought-like conditions, though "we have strengthened food security".
He said the government is conscious of the situation of price rise and is taking steps to tackle it. The Finance Minister also said there is need to review stimulus imparted to the econony.

Analysing the price rise situation in the country, Mukherjee said there's a need to ensure that the demand-supply imbalance is managed and stressed on the need to make growth more broad-based. He saidPublic spending and mobilising resources need to be reviewed. The government hopes to implement direct tax code and General Sales Tax from April 2011.

Increase in Defence Budget

The government has allocated Rs 1,47,344 crore towards defence in 2010-11 budget, a paltry 4 per cent increase from last year's Rs 1,41,703 crore. Of the allocation provided, Rs 60,000 crore would go for capital expenditure. The four per cent increase in real terms would amount to only Rs 5,641 crore.

Last year, the government had provided a steep hike of about 34 per cent for the defence working out to an increase of Rs 36,103 crore. Mukherjee, however, said considering the importance of defence of the country, more funds would be provided on the basis of requirements in the future.
The defence allocation continues to hover over 2.5 per cent of the GDP, though there have been suggestions to increase it substantially in view of the prevailing security situation.

Fiscal Deficit

The Finance Minister  presented Union Budget with fiscal deficit of 5.5 per cent of GDP as he pegged total expenditure at Rs 11.09 lakh crore while the total tax and non-tax revenue estimated at Rs 6.82 lakh crore for the year 2010-11. The deficit is much lower than the budgeted estimate for the current fiscal at 6.8 per cent, which, however, has been revised to 6.7 per cent.

To meet the shortfall, the government has estimated borrowing of Rs 3.81 lakh crore for fiscal 2010-11, lower than the current fiscal's Rs 4.01 lakh crore. The rolling targets for fiscal deficit are pegged at 4.8 per cent and 4.1 per cent for 2011-12 and 2012-13.

Interest subvention scheme for home loans extended

Finance Minister extended by a year the one per cent interest subvention scheme for housing sector and provided Rs 700 crore for it, in the Union Budget 2010-11. Under the scheme, introduced last year, home buyers get one per cent interest subsidy for banking loans up to Rs 10 lakh, provided the cost of house does not exceed Rs 20 lakh.

Interest subsidy for exporters extended

The government has proposed to extend the concessional export finance regime for select exporters for one more year till March 31, 2011, thus giving the slowdown-hit sector further relief. The scheme was to expire on March 31.
With a view to insulate the employment-oriented sectors like handlooms, handicrafts, carpets and leather from the impact of demand slowdown, the government had extended the scheme for concessional export finance in the last Budget till March 31.

After falling for 13 consecutive months since October 2008, exports turned positive in November 2009. The exports grew 18.2 per cent in November and 9.3 per cent in December. Mukherjee also said that figures for merchandise exports for January were encouraging after turnaround in November 2009 and December 2009.

2nd Symbiosis International Legal Essay Writing Competition 2010

Introduction: The Symbiosis International Legal Essay Writing Competition envisages to promote and develop the ability of a law student to think on a global scale. The competition is unique in a way, in which any full-time law student in any degree college/institution from around the world may participate. The topics of the competition have been carefully chosen so that they possess global relevance as well as encourage the participant’s freedom to analyze and convey their thoughts and probable solutions on the same.

Topics: Participants may author an essay on any one to the following topics:-

• Health Care and Intellectual Property

• Intellectual Property Laws Vs. Anti Trust Laws

• Cyber Warfare and Cyber Terrorism

• Binding Nature and Enforcement Mechanism of Different Types of Electronic Contracts

• The North – South Divide in the world of Intellectual Property Protection.

Prizes:

• 1st Prize – INR 10,000

• 2nd Prize – INR 5,000

• 3rd Prize – INR 3,000

• Best Abstract – INR 2,000

• Top 10 essays shall be published in the journal of “Law and Innovation” by Symbiosis Law School, Pune.

Terms And Conditions: Participants by submission of essays accepts all the terms and conditions mentioned in entirety and shall abide by the same throughout the competition.

Eligibility: Participants must be full – time law students in any degree college/institution/law school recognised by the education board/authority/body of their respective country.

Language: The essays submitted by the participants must be in ENGLISH language only.

Submission Date: The last date for submission of the essays is 20th March, 2010.

Submission Procedure: Participants must send their essays via email. The email must contain a covering letter containing details of the participant such as Name, Date of Birth, Address, Telephone Nos, Email, Name and Address of College/University, Student Identification Number/Roll No, Course, Academic Year. The essay and the abstract should be as attachments to the email. Participants must send their entries before the last date of submission.