(Current Affairs) National Events | October : 2017

::National Events::

Swachhatha Darpan award

  • Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts are among the 46 districts in the country, and the only two districts in Karnataka, selected for the SwachhathaDarpan award of the Union government.
  • The award will be given away in New Delhi on the third anniversary of the SwachhBharath Mission (Gramin) (SBM (G)) on October 2.
  • The 46 districts have scored 90 marks to become entitled for the award. The award instituted by the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, the nodal ministry for the implementation of the SBM (G), is given on the basis of the ranking of all districts in the country on the parameters of performance, sustainability and transparency.
  • While 50 % weightage is given for performance, 25 % each is given for sustainability and transparency respectively.
  • Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer M.R. Ravi said that Dakshina Kannada was declared open defection-free district in 2016 after 2,89,746 households were found to have built toilets in March 2016.
  • A social audit of houses between August 16, 2017 and September 20, 2017 revealed that 2,96,105 of the 3,00,695 households have toilets. Dakshina Kannada has achieved more than the target fixed last year for declaration of a district as open defecation-free.
  • The social audit revealed 4,590 households do not have toilets. Following this observation, a survey was carried out by the panchayat development officers that revealed that only 3,937 households do not have toilets.
  • Of this, 707 houses were those that do not have door numbers and hence, cannot be considered under the mission to build toilets.

Order diesel online

  • The Ministry of Petroleum is working towards creating an e-commerce platform in which customers can order diesel online and get delivery at their doorstep, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and officials in his Ministry.
  • The Minister was referring to a consultative committee meeting that took place in April in Srinagar, where the idea of doorstep delivery of fuel was first mooted as a viable model to increase digital transactions as well as shorten queues at petrol pumps.
  • After the consultative committee meeting, the Minister had even tweeted about this e-commerce model.

Rohingya crisis

  • The Home Ministry has replied to a notice issued by the National Human Rights Commission over the planned deportation of Rohingya Muslims.
  • The Ministry is learnt to have defended its decision, deeming Rohingya “illegal immigrants” from Myanmar. The deportations would be done as per the laid-down procedure. A Ministry spokesperson confirmed that a report had been sent to the NHRC.
  • Another Ministry official said a factual report was sent to the NHRC and the various provisions of Foreigners Act and Passport Act, which bar foreigners from illegally staying in the country, have been mentioned in the reply.
  • The decision to deport the Rohingya rests with the executive. This was told to the Supreme Court as well. The same reply has been given to the National Human Rights Commission.
  • Taking cognisance of media reports, including The Hindu ’s, the NHRC had asked the Home Ministry about the government’s plan to deport the Rohingya by setting up “detention centres”. It observed that the “refugees are no doubt foreign nationals but they are human beings”.
  • The Home Ministry is learnt to have told the NHRC that a procedure for detection and deportation of illegal immigrants existed under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and that consolidated instructions were issued afresh on April 19, 2014.
  • In its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on September 18, the Home Ministry said, “A fragile north-eastern corridor may become further destabilised in case of stridency of Rohingya militants, which the Central government has found to be growing, if permitted to continue. There is also a serious potential and possibility of eruption of violence against the Buddhists who are Indian citizens who stay on Indian soil, by the radicalised Rohingya.”
  • On August 19, the Home Ministry issued a circular, asking all States to identify illegal immigrants and deport them as per the procedure.
  • An official said that identifying an undocumented citizen was a “tedious” process and the final decision lay with a tribunal, set up in such cases to determine their nationality.
  • The local police first enquires if the person is not an Indian citizen. He or she will be subject to trial and, if the tribunal decides against the subject, the deportation process will begin. A communication will be sent to Myanmar to verify their address.

Biggest international deal of CSIR stalled

  • The biggest international deal signed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to transfer technology and training to a company in Ethiopia has stalled.
  • The CSIR had signed a $7 million (Rs. 45 crore approximately) agreement with the Metal Industries Development Institute (MIDI) on June 13.
  • The three-year contract involved personnel from both the organisations and, according to a press statement issued in June, was expected to begin technical collaboration from the next month.
  • The CSIR — known to be strapped for research funds — had committed to securing 10% to 15% of its Rs. 4,000-crore budget through external projects and sources.
  • The agreement was signed by the Director of National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML), Jamshedpur, and the project was to be executed by the CSIR-NML, CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur, CSIR-Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute, Pilani; CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation, Chandigarh; and CSIR-CLRI, Chennai.

Nirmala Sitharamanchairs her first DAC meeting

  • Defence Minister NirmalaSitharamanchaired her first meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) and reviewed the capital acquisition schemes for military modernisation.
  • The meeting accorded ‘Acceptance of Necessity’ to the Navy for buying upgraded sonars for its destroyers and frigates through the Buy India (Indigenously Designed Developed and Manufactured) route at a cost of Rs. 200 crore.
  • These sonars are designed, developed and manufactured indigenously by the DRDO and the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory, Kochi, and will provide a significant boost to the Navy’s anti-submarine warfare capabilities. The DAC also clearedprocurement of missiles for the Navy.
  • The Minister directed that the capital acquisition schemes be meticulously monitored and brought to maturity within time lines.
    The Minister stated that the DAC meetings are to be conducted once in a fortnight to speed up capability development of the Armed Forces.

Rohingyas are pushed back by BSF from Tripura

  • On instructions from the Home Ministry, the Border Security Force recently pushed back four Rohingya Muslims who were trying to cross over an unfenced stretch on the Bangladesh border in Tripura.
  • This is the first instance of Rohingya being pushed back since the Home Ministry circular on August 19 to identify and deport them.
  • The BSF had identified 75 vulnerable locations on a 21-km stretch in Tripura.
  • The National Human Rights Commission has opposed the government’s move to deport and push back the Rohingya and sought a report from the Ministry.
  • Assam and Manipur had asked the State police and the BSF to push back any Rohingya attempting to enter the country.
  • In its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on September 18, the Centre said Rohingya were a threat to national security and “some of the unauthorised Rohingya immigrants had linkages with Pakistan-based terror organisations.”
  • It said there was an organised influx of “illegal” immigrants from Mynamar through agents and touts facilitating illegal immigration of Rohingya into India via Benapole-Haridaspur (West Bengal), Hili (West Bengal), Sonamora (Tripura), Kolkata and Guwahati.
  • The first four points are authorised immigration checkpoints and manned by customs, immigration and BSF officials.
  • In June, the Home Ministry constituted yet another committee to examine various methods to curb the misuse of free movement along the Myanmar border, a friendly country, with which it shares unfenced borders and unhindered movement of people across the border.
  • The committee, headed by Rina Mitra, Special Secretary, Internal Security, visited the border areas.

India will provide help but not deploy troops in Afghanistan

  • India will expand aid to strife-hit nation, Nirmala Sitharaman says after meeting U.S. Defence Secretary.
  • India ruled out deploying troops in Afghanistan even as it pledged to expand development and medical assistance for the strife-torn nation.
  • The U.S. Defence Secretary Mr.Mattis is in New Delhi for the first Cabinet-level visit from the Trump administration. For Ms. Sitharaman, it was the first ministerial engagement with a counterpart since she took charge of South Block.
  • The Defence Minister’s statement puts to rest speculation about India deploying troops in Afghanistan after U.S. President Donald Trump called for greater Indian involvement.
  • India has already extended $3 billion aid to Afghanistan, provides security assistance in the form of training and has also supplied some utility and attack helicopters.

Kabul has repeatedly sought lethal weapons and ammunition from India.

  • With increasing Chinese presence in the region, Mr. Mattis said expanding “maritime engagements” was one of his top priorities.
  • India had a “vital role to play in supporting South East Asia’s regional institutions, particularly ASEAN, and in building partner capacity across the region.” Both sides reiterated their support for “freedom of navigation, over-flight and unimpeded lawful commerce” in the Indian Ocean and Asia-Pacific Region.
  • Stating that the recent Malabar trilateral naval exercises demonstrated the progress made in “operational synergies” between the navies, Ms. Sitharaman said, “In our talks today, we agreed to explore additional, specialised exercises.”

Health Ministry regulating the sale of tobacco

  • In a blow to free-ranging sale of tobacco, the Health Ministry is tightening the screws on marketing, which will curb access and shield children.
  • As part of the regulation of sale, the Ministry has asked all the State governments to develop a mechanism through the municipal authority to provide “permission/authorisation” to retail outlets selling tobacco products.
  • Shops authorised to sell tobacco products will not be permitted to sell any non-tobacco products such as biscuits, toffees and chips that are essentially meant for non-tobacco users, especially children.
  • This initiative will prove to be beneficial in achieving the objective of preventing children/ non-user from exposure to tobacco products.
  • Essentially, the Ministry desires to license the sale of tobacco through authorised vendors only. Like alcohol, tobacco products too can be sold only by licensed retail outlets.
  • Shopkeepers purposely store non-tobacco products that children consume to lure kids to get exposed to tobacco at an early age.
  • Selling tobacco products through licensed shops will prevent mushrooming of outlets selling tobacco products and shrewd marketing of tobacco products to kids.
  • Under the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (COPTA), 2003, sale of tobacco products to minors is prohibited.
  • However, as the 2009-2010 Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) revealed, over 56% of minors polled who bought cigarettes in a store were “not refused purchase because of their age.”
  • The GYTS survey also found that in 2009 nearly 15% of children (19% of boys and over 8% of girls) in India who were 13-15 years used some form of tobacco.
  • Another 15.5% of children belonging to the same group who had never smoked before were likely to begin smoking the following year. The overall tobacco use among students aged 13-15 increased from 13.7% in 2006 to 14.6% in 2009.
  • The world over it has been proven beyond doubt and all hidden industry documents made available through the Minnesota agreement have revealed that the tobacco industry targets youth and children as its new consumer base.

Indian movie Newton got official entry to Oscars 2018

  • The Rajkummar Rao-starrer is about free and fair elections in conflict-ridden jungles of Chhattisgarh.
  • Newton will be India’s official entry to the Best Foreign Film category at the Oscars next year, according to a Film Federation of India official.
  • The Amit Masurkar directed movie, starring Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi, Raghubir Yadav and Anjali Patil, tells the story of polling officer Newton Kumar, who is bent on conducting free and fair elections in the conflict-ridden jungles of Chhattisgarh.
  • ManishMundra, founder of Drishyam Films and producer of Newton , said, “This is the most incredible news of our lives – all of our hard work and faith is finally paying off.”
  • The Oscars will be held on March 4, 2018, in Los Angeles.

Prominent names in the disqualified directors

  • Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister PemaKhandu and a junior Minister in the BJP-led Assam government, Naba Kumar Doley, figure among the 1.06 lakh disqualified directors associated with ‘shell companies’ that have been “named and shamed” by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MoCA).
  • Mr. Khandu’s name appears as one of the three directors of Rigsel Hotels and Resorts, whose registered address with the Registrar of Companies (Shillong) is the same as the one mentioned in his election affidavit.
  • The company was registered on February 3, 2011, when the Arunachal Pradesh government was headed by his late father, DorjeeKhandu, and Mr. PemaKhandu was not active in politics.
  • A background search on the business activity of Rigsel Hotels showed that the company was started with a paid-up capital of Rs. 1.2 lakh but no details of its business activity are available in the public domain.
  • Mr. Doley, who is a Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs in the Assam government, has also been disqualified as a director of Abutani Wheels India, a company that is into real estate and renting out property.
  • He claimed he had been disqualified as a member from one of his companies since he had not filed annual returns as required by the Companies Act, 2013.
  • In May 2016 when Mr. Doley was sworn in as a Minister, his declared assets were to the tune of Rs. 7 crore.
  • The disqualification of directors and the crackdown on alleged shell companies, the MoCA claimed, is part of the government’s fight against black money.
  • Former Kerala Chief Minister OommenChandy, Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly Ramesh Chennithala and V.K.
  • Sasikala, who is in jail, were among the prominent names in the MoCA list of disqualified directors released on Monday.
  • On September 12, when the crackdown started, the Union Minister of State for Corporate Affairs, P.P. Chaudhary had said, “The disqualification under Section 164 of the Act is by operation of law.”

Many anomalies in Nirbhaya scheme implementation

  • A 10-year-old rape survivor from Chandigarh who recently gave birth, has not received the Rs. 9 lakh due to her from the Central Victim Compensation Fund under the Nirbhaya scheme.
  • The money, to be put in a fixed deposit, was meant to take care of her psychological well-being, medical treatment and education. It was part of the total Rs. 10 lakh the Supreme Court had awarded her while denying her an abortion. So far, her family has received only Rs. 1 lakh.
  • The Supreme Court found that the Chandigarh case was only the tip of the “utter confusion and unhappy state of affairs” over the disbursal of compensation to sexual assault victims under the Nirbhaya scheme, started in 2013 following the brutal gang-rape and death of a 23-year-old student in Delhi.
  • The Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta recorded “there is a lot of confusion” among the three Ministries Finance, Home Affairs and Women and Child Development over what their responsibilities are as far as the scheme is concerned.
  • The Centre has disbursed Rs. 200 crore each to the States to compensate sexual assault victims under the Nirbhaya fund, senior advocate Indira Jaising, the court’s amicus curiae, said.
  • Ms. Jaising said some States have spent the money on CCTV cameras and other “paraphernalia” rather than using it to pay compensation to the human victims of sexual assault and abuse.
  • The court referred to the Home Ministry affidavit, which showed “anomalies” like the Jharkhand government’s disbursal of Rs. 2.48 crore to women victims of sexual assault, but with the column of the number of victims blank.

J&K government was asked to make payments to SPOs through Aadhaar-linked accounts

  • The Home Ministry has asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to make payments to Special Police Officers (SPOs) through Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. The decision was taken after several complaints of financial irregularities surfaced. The Home Ministry reimburses the salary of SPOs after the payment has been done by the State.
  • To create employment opportunities in the State, the Centre has sanctioned 10,000 additional posts of SPOs in 2016. Earlier, 25,474 were sanctioned. As of now there are more than 4,000 vacancies, a Home Ministry spokesperson said. The Ministry had also revised the salary of SPOs from Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 6,000.
  • The official said that given the critical role of the SPOs in assisting the State police, there was a need for greater transparency. “There is also a need to formalise the recruitment procedure and put in place a mechanism to review performance,” said the official.

Department of Science and Technology (DST) to fund a project to develop quantum computers

  • Keen to tap into the next big advance in computing technology, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) is planning to fund a project to develop quantum computers.
  • A quantum computer, still largely a theoretical entity, employs the principles of quantum mechanics to store information in ‘qubits’ instead of the typical ‘bits’ of 1 and 0.
  • Qubits work faster because of the way such circuits are designed, and their promise is that they can do intensive number-crunching tasks much more efficiently than the fastest comparable computers.
  • For instance, to sort a billion numbers, a quantum computer would require 3.5 million fewer steps than a traditional machine, and would find the solution in only 31,623 steps.
  • Solving other problems, many having to do with computing physics, becomes possible on quantum machines, the authors say, whereas they might never be possible on traditional computers.
  • While the Physics departments at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and the Harish Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad, have only forayed into the theoretical aspects of quantum computing, a DST official said that “the time has come to build one.”
  • Experts from across the country are expected to gather this month in Allahabad for a workshop to develop such a computer, and to discuss the costs and the time it would take to build one. Internationally, Canada’s D
  • Wave Systems, is a pioneer in developing quantum computers and has sold machines to Lockheed Martin and Google.
  • Experts, however, say that ‘true quantum computers’ are still years away, and existing systems use principles of quantum computing to solve very limited problems. The DST official, who didn’t want to be identified, said the project was part of a forthcoming mission in the DST to fund research areas that would create the next generation of technology jobs in India.

Large part of transitional credit claims under GST ineligible for refunds

  • A “large part” of the Rs. 65,000 crore of transitional credit claims received by the government under the Goods and Services Tax regime are ineligible for refunds.
  • Firms can claim transitional credits for inputs bought and taxes paid before GST rollout. The official pointed out that even where claims were accepted, refunds would be done in a staggered manner over months, and not as a single lump sum.
  • He explained that this was because the accumulated credit was more than what could be claimed on manufacturing output in a single month.
  • “The investigation and audit of these [Rs. 65,000 crore worth of] transitional credit claims are under way, but we have already found that a large amount of them are not eligible for refunds,” the senior official said on condition of anonymity as the audit was still on.
  • Tax experts say that the reason behind so many ineligible claims being submitted was the constantly changing rules and deadlines relating to the form for the availing of transitional credit — the TRAN-1 form —and that the audits being conducted so far were causing undue panic among businesses since the deadline to revise the filings is still more than a month away.

HC restrained authorities from conducting by-elections

  • The Madras High Court extended its stay on conducting a floor test in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly until further orders and also restrained authorities from conducting by-elections to 18 constituencies, which were declared vacant, pursuant to the disqualification of dissident AIADMK MLAs. Counsel for Governor, Chief Minister and the petitioners consented to it.
  • Justice M. Duraiswamy passed the common interim order on a batch of writ petitions filed by the 18 affected persons challenging the Speaker’s decision and another writ petition filed by DMK working president M.K. Stalin seeking a direction for a floor test at the earliest.
  • The judge passed the order after senior counsel Aryama Sundaram, representing Mr. Dhanapal, sought time till October 4 for filing a counter affidavit.
  • Referring to an interim order passed in Mr. Stalin’s case, staying a floor test till Wednesday, the judge said the authorities concerned “shall not conduct floor test for the trust vote until further orders of this court.”
  • There shall not be any election notification for conducting the election for the 18 Legislative Assembly constituencies pursuant to the impugned order (Speaker’s decision published in the gazette) dated September 18, 2017, which is the subject matter in the writ petitions, until further orders of this court.
  • Earlier, when the judge wanted to know whether such an order could be passed without the Election Commission being a party before the court and especially when the Assembly Secretary had declared all the 18 seats vacant, Mr. Sundaram replied in the affirmative.
  • Mr. Sundaram sought an adjournment till October 4 when senior counsel Dushyant Dave, representing four disqualified MLAs, was on his feet arguing the case on merits. He said there was no possibility of by-elections being held before October 4.
  • Concurring, senior counsel C.S. Vaidyanathan, appearing for the CM, said there was no need for interim orders on the issue of floor test too since his client had not placed any such request with the Speaker. Immediately, senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, representing Mr. Stalin, rose from his seat to stress the need for an interim order in the case.

India is bound by Paris Climate change agreement

  • India reaffirmed its commitment to the landmark Paris climate change agreement, saying it was willing to “work above and beyond” the pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
  • External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, during a UN ‘Leadership Summit on Environment Pact’, said India had been at the forefront of the debate on environment and development.
  • Her remarks came amid uncertainty over the U.S. role in the deal after President Donald Trump in June announced that America was withdrawing from the Paris deal, arguing that it gave undue advantage to countries like India and China.
  • India, which is the world’s third largest carbon polluter, reached a pact, along with more than 190 nations, in December 2015 with an aim to prevent an increase in the global average temperature and keep it well below 2 degrees Celsius.
  • The deal, which replaced the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, was ratified last October.
  • Participating in the UN meet hosted by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Ms. Swaraj said India was willing to work “above and beyond” the Paris agreement.
  • During the day, Ms. Swaraj had a series of bilateral meetings with leaders from Mexico, Norway and Belgium. She also called on Mauritius Prime Minister PravindJugnauth.
  • There were some discussions on the possibility of a high-level visit from Belgium to India later this year.
  • Sushma Swaraj is also scheduled to participate in several multilateral meetings including that of the G-4 (Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Foreign Ministers.

Releasing Genetically modified mustard is unlikely any time soon

  • Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan has indicated that a decision on releasing genetically modified (GM) mustard commercially was unlikely any time soon.There are compelling arguments from those who support it and those against it.
  • Dr. Harsh Vardhan, who holds the Science portfolio, took over the Environment Ministry after the death of Anil Dave. That makes him the final government arbiter on allowing GM mustard to be made available commercially. GM mustard was developed by scientists at Delhi University and the project was part-funded by the Department of Biotechnology, a division of the Science Ministry.
  • A fresh consultation with environmental groups, scientists and farmers’ bodies before taking a call on the release of GM mustard.
  • The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), India’s regulator for genetically modified seeds, had on May 12 this year cleared GM mustard for environmental release and use in fields. Though it was cleared by scientists, the Environment Minister’s approval is required.
  • The Centre told the Supreme Court that it was considering various aspects and was still to take a final call on the commercial release of GM mustard.
  • A Parliamentary Standing Committee, headed by Renuka Chowdhary of the Congress, said that there was a paucity of studies on the impact of GM crops on human health. Should the Minister’s consent be obtained, GM mustard would be the first transgenic food crop to be allowed for commercial cultivation in India.
  • It could pave the way for several other GM food crops in the country. Dhara Mustard Hybrid (DMH -11), the transgenic mustard in question, has been developed by a team of scientists at Delhi University under a government-funded project.

Call to ensure effective implementation of labour laws to wipe out modern slavery

  • On the same day that the International Labour Organisation (ILO) released new global estimates of modern slavery, a group of over 40 activists and academics from different parts of the world have released a 25-point signed statement urging India to ensure a more effective implementation of labour law protections to eliminate modern slavery and forced labour in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
  • A multi-pronged strategy that responds to the needs of all affected constituencies, including bonded labourers, contract workers, domestic workers, intra- and inter-state as well as international migrant workers, and sex workers is necessary in order to achieve SDG 8.7.
  • Observing that “the current targets and indicators proposed by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation as of March 8, 2017 for the realisation of SDG 8.7 are wholly inadequate,” the statement noted that “a more robust labour governance system in the form of increased inspections and better resources for the labour inspectorate is essential for the realisation of SDG 8.7.
  • The SDG 8.7 calls for “immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking, and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.”
  • The most effective and durable way to prevent all forms of extreme exploitation lies in the self-organisation of workers and in their efforts at collective bargaining, especially through trade unions and workers’ collectives.
  • Expressing concerns over the proposed anti-trafficking law, the academics pointed out that “the problem of trafficking can only be addressed through a multi-faceted legal and economic strategy that strengthens the implementation of labour protections such as those guaranteed by the Constitution”.
  • Among the signatories to the statement were activists from organisations such as Aid et Action, The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, Open Democracy, Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), and National Network of Sex Workers.
  • choice of a woman is part of her fundamental right to privacy.

Textile industry saw an increase in FDI

  • The textile industry in the country is growing exponentially with the foreign direct investment having tripled in the last three years.
    Though FDI had touched 618.95 million U.S. dollars in 2016-17, there is still a huge potential for further growth, Textiles Minister Smriti Irani said.
  • Inaugurating the sixth edition of the international textile and apparel fair, “Vastra-2017”, at Sitapura industrial area here, Ms. Irani said concerted efforts were being made for creating employment opportunities in the textile sector.
  • The textile sector employs the second largest workforce in the country, with 4.5 crore people directly getting livelihood from it and 2 crore people being indirectly employed.
  • The Union Minister praised the Rajasthan government's efforts to create a garment hub in the State. She said the Jaipur Designers Festival being held in “Vastra-2017” for the first time would provide the younger generation with an exposure to the world of fashion and designing.
  • Public-private partnership (PPP) for affordable housing.
  • People purchasing a low-end house from a private developer will be eligible for financial help under the ‘Housing For All’ policy of the Narendra Modi government, Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced.
  • Unveiling the new public-private partnership (PPP) for affordable housing, Mr. Puri said that it will help in meeting the housing requirements for all targets
  • “This policy seeks to assign risks among the government, developers, and financial institutions, to those who can manage them the best, besides leveraging under-utilised and unutilised private and public lands towards meeting the Housing for All target by 2022,” he said.
  • Pradhan MantriAwas Yojana (PMAY) or Housing For All has been moving at a rather sluggish pace. The government was to construct 12 lakh houses under PMAY by 2017-18, but only 1.49 lakh houses have been constructed till last year.
  • The Centre now seeks to construct 26 lakh houses in 2018-19, 26 lakh in 2019-20, 30 lakh in 2020-21 and 29.80 lakh in the 2021-22 period.
  • Eligible buyers can get Central assistance of about Rs. 2.50 lakh per house as interest subsidy on bank loans. And if they do not avail any loan, they can get upto Rs. 1.50 lakh.
  • The policy gives eight PPP options for developers to invest in. “Out of these eight, we are talking, six models will utilise government lands,” Mr. Puri said. It is now time for private developers to seize the investment opportunities, he added.

President Ram Nath Kovind clears appointments for Allahabad, Calcutta courts

  • In a move towards reducing the large number of vacancies in the higher judiciary, President Ram Nath Kovindcleared the appointment of 25 judges in two High Courts.
  • Issuing separate notifications, the Law Ministry notified the appointment of 19 additional judges in the Allahabad High Court and six in the Calcutta High Court.
  • Additional judges usually have a term of two years and are elevated to the rank of a permanent judge based on their performance.
    The Allahabad High Court, the largest in terms of Bench strength, has an approved strength of 160 judges. But until Tuesday’s appointment, it was functioning with 91 judges.
  • The Calcutta High Court, India’s oldest, too has a shortage as the court, until now, has been functioning with 31 judges against an approved strength of 72.
  • These are the first set of fresh appointments to the High Court after Justice Dipak Misra took over as Chief justice of India last month.
  • Apart from the fresh appointments on Tuesday, the Supreme Court collegium also has to decide on 60 recommendations from 13 High Courts across the country.
  • These include 36 recommendations for appointment as judges and 25 candidates to be elevated from additional judges to permanent judges.
  • The collegium also has to take a call on appointing full-time Chief Justices for the High Courts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Calcutta, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Manipur. They are currently headed by Acting Chief Justices.

T.N. insists that the Supreme Court appoint an authority for Cauvery water sharing

  • The Tamil Nadu government insisted that the Supreme Court itself should finally appoint an authority and frame a scheme for sharing and management of Cauvery river waters among Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry, and not leave the responsibility to the Centre.
  • Arguing before a Special Bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justices Amitava Roy and A.M. Khanwilkar, Tamil Nadu, represented by senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, said it has for the past 25 years had a frictional relationship with Karnataka over Cauvery, and had often to make the journey to the Supreme Court for release of water.
  • The day-long hearing saw the court chide the Centre for not implementing the final award of the Cauvery Tribunal in 2007.
  • The court questioned the reluctance shown by the Centre to set up of the Cauvery Management Board and frame a scheme for implementation of the tribunal award despite it having been notified in 2013.
  • Mr. Kumar said the Centre did set up the Cauvery River Water Authority and Supervisory Committee following the Supreme Court's direction. It had, in fact, been waiting for some clarifications on the tribunal award. Mr.Kumar submitted that the Centre had decided to wait till the Supreme Court took a final call on the tribunal award.But Chief Justice Misra responded that the Centre should not have let a vacuum prevail after the tribunal's award.
  • Senior advocate Fali Nariman, for Karnataka, submitted that the Board or Authority should be headed by a former Supreme Court judge. While Mr. Kumar submitted that the tribunal award was not clear about water release during times of distress, Mr. Nariman differed to say there was no clarity in the award in times of surplus.
  • Mr. Naphade objected to any fiddling with the monthly release of water as this would impact the State’s essential seasonal crops.
  • Karnataka interjected to submit that there should not be any restriction on how it uses its share.

Security beefed up to check entry of Rohingyas

  • Security has been beefed up and patrolling by the Assam Rifles intensified along the Mizoram-Arakan (Myanmar) border in Lawngtlai district, in view of the possibility of Rohingya Muslim militants and refugees attempting to enter the State.
  • A Home Department official said meetings were held by the Mizoram police, paramilitary forces and intelligence agencies of both the Central and the State governments to review the security situation along the Myanmar border

U.S. prepares to push India to join the “Hague Convention”

  • Activists argue the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction is unfair to mothers fleeing abusive relationships
    Even as the U.S. prepares to push India to join the “Hague Convention” that deals with international child custody cases, during consular talks next week, the government held a series of hearings from activists demanding that it does not give in to what they called “First World pressure” on the issue.
  • While the government announced in November 2016 that it would not sign the convention, officials have conceded that there has been a rethink, and an “inter-ministerial process” is under way to discuss the repercussions of the convention.
  • Ahead of the India-U.S. Consular dialogue between officials from the Ministries of External Affairs, Women and Child Development and Home and their counterparts in Washington on September 27, a special committee heard from lawyers, women survivors and child rights activists over the weekend whether or not they should consider the Bill that would align Indian law with the international convention.
  • The Hague Convention is circumventing the Indian system, and India can’t abdicate its responsibility to Indian parents, mostly mothers, and their young children.
  • Passed in 1980, the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction, which came into force in 1983, rules that in any child custody case, the court of the country where the child is a “habitual resident” will adjudicate who will get custody.
  • There are at least 94 such cases pending with us today, while many more simply lapse once the child turns 16,” an official told presspersons in Delhi, adding that they “will make a presentation to Indian officials about why accession to the convention is a good thing”
  • A total of ninety four countries, mostly developed nations in the Americas, Europe and Australia, are signatories to the Hague Convention so far.
  • In rejecting the convention last year, Minister of Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi said the worst affected in the cases covered by the convention are women, who form 68% of the parents that take or “abduct” their children to their home countries, and must be protected.
  • It is unfair that the mother, who is recognised in India as the primary caregiver, and is often fleeing an abusive marriage, is branded an abductor by the Hague Convention
  • However U.S. officials said there are several provisions to protect women in the U.S., should India choose to accede to the Hague Abduction Convention, as it is called, and women had no reason to “run away to India with their children”.
  • They added that the “ball is now in India’s court” to join the convention

Centre says Rohingya’s are a serious threat to national security

  • The Centre told the Supreme Court that the Rohingya were a serious threat to national security with links to terror outfits, such as the Islamic State, and those in Pakistan and other countries.
  • The Centre said that unless the government took action now, illegal immigrants like the Rohingya would eat into welfare meant for India’s citizens.
  • It said the decision whether or not to deport them fell within its exclusive domain. The court should refrain from hearing them.
  • “If anything untoward happens to us, we will come to you,” senior advocate Fali Nariman, appearing for two Rohingya representing their 40,000-strong community, insisted at the short hearing.
  • Chief Justice Misra, however, said the court would first have to “see the legal position, whether we have jurisdiction and what kind of jurisdiction we have.” He posted the case for detailed hearing on October 3.

Govt names the directors of shell companies

  • In a first-of-a-kind ‘name and shame’ exercise, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MoCA) has begun making public the lists of disqualified directors across the nation as well as those associated with struck-off companies.
  • Former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, jailed politician V.K. Sasikala, Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly Ramesh Chennithala and Gulf-based business tycoon M.A. Yusufali are some of the prominent names figuring in these lists.
  • Four ‘shell companies’ linked to Sasikala, jailed aide of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, are among the companies struck off by the Registrar of Companies (RoC) in Chennai.
  • This follows a MoCA statement on September 12 that as on that day, it had identified 1.06 lakh directors of ‘shell companies’ for disqualification under the relevant provisions of the Companies Act, 2013.
  • The move is part of actions to break the network of ‘shell companies’ and further the fight against black money/money laundering, it had said. Several Keralite businessmen, leading politicians, top civil servants, and police officers figured in the lists.
  • The four shell companies with links to Sasikala which have been dissolved include Fancy Steels Private Limited, Rainbow Air Private Limited, Sukraa Club Private Limited and Indo Doha Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Limited.

Home Minister says SC will take final call on Rohinya’s deportation

  • Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday that the Supreme Court would take a call on the Centre’s decision to deport the Rohingya who entered India illegally.
  • “An affidavit has been filed. Whatever decision is to be taken, it will be taken by the Supreme Court, and we shall wait for its decision,” he told presspersons.
  • Mr. Singh said at a press conference in Jammu that they were “illegal” immigrants, and a security threat from them could not be ruled out.
  • The case is being heard by the Supreme Court after the Home Ministry said in July that “illegal” immigrants such as the Rohingya posed a security challenge because they might be recruited by terror groups.
  • It asked the States to set up task forces in districts to identify and deport “illegally staying foreign nationals”.

Arjan Singh - Marshal of Indian Air Force passed away

  • Marshal of the Indian Air Force Arjan Singh, one of independent India’s most celebrated soldiers, passed away in the national capital. He was 98.
  • A statement from the Ministry of Defence said Singh was admitted to the hospital on Saturday morning following a cardiac arrest, and breathed his last at 7.47 p.m.
  • One of the heroes of the 1965 war with Pakistan, Arjan Singh became the chief of IAF when he was just 44.
  • Born on April 15, 1919, in Lyalpur, now Faisalabad, modern day Pakistan, he was selected for the Empire Pilot training course at RAF Cranwell, at the age of 19.
  • Singh received the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1944.
  • During World War II, Singh flew close support missions during the Imphal Campaign. For his role in successfully leading the squadron during combat, Singh received the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1944.
  • As India declared Independence on August 15, 1947, Singh led the fly-past of more than a hundred IAF aircraft over the Red Fort.
  • After Independence, he took command of the Air Force station in Ambala, and later in 1949, he took over as the Air Officer Commanding of Operational Command, which later became the Western Air Command, based in Delhi.
  • After the Air Force sat out the 1962 war with China, during which India was humiliated, Singh was appointed the Deputy Chief of Air Staff and became the Vice Chief of Air Staff by 1963.
  • On August 1, 1964, Singh took over as the Chief of Air Staff (CAS) in the rank of Air Marshal. In September 1965 when Pakistan launched Operation Grand Slam, in which an armoured thrust targeted the vital town of Akhnur, Singh was summoned to the Defence Minister's office with a request for air support.
  • Throughout the 1965 war, Singh showed exemplary leadership, and was awarded the Padma Vibhushan for his leadership and subsequently the rank of the CAS was upgraded to that of Air Chief Marshal. Singh thus became the first Air Chief Marshal of the Indian Air Force.
  • After his retirement in July 1969, he was appointed Ambassador to Switzerland. In January 2002, he was conferred the rank of the Marshal of the Air Force in recognition of his unparalleled contribution. Till date he is the only Air Force officer to have been promoted to the five-star rank.

CAG to audit GST Network

  • While a Group of Ministers met to address the mounting complaints about glitches in the GST Network, federal auditors have begun an audit of its technical capabilities to assess if it is ready to handle the massive amounts of transactions.
  • The CAG audit is expected to look into a host of issues: bandwith capabilities of the network, robustness of the software, security aspects, and the architecture of the entire system.
  • CAG had the professional competence to carry out such a technical audit. If necessary, experts from outside could also be roped in.
  • The CAG is empowered under the Constitution to audit various aspects of the GST, and it would have a clear picture by the end of the financial year after taxes are filed through the new system.
  • Teams have been undergoing training for months now for auditing various aspects of the GST.
  • The GSTN audit is taking place against the backdrop of the recent appointment of a Group of Ministers, led by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, to look into the glitches in the network. Mr. Sushil Modi said that the dealers’ tendency to rush to file returns at the last moment was forcing the system to crash.
  • The network’s capability to tackle the estimated 300 crore invoices a month is only one of the aspects of the GSTN that has left traders worried. Several traders and tax consultants have been complaining about the cumbersome navigation and the extra work they have to do to meet with GST requirements.
  • Incidentally, in the run-up to the GST launch in July 2017, the GSTN had approached the CAG for a technical audit certification.
  • However, it was pointed out that such an audit could be done only after the network was up and running.

Sardar Sarovar Dam

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi, inaugurated the Sardar Sarovar Dam.
  • With the project’s completion, Gujarat would see a green revolution as farmers in the parched northern and Saurashtra regions would have their lands irrigated.
  • Though the dam has been completed in Narmada district of south Gujarat, the massive and sprawling canal network remains woefully incomplete.
  • Its potential benefits to the farmers will, therefore, not be realised for many years, till the canal network is in place.
  • So far, 50% of the canal network is yet to be built. The main canal and all branch canals have been built but distributary and field channels will take years to be completed.
  • The project was delayed by a strong movement by the Narmada BachaoAndolan, led by social activist MedhaPatkar, who opposed the dam on the ground that it displaced thousands of families in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra where thousands of hectares of forest land was submerged.
  • A sustained campaign by the activists had also led to the World Bank’s withdrawal from funding the multi-purpose project, which is often described as the lifeline of drought-prone Gujarat.
  • In 1985, the World Bank had agreed to provide $450 million as loan to fund the multi-purpose project and subsequently, a prominent U.S. environmental expert, T. Schudder, was appointed consultant to oversee rehabilitation of project-affected families, mostly tribal communities in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

NDA issued more visas to Pakistanis

  • Delhi issued more papers in the first two years of BJP-led government than in the last two years of Congress-led regime
    India issued more visas to Pakistanis in the first two years of the NDA government than in the last two years of the UPA government, according to figures available in the Home Ministry’s annual report and replies in Parliament.
  • During 2014-15, India granted 1,72,536 visas to Pakistanis; the number during 2012-13, when the UPA was in power, stood at 132,590.
  • Though the number of visas issued in 2016 was not available, the Ministry’s annual report said 1,04,720 Pakistanis had visited India that year.
  • The month-wise break-up was not available, but the number of visas issued a month averaged out at 7,916 during 2014.
  • The BJP-led government came to power in May 2014. After deducting the average number of visas issued per month, those issued in the seven months of the NDA government in 2014 came to 132,956, marginally higher than the UPA government’s monthly average of 6,062 during 2013.
  • In 2012, India and Pakistan agreed to a new visa agreement to promote people-to-people contact.
  • In August 2016, the Home Ministry put in place an electronic visa clearance process for Pakistani citizens.
  • The system was initiated after the Indian High Commission in Pakistan flagged a huge backlog of visa applications from Pakistani citizens for want of security clearance.
  • The official said that earlier, security agencies were given 40 days to do the checks before a visa was issued to a Pakistani citizen, but the duration was increased to 60 last year.
  • For the countries in the restricted category, such as Pakistan, China and Afghanistan, the visa applications have to be cleared by the Home Ministry.
  • During 2015, the Ministry issued a notification allowing Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, who had fled religious persecution, to stay in India even after the expiry of their documents.
  • It also issued an executive order to grant citizenship to members of the minority community who had entered India on or before December 31, 2014.
  • The Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2015, which would give constitutional backing to the order is being studied by a joint committee of Parliament.
  •  sanctions.

Since several months six High Courts don’t have regular CJs

  • Six High Courts in the country are without regular Chief Justices for the past several months, and at least four Chief Justices of various High Courts will be retiring in 2017.
  • The acting Chief Justices in the six High Courts are Justices Nishita Mhatre (Calcutta), Gita Mittal (Delhi), Sanjay Karol (Himachal Pradesh), D.N. Patel (Jharkhand), N. Kotiswar Singh (Manipur) and Ramesh Ranganathan in the High Court of Judicature for the States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
  • Acting Chief Justices take over the responsibilities of the top judge of the State judiciary as a temporary arrangement. They are meant to fill the vacuum for a short time till the formalities for the appointment of a regular Chief Justice are completed.
  • However, Justice Ranganathan has been the acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh since July 30, 2016. That is well over a year.
  • Justice Mhatre has been the acting Chief Justice since December 1, 2016, Justice Mittal since April 14, 2017, Justice Karol since April 25, 2017, Justice Patel since June 10, 2017, and Justice Singh since July 1, 2017.
  • The year will also see four crucial retirements in the State judiciaries. Justice Mhatre is set to retire on September 19.
  • This will be followed by the retirement of Karnataka High Court Chief Justice S.K. Mukherjee on October 9. Kerala High Court Chief Justice Navaniti Prasad Singh will retire on November 5. Finally, Bombay High Court Chief Justice Manjula Chellur will retire on December 4.
  • Again, the transfer of Justice K.M. Joseph from the Uttarakhand HC to the Hyderabad HC as its Chief Justice is still believed to be under consideration by the government.
  • The Supreme Court collegium had recommended the transfer around May 2016. Sources say the government cannot “sit on” a collegium recommendation. It has either to approve or disapprove the recommendation and, in the latter case, send it back to the collegium.
  • Normally, the government has to convey its decision on a collegium recommendation in three months. Justice J. Chelameswar, one of the judges in the Supreme Court collegiums, had even sent a strongly worded dissent note for not elevating Justice Joseph to the Supreme Court.
  • This is the situation even as the statistics on judicial vacancies in high courts look bleak at 413 out of a total approved strength of 1079 in all the 24 high courts as of September 1, 2017. In some high courts, vacancies are more than the actual number of judges working. In Karnataka HC, there are 35 vacancies compared to 27 working judges.
  • In Calcutta HC, there are 41 judicial vacancies to 31 working judges. The same is the case in Manipur, which has three vacancies to two working judges.

SAIL supplied 80% of steel for Sardar Sarovar Project

  • The state-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd. said that it had supplied 80% of the steel required for the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Project.
  • In a statement, SAIL said it supplied about 85,000 tonnes of steel to Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd. and had partnered in one of the most prestigious and important national projects.
  • The company said it was part of the large hydraulic engineering project involving the construction of a series of large irrigation and hydroelectric multi-purpose dams on the Narmada river. Of the 30 dams planned on Narmada river, the Sardar Sarovar is the largest structure to be built.
  • The Sardar Sarovar project is the second largest concrete gravity dam (by volume) in the world after the Grand Coulee Dam in the U.S.and has the world’s third largest spillway discharging capacity. A part of the Narmada Valley Project, it will help in irrigation and electrical power supply.

Survey of street vendors in Bengaluru

  • Street vendors in the city Bengaluru have won a long battle for official recognition. The first ever survey of street vendors, which will eventually give them an official ID card.
  • The survey aims to enrol an estimated two lakh street vendors by September 25.

Pandavan Para being destroyed due to quarrying

  • The Kerala High Court directed the Thiruvananthapuram district administration to ensure that no quarrying operations were carried out within a 500-m radius of Pandavan Para.
  • The interim directive was issued on a public interest writ petition filed by S. Unnikrishnan. According to him, quarrying operations were being undertaken illegally on the areas near Pandavan Para.
  • Pandavan Para, which is said to have been used by the Pandavas as a hideout during their exile, had been made up of ‘Krishnashila’, which are used for stone carving.
  • The State government had notified it as a protected archaeological monument in September 1987.
  • The Archaeology Department had found that the writings on the cave wall were 5,000 years old. Pandavan Para was being destroyed owing to illegal quarrying.
  • Though the Archaeology Department had decided to protect 3.15 acres of land surrounding the Pandavan Para, illegal quarrying and theft of Krishnashila were still taking place in the land and in the nearby government puramboke land, alleged the petitioner.

After Aadhar -Pan cardlink now Centre plans for Aadhar-driving licence link

  • It will help check the menace of multiple licences.
  • Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad announced that after linking Aadhaar to PAN cards, the Union government would now link it with driving licences as well.
  • Aadhaar was a safe and secure tool for good governance and empowerment.Aadhaar represented digital identity, not physical identity, and that digital identity confirmed physical identity, Mr. Prasad said, adding that the government had linked Aadhaar to PAN card to stop money laundering.
  • Reiterating the commitment of the Union government towards providing affordable and inclusive technology to the masses, Mr. Prasad said digital India must help create an inclusive society.

Rohingya issue

  • Assam and Manipur have placed their forces on alert
  • The Centre is yet to spell out its stand on undocumented Rohingya but State governments in Assam and Manipur have asked their police, especially in the border districts, to “push back anyone who tries to cross the border.”
  • While Assam shares a 262 km border with Bangladesh, three other northeastern States — Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland are also front-line States. The governments in Assam and Manipur have issued “alerts to mount extra vigil in the border areas.”
  • Assam Chief Minister SarbanandaSonowal is believed to have conveyed to the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and top officials of the State police to “push back if any Rohingya family tried to cross over the Bangladesh border, seeking refuge.”
  • The Manipur government, too has instructed the police to crack down in borders towns like Moreh that routinely see brisk cross-border trading. It is not uncommon to find Myanmarese traders residing in these areas on a temporary basis.
  • The Rohingya a minority Muslim community in the Rakhine state of Myanmar on the border with Bangladesh have been forced to flee the country following periodic ethnic clashes and crackdown by Myanmar’s Army. The latest bout of violence erupted last month, following an attack on a police post.
  • Around 3,00,000 Rohingya have sought refuge in Bangladesh since the August 25 crackdown on their settlements.

Institutions created by Act of Parliament do not need FCRA licence

  • The HRD Ministry clarified that the institutions created through an Act of Parliament do not need an FCRA licence to receive foreign funds.
  • The Home Ministry has cancelled the FCRA licences of several hundred organisations, including the Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and IIT Delhi, for failing to file annual returns for five consecutive years. Institutions created through an Act of Parliament are exempted from filing returns as they are covered under the annual government audit.
  • Citing Section 50 of FCRA 2010, the official said the statutory bodies created though Central or state Acts are exempt.

Urban Affairs Ministry to borrow from market for infra development

  • To break the vicious cycle of low performance leading to low budgetary allocation, the Urban Affairs Ministry is planning to go for market borrowings to incentivise good performance by the States.
  • To overcome the severe infrastructure deficit accumulated over long years, a huge order of investments is required. To meet various contingencies and to ensure fund availability to meet the targets under the new urban mission, Urban Affairs Ministry is thinking of mobilising resources from the market.
  • The concept, according to a senior Ministry official, stems from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-era Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, in which several projects remained incomplete when the Mission was wound up in 2014, primarily due to slow pace of execution and corresponding low provisioning of Central support.

Blue Whale game

  • The Supreme Court asked the government to respond to a petition for an immediate direction to ban online game ‘Blue Whale Challenge, which is suspected to be behind the deaths or attempted suicides of teenagers and young adults hooked to it.
  • A Bench, led by the Chief Justice of India, issued notice to the government on a petition by advocate C.R. Jaya Sukin, representing another lawyer N.S. Ponnaiah, who wanted the government to take immediate steps to spread awareness about the dangers of playing the game and end its availability online. The court asked Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal to assist the court.
  • It is argued before the Bench that the government, till now, had not taken sufficient steps even as the number of cases of self-inflicted injuries and suicides were increasing.
  • The petition said the game had spread its tentacles across the cities and was enticing even school students to play.
  • The game goads young people into killing themselves. The blue whale on-line game encourages people to take part in increasingly dangerous harmful dares that finally culminate in instructions by the administrators to kill themselves.

States to pay compensation to the kin of those died unnatural jail death

  • The Supreme Court directed the Chief Justices of all High Courts to register petitions suomotu to identify the kin of prisoners who died unnatural deaths from 2012 and order the States to award them compensation.
  • It is important for the Centre and the State governments to realise that persons who suffer an unnatural death in a prison are also victims sometimes of a crime and sometimes of negligence and apathy or both. There is no reason at all to exclude their kin from receiving compensation only because the victim is a criminal,” a Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Dipak Gupta observed.
  • Normally, the National and State Human Rights Commissions award compensations in cases of custodial torture and deaths. However, compliance by State governments is low as these commissions do not exercise any power of contempt.
  • Besides, the States go for a long-drawn appeal in the High Courts and later on in the Supreme Court, if necessary.
  • This judgment is significant as the High Court will now directly award compensation and ensure compliance by the States.
  • The Supreme Court referred to its judgment as a voice of the victims and an end to the silence of the dead.
  • The court said though laws had been made for payment of compensation to victims of crime, those in power had turned their back on the families of prisoners who had died unnatural deaths in custody. Human rights in a welfare state is not dependent on the status of the person – whether he is a criminal or a victim.
  • The payment from the year 2012 was chosen because National Crime Records Bureau has records of unnatural deaths only from that year. The judgment came on a letter addressed to the apex court in 2013 by its former Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti on the deplorable conditions of 1,382 prisons in the country.
  • The court put the Union Women and Child Development Ministry on a December 31 deadline to formulate procedures for tabulating children who died unnatural deaths in custody or in child care institutions.

Petrol, diesel should come under GST

  • Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan ruled out any government intervention to disrupt the daily revision in petrol and diesel prices despite the Rs. 7.3 per litre spike since July, saying the reform will continue.
  • Saying that many States had drastically increased value-added tax, he said, “It is high time that the GST Council considered bringing the petroleum products in the ambit of GST.”
  • He, however, remained non-committal on cutting taxes to soften the blow of the relentless rise in prices since the government need to finance huge infrastructure and social projects has to be balanced with consumer needs.
  • Terming the criticism of a spike in rates as unfair, he said the drop in prices for over a fortnight after the daily price revision was introduced has been ignored and only the “temporary” phenomenon of a rising trend was being highlighted.
  • India relies on imports to meet 80% of its needs and so domestic fuel rates have been aligned to the movement of equivalent product prices in the international market since April 2002.
  • Previously, the rates were changed every fortnight but since June 16 they are being revised daily, Mr. Pradhan said, adding that the daily revision immediately passes on the benefit of any reduction in international oil prices to consumers and avoids sharp spikes by spreading them in small doses.

56-year-old dispute between Andhra Pradesh and Odishacame to an end

  • The 56-year-old dispute between Andhra Pradesh and Odisha over construction of a barrage at Neradi across the Vamsadhara River in Srikakulam district has come to a close with the Vamsadhara Water Disputes Tribunal (VWDT) granting permission for its construction. It also ordered the setting up of a supervisory committee to implement its decision.
  • The tribunal, in its “final order and decision” issued in New Delhi, permitted Andhra Pradesh to construct the Neradi barrage and gave specifics about the right and left head sluices.
  • The right head sluice should have a design capacity of 8,000 cusecs for meeting the requirements of Andhra Pradesh and the left head sluice for meeting the requirements of Odisha below Neradi Barrage.
  • The order said that the capacity of the left head sluice should be intimated to Odisha and the cost of construction of the sluice should be borne by the beneficiary State.
  • If in future Odisha decides to increase its ayacut, the cost of the proposed barrage should be shared between both the States, the tribunal ordered, in accordance with the agreement reached by the two States in 1962.
  • The three-member tribunal with Justice Mukundakam Sharma declared the yield of the river at Gotta Barrage as 115 tmcft and said that both the States should share it equally.
  • The tribunal also permitted Andhra Pradesh to construct a side weir (dam) , but put several conditions on the quantity and duration of drawal of water.
  • Vamsadhara is an inter-State river originating in the Eastern Ghats near Lanjigarh of Kalahandi district in Odisha.
  • The river forms a common boundary between the two States for 29 km and flows for 82 km in Andhra Pradesh until it empties into the Bay of Bengal at Kalingapatnam.
  • The total catchment area of the basin is 10,830 square kilometres, with 8,926 sq km (82 %) in Odisha and the rest in Andhra Pradesh.
  • Andhra Pradesh had proposed a barrage at Neradi entailing acquisition of 106 acres of land in Odisha territory in 1961.
  • Odisha agreed to provide the land at that time.
  • The tribunal ordered Odisha to acquire the required land and hand over the same to A.P.

The Hindu wins best news website award

  • The Hindu Group has been awarded two golds and a silver at the South Asian Digital Media Awards at the WAN-IFRA (World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers) India 2017 conference in Chennai.
  • www.thehindu.com won the gold award for the Best News Website. The Hindu ’s site, India’s oldest newspaper website, is fully responsive, adapting seamlessly to different devices and screen sizes.
  • Designed by Itu Chaudhuri Design, the website’s navigation and information architecture is designed to help readers easily and intuitively access content. www.thequint.com and www.ndtv.com won the silver and bronze.
  • Sportstarlive.com won the silver award in the Best in Lifestyle, Sports or Entertainment Website category. Entries were evaluated on criteria such as strong content quality, consistency in user experience, innovative design, use of multimedia and ease of navigation.

Ban pellet guns in Kashmir: Amnesty

  • Amnesty International India asked the government “to prohibit firing pellet shotguns immediately in the Kashmir Valley.
  • Releasing its report, ‘Losing Sight in Kashmir: The Impact of Pellet-Firing Shotguns’ in Srinagar, the human rights organisation highlighted the cases of 88 people “whose eyesight was damaged by metal pellets fired from pump-action shotguns used by the Jammu & Kashmir Police and the Central Reserve Police Force [CRPF] between 2014 and 2017”.
  • Amnesty claimed that pellet victims “faced serious physical and mental health issues, including symptoms of psychological trauma”.
    Several victims, who were the primary breadwinners in their families, fear they will not be able to work any longer. Many have not regained their sight despite repeated surgeries
  • It is unclear if the shotguns have been properly tested, or their effects and risks assessed, or whether there is even any protocol about how they must be used. The government of Jammu & Kashmir has done little to support those injured and disabled by this weapon.
  • Amnesty claimed that 16 personnel from the J&K Armed Police “were treated for pellet injuries in Kupwara in 2016” and that the police and the CRPF refused to furnish information.
  • The human rights organisation called for “prompt, independent and impartial civilians’ investigations into all incidents where the use of pellet-firing shotguns led to deaths or injuries to establish whether arbitrary or excessive force was used”.
  • The report comes just two days after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh admitted in Srinagar that Pelargonic Acid Vanillyl Amide (PAVA) guns introduced to replace pellet shotguns had “failed to yield desired results”.

Workers to get unique number

  • Every worker in the unorganised and organised sector will get a unique identification number that will make it easier for them to get benefits under different social schemes, the Union Minister for Labour and Employment, Santosh Gangwar.
  • The idea of introducing a specific number for more than 40 crore workers of the unorganised sector was part of the labour reforms the NDA government had announced soon after it came to power. All the prominent labour unions have been invited to Delhi for consultations on labour reforms, he added.
  • The idea of a unique number to workers sounds good on paper but there should be some basis to a proposal like this. The government already has sufficient data about the 4.15 crore subscribers of the Employees’
  • Provident Fund Organisation. But so far it has been unable to allot unique numbers to all of them. How then does it plan to go about providing unique numbers to the 45 crore workers in the unorganised sector? This does not sound like a sincere.
  • The ministry is working towards compressing 44 labour laws into four codes – one each for wages, industrial relations, social security, and one for occupational safety, health, and working conditions.

NGOs on strict vigilance

  • The Home Ministry has sent notices to over 1,200 NGOs, asking them to validate the designated bank accounts in which they receive foreign contribution, failure of which will invite punitive action.
  • The list includes Sri Ramakrishna Math, Ramakrishna Mission, Indore Cancer Foundation Charitable Trust, Coimbatore Christian Charitable Trust, Delhi School Of Social Work Society, Hindu Anath Ashram and Madani Darut Tarbiyat.
  • In a circular, the Ministry said all NGOs registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) should receive foreign donations in a single designated bank account.
  • A number of such organisations have not validated their foreign contribution designated accounts, causing problems for the banks to comply with the FCRA provisions that they [banks] report to the Central government within 48 hours of such receipt or utilisation of foreign contribution.
  • These associations are required to validate their foreign designated accounts and also the utilisation accounts immediately and send the details, including the bank branch, code, account number, IFSC code and so on through FC 6 form which is available on https://fcraonline.nic.in,
  • Non-compliance may lead to penal actions as per FCRA 2010.
  • The Modi government, which has tightened the rules for NGOs, has already cancelled the registration of more than 10,000 of them in the past three years for alleged non-filing of annual returns as mandated in the FCRA.
  • In addition, licences of more than 1,300 NGOs were not renewed or were closed in the recent past for allegedly violating various provisions of the FCRA.
  • Nearly 6,000 NGOs have been asked to open their accounts in banks having core banking facilities.

Election commission says plea against NOTA not valid

  • The Election Commission has told the Supreme Court that a plea by a Gujarat Congress leader challenging the use of None of the Above (NOTA) option in the Rajya Sabha polls in the State is not maintainable.
  • Seeking dismissal of the plea filed by Congress chief whip in the Gujarat Assembly Shailesh Manubhai Parmar, the EC said that from January 2014, biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha have been held in many States and the NOTA option has been given since then.
  • It is submitted at the outset that the present writ petition is not maintainable before this court as the contents of the said writ petition do not disclose the violation of any fundamental right of the petitioner or any other person for that matter.
  • The poll panel also said the petition was an “abuse of the process of law and a waste of precious judicial time of this court.”
    The top court had on August 3 agreed to examine the constitutional validity of the NOTA provision in the Rajya Sabha polls saying the issue needed to be debated.
  • From January 2014, biennial elections to Rajya Sabha have been held in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 covering all states and 25 by-elections to Rajya Sabha have also been held. It is pertinent to point out herein that the NOTA option was a part of every Rajya Sabha elections held since 2014
  • It referred to the constitutional provisions and said that any election to the Rajya Sabha can only be called into question by way of an election petition only.
  • The provisions of NOTA in the ballot papers for the elections to the council of states has been made by the EC to effectuate this right of electors guaranteed to them under the said section 79(A) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951

Blue Whale challenge

  • The Supreme Court agreed to hear a petition for an immediate directive to the government to ban Blue Whale, an online game which may be behind the deaths or attempted suicides of teenagers and young adults hooked to it.
  • A Bench, led by the Chief Justice of India, heard an urgent mention by advocate C.R. Jaya Sukin, representing another lawyer N.S. Ponnaiah, who urged the government to take immediate measures to spread awareness of the dangers of the game and curb its availability online.
  • Mr. Sukin argued that the government had not taken sufficient steps even after the cases of self-inflicted injuries and suicides increased.
  • The game had spread across the cities, enticing even school students. The game “goads young people into killing themselves. It encourages people to take part in increasingly dangerous dares that culminate in instructions to kill themselves.

Nirmala Sitharaman in high profile panels

  • In another step-up for Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was elevated in the recent Cabinet restructuring exercise, the government has not only included her in the high-profile Cabinet Committee on Security but also made her a full-time member of the Cabinet Committees on Economic and Political Affairs.
  • Ms. Sitharaman, who held Independent charge of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry with a Minister of State rank, was earlier only a special invitee to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).
  • Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan have also been upgraded from special invitees to full-time members of the CCEA. Mr. Goyal, who now heads the Railway and Coal Ministries, has been inducted into the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, along with Ms. Sitharaman.
  • Among the newly inducted Ministers, Hardeep Singh Puri is the only one to have made the cut as a special invitee to the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation.
  • One notable change in the Cabinet Committees is the inclusion of Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawarchand Gehlot in the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs. S.S. Ahluwalia and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, earlier Ministers of State for Parliamentary Affairs, have been substituted by their replacements, Vijay Goel and Arjun Ram Meghwal.

Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, will lay the groundwork for the next level of collaboration during the annual summit meeting to be held in Gandhinagar.
  • The Ministry said the high point of the visit was likely to be the joint inauguration of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project and bilateral security dialogue.
  • The two leaders will review the recent progress in the multifaceted cooperation between India and Japan under the framework of their ‘Special Strategic and Global Partnership’ and will set its future direction.
  • Mr. Abe begins a two-day visit on September 13 during which he and Mr. Modi will hold wide-ranging bilateral discussions covering bilateral and global issues. This will be the fourth annual summit between them.
  • The leaders would jointly participate in the ground-breaking ceremony for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project using Japanese Shinkansen technology — also known as the bullet train project — in Gandhinagar.
  • Through a video-link, they will participate in the ground-breaking ceremony of the High Speed Railway Training Institute to be set up in Vadodara.
  • Mr. Abe will visit the memorial dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi at Dandi Kutir. However the focus of Mr.Abe’s visit is likely to be the bilateral discussion on security issues, especially on North Korea and China.
  • India-Japan ties are at a crucial phase in a range of areas, including defence and security.
  • In their annual defence dialogue last week, the two countries had resolved to collaborate closely in defence production, including on dual-use technologies.

Could Hybrid electoral system be a solution

  • Two Congress representatives, Rajya Sabha member Vivek Tankha and former Union Minister Mukul Wasnik, argued that “majority aspirations” and the “actual will of the people” is not getting reflected in election results.
  • Mr. Tankha told the committee that the first-past-the-post system had worked well in the beginning because there was one-party domination (the Congress winning a plurality of the seats by securing close to a majority of the votes).
  • The voting percentage was also very high. But now because of a division of votes, a party with even a 20% share does not get a single seat, while a party with a 28% share an get a disproportionately large number of seats.
  • Whoever gets elected does not truly represent the majority aspirations. And a true democracy cannot exit without reflection of the majority aspirations.
  • Mr. Tankha also suggested a dual system where separate votes for a candidate and a party could be considered. This system is followed by various European countries.
  • From the CPI(M), Polit Bureau member S. Ramachandran Pillai pointed out that in the 2009 elections, the BJP had 18.1% votes but 116 seats in the Lok Sabha. While, in the previous elections, the Congress got 19.35% votes but only 44 seats. Parties together polling almost 50% of the votes were totally excluded. This fact has been repeatedly flagged by CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury.
  • The recommendations of the Law Commission’s 170th and 255th report should be implemented. A mix of both first-past-the-post and proportional representation should be tried. Both the reports had suggested that 25% or 136 more seats should be added to the Lok Sabha and be filled by proportional representation.

Women’s tech park at Harohalli

  • The women’s tech park at Harohalli,Bengaluru which was first announced during the Invest Karnataka Meeting in February 2016, is expected to be inaugurated by November. From automobile sector to food processing and garments, the park is, in its core, a display of the power of women in the industry.
  • The park in Harohalli, which will accommodate at least 90 entrepreneurs, may open by November
  • Currently, nearly 20 employees work out of a 1,100 sq. ft workspace churning out sugar confectioneries that are sold across India and even exported.
  • From automobile sector to food processing and garments, the park is, in its core, a display of the power of women in the industry.
  • The tech park was first announced during the Invest Karnataka Meeting in February 2016, with the hope of completing it within the end of the year.
  • However, Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) officials said land acquisition was a hurdle.
  • While 300 acres in Harohalli Phase III on the outskirts of the city have been earmarked for the women’s tech park, nearly 106 acres have been developed so far. Layout formation, roads and other infrastructure work are nearing completion.
  • From designing crèches and playschools to incorporating a natural lake to add aesthetics, the designing of the industrial area involved a lot of feedback from women entrepreneurs themselves
  • while the 5% reservation policy in 158 industrial areas across the State continues, the women-only park will be crucial to enhance networking among women entrepreneurs.

Xafecopy Trojan’new malware alert

  • A new malware ‘Xafecopy Trojan’ has been detected in India which would steal money through mobile phones, cyber security firm Kaspersky said.
  • Around 40% of target of the malware had been detected in India. Xafecopy Trojan is disguised as apps like BatteryMaster, and secretly loads malicious code on the phone.

All women crew to circumnavigate the world

  • Skippered by Lt. Cdr. Vartika Joshi, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, the all-women team has Lt. Cdr. Pratibha Jamwal of Kullu, Himachal Pradesh; Lt. Cdr. Swathi P. of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh; Lt. Aishwarya Boddapati of Hyderabad, Telangana; Lt. Sh Vijaya Devi of Manipur and Lt. Payal Gupta of Uttarakhand as crew members.
  • Among other things, the crew will collate and update Meteorological/Ocean/Wave data on a daily basis for subsequent analysis by research and development organisations. They will also monitor and report marine pollution on the high seas.
  • The first Indian solo circumnavigation was undertaken by Capt. Dilip Donde, SC (Retd) from August 19, 2009 to May 19, 2010 on board the Indian built vessel, INSV Mhadei.
  • The first Indian non-stop solo circumnavigation was undertaken by Cdr. Abhilash Tomy, KC from November 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013.
  • Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hailed the global circumnavigation being attempted by an all-women Indian Navy crew of ‘Navika Sagar Parikrama.’
  • ‘Navika Sagar Parikrama,’ perhaps the first-ever attempt by an all-women crew to circumnavigate the globe, will have stopovers at four ports Fremantle (Australia), Lyttleton (New Zealand), Port Stanley (Falklands) and Cape town (South Africa) for replenishments and repairs. It will return to Goa in April next year.
  • The crew has sailed approximately 20,000 Nm on board INSV Mhadei and Tarini as part of training, which included two expeditions to Mauritius (in 2016 and 2017) and a voyage from Goa to Cape Town in December 2016.
  • The project is seen as essential for promoting ocean sailing activities in the Navy, while highlighting Government of India’s thrust for Nari Shakti.
  • The Indian Navy said the project would help to discard societal attitudes and mind-set towards women.
  • Among other things, the crew will collate and update Meteorological/ Ocean/ Wave data on a daily basis for subsequent analysis by research and development organisations. They will also monitor and report marine pollution on the high seas.

Refugees challenging Article 35A

  • Some refugees from West Pakistan, who had migrated to India during Partition, have moved the Supreme Court challenging Article 35A of the Constitution relating to special rights and privileges of permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
  • The petition said nearly 3 lakh refugees had arrived from West Pakistan, but those settled in Jammu and Kashmir had been denied the rights guaranteed under Article 35A.
  • A Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud tagged the plea of the refugees, who are settled in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, with similar matters pending before it.
  • Earlier, a Kashmiri Pandit woman, Charu Wali Khanna, had approached the court challenging the provision.
  • Petitioners Kali Das, his son Sanjay Kumar and one other, in their plea, said they were raising issues seeking conferment of basic natural and human rights.

Bonda Tribes migration

  • The Bonda Development Agency (BDA) has started an inquiry and survey in the remote Bonda-inhabited villages in Malkangiri district of Odisha following reports that these primitive tribals are migrating to other States in search of employment and that some of their women are being sexually exploited.
  • A minor Bonda girl recently lodged a complaint with the Mudulipada police station, alleging that a man had lured her through promises and made her pregnant. She is seven months pregnant now.
  • According to media reports, another minor Bonda girl has also come up with a similar allegation but has not approached the police.
  • As allegations are rife about mass migration of Bonda tribals from Odisha in search of livelihood, the administration has taken the issue seriously.
  • Officials of the BDA have started an on-the-spot inquiry and survey relating to migration and alleged sexual harassment of Bonda women outside the State.
  • Some Bondas undertake seasonal migration after the end of the kharif season and return by Durga Puja to start agricultural work.
  • Through the on-the-spot inquiry and enumeration, the BDA plans to prepare a proper data base about Bonda migration and realise the reasons behind it.
  • Bondas are considered to be one of most primitive tribes in the world.
  • As per an official survey in 2015, around 8,000 Bonda tribals live in 32 villages of four panchayats under Khairaput block. Their villages are located in remote and isolated hilly region north-west of the Machhkund river.
  • Their habitat in Khairaput block is called the Bonda valley.

SUVs will be charged extra 7% cess while small cars are exempted

  • GST Council lowers some rates, extends filing deadlines
  • Bringing some relief to firms struggling to file Goods and Services Tax (GST) returns due to glitches on the GST Network, the GST Council on Saturday decided to extend the deadline for filing returns.
  • The Council also decided to set up a ministerial group to assess and fix the IT challenges. The Council also decided to bring some relief to consumers by reducing the GST rate on about 30 items of common use including idli and dosa batter, oilcakes, raincoats, rubber bands, roasted peanuts, ‘dhoop agarbattis’ and dried tamarind.
  • The Council also spared small cars from a cess hike in the range of 2% to 7% that has been imposed on mid-size, luxury and sports utility vehicles (SUVs).
  • The meeting has taken voluminous decisions on wide-ranging issues brought before by the fitment panel after thoroughly examining the proposals, objections and concerns put forward by States with the help of experts.
  • The GST Council has also decided to constitute a Group of Ministers to monitor and resolve the technology challenges faced during GST implementation.
  • The Council also extended the deadlines for filing returns for the first month of GST (July) up to October 31. The deadline would now be October 10 for GSTR-1, October 31 for GSTR-2, November 10 for GSTR-3 and October 18 for GSTR-4, the Finance Ministry said.
  • A panel of officers under Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia has also been tasked to examine GST-related issues faced by exporters. The Federation of Indian Exporters said there are several ‘pressing issues’ that need attention, including quicker refunds of taxes paid on exports and exempting export-oriented units from integrated GST levy.

All India programme to test all TB patients

  • Beginning September, health authorities will commence a nationwide programme to test every tuberculosis (TB) patient for signs of resistance to first-line drugs.
  • Other than providing a realistic assessment on the scale of resistance to commonly-available tuberculosis drugs, experts said this could also reveal a large number of hidden tuberculosis patients, as well greater numbers of those with multiple infections of TB and HIV.
  • Even as India tops the world in the number of tuberculosis cases, the WHO (World Health Organisation) estimates that possibly as many as a million Indians with TB could be outside government scrutiny.
  • In 2015 alone, nine million Indians were tested for suspected tuberculosis and about 900,000 were confirmed to be ailing from it. Nearly 3% of new TB cases and 18% of prevalent cases are believed to be drug resistant, though independent analyses peg these numbers as much higher.
  • The new policy, called the Universal Drug Sensitivity Test, which was formalised, will be implemented using a molecular diagnostic test called GeneXpert, a US-developed technology tool being used worldwide since 2010.
  • It can detect the TB bacterium as well check for resistance to rifampicin, one of the standard key TB drugs, within 90 minutes. Conventional tests take at least a day or more and require well-trained personnel for similar results.
  • The programme will first be implemented in the States mentioned and then expanded to rest of country. States that will first see this policy being implemented include Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand.
  • States will have access to more geneXpert machines but the implementation is their responsibility.These, however, are not the States with the highest tuberculosis burden.
  • The WHO’s TB statistics for India for 2015 — the latest available — gives an estimated incidence figure of 2.2 million cases of
  • TB for India out of a global incidence of 9.6 million.
  • An inability to rapidly diagnose multi-drug resistant tuberculosis has long been identified as among the chinks in India’s strategy to eliminate tuberculosis.
  • There are only around 600 GeneXpert devices now in use roughly one for each district and this posed a stumbling block to deploying the WHO-recommended kits earlier.
  • GeneXpert kits, though one of their kind, are also known to be expensive, as well as requiring air-conditioned settings and reliable electricity access for optimal output. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is in the process of testing a cheaper alternative to GeneXpert called Truenat MTB, which is reportedly more portable, battery-operated, and performs as well at lower costs.

‘sahayak’ system

  • Despite the military reforms approved by the Cabinet, Army sources say there is no immediate end to the sahayak system that is actually holding up thousands of combat soldiers from active duty.
  • The Cabinet approved a series of reforms meant to enhancing the combat capability and rebalancing defence expenditure of the Army to increase the teeth-to-tail ratio by which 57,000 soldiers would be redeployed to operational duties.
  • The recommendations were made by a committee headed by Lt. Gen. (retd.) DB Shekatkar. Surprisingly, the committee which had a wide-ranging mandate and made about 99 recommendations did not include any on the system.
  • There are over 30,000 soldiers employed as sahayaks or orderlies both in peacetime and forward locations. There have been recommendations, time and again, to end the practice and replace the sahayaks in peacetime locations with civilians freeing up the soldiers for combat roles.
  • The debate was renewed early this year, when several videos had surfaced on social media in which soldiers vented out views against the discrimination under the system. Following this, Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat strongly defended it and warned personnel against taking to social media to air views as it “affects the morale of the jawans and thereby the Army”.
  • The government too had strongly defended the system while promising a full review.

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