Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 04 June 2019

::NATIONAL::

Bombay high court upholds death penalty against repeated offenders of child rape

• The Bombay High Court on Monday upheld the constitutional validity of a section of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) under which life imprisonment or death penalty can be awarded to repeat offenders in rape cases.

• The provision was introduced by the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, on February 3, 2013, on the basis of recommendations of the Justice J.S. Verma Committee, which was formed to consider changes in law to deal more sternly with offenders in sexual offence cases following the outrage over the brutal gangrape of a 23-year-old paramedical student in Delhi in 2012.

• In its 117-page judgment, the court held, “There is no vagueness and confusion inasmuch as there exists a procedure which is just, reasonable and fair to deal with the implementation of Section 376E.” The court said it did not find any merit in the challenge to the constitutional validity of Section 376E, and dismissed the petitions.

• With the dismissal of the petitions, another Bench of the High Court will now take up for final hearing appeals filed by the convicts challenging their conviction and death penalty imposed by the sessions court and also a petition filed by the State government for confirmation of their sentence.

Government to consider new bill to ban triple talaq

• Government will again bring a bill in Parliament to ban the practice of instant triple talaq.

• Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said this while taking charge of his ministry in New Delhi on Monday. He said, the issue of triple talaq is part of the party's manifesto.

• The contentious Bill had lapsed as it could not be passed by Parliament and was pending in the RajyaSabha. Bills that are introduced in the RajyaSabha and are pending there do not lapse with the dissolution of the LokSabha. But Bills passed by the LokSabha and pending in the RajyaSabha lapse.

• The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill makes all declarations of instant triple talaq void and illegal. It seeks to make the practice a punishable offence with imprisonment of three years.

• Talking about the priorities of his Ministry, Mr Prasad said, with synergy of technology and legal procedure, legal access will be made more effective.

::ECONOMY::

RBI to reduce exposure of public sector banks

• The Reserve Bank of India has decided to reduce banks’ exposure to a group of connected parties to 25% of its capital base, while the exposure to a single party has been capped at 20%. However, bank boards can allow an additional 5% exposure in ‘exceptional cases.’

• Till now, a bank’s exposure to a single borrower and a borrower group was restricted to 15% and 40% of capital funds respectively.

• The central bank, which notified a new framework for large exposures of banks, on Monday decided to exclude entities connected with the sovereign from definition of group of connected counterparties.

• The RBI has introduced economic interdependence criteria in definition of connected counterparties in the new guidelines. “The sum of all the exposure values of a bank to a single counterparty must not be higher than 20% of the bank’s available eligible capital base at all times,” the RBI said.

• “In some cases, a bank may have exposures to a group of counterparties with specific relationships or dependencies such that, were one of the counterparties to fail, all of the counterparties would very likely fail. A group of this sort, referred to in this framework as a group of connected counterparties, must be treated as a single counterparty,” it said.

Draft copyright amendment rules published in gazette

• Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has sought -suggestions from the people on the proposed draft Copyright Amendment Rules, 2019.

• In a statement, Commerce and Industry Ministry said, the draft rules are available on www.egazette.nic.in for seeking comments and suggestions from all people till 29th of this month.

• The Ministry said, Copyright Amendment Rules have been introduced to ensure smooth and flawless compliance of Copyright Act in the light of technological advancement in digital era and to bring them in parity with other relevant legislations.

• The copyright regime is governed by the Copyright Act, 1957 and the Copyright Rules, 2013. It said, the Copyright rules, 2013 were last amended in 2016 through the Copyright Amendment Rules, 2016.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

UNSecurity Councilto discussSudani crisis

• The UN Security Council will meet today to discuss the crisis in Sudan after security forces violently broke up weeks of protests against military rule.

• In this incident, more than 30 people have been dead and hundreds injured. According to reports, Britain and Germany requested the talks yesterday.

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres criticized Sudan's security personnel for using excessive force.

• In a statement, Mr.Guterres said, he is alarmed by reports that security forces have opened fire inside a hospital in Khartoum and called for an independent investigation into deaths from the violence.

• Mr.Guterres urged Sudanese authorities to facilitate an independent investigation of the deaths and ensure that those responsible are held accountable.

• The US said it was a brutal attack while the UK called it outrageous. After the President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown in a coup in April, the country has been governed by a military council.

• Meanwhile, leaders of the pro-democracy movement, said they were stopping all contact with the Transitional Military Council and called a general strike.

India rejects OIC reference to Kashmir issue

• India on Monday categorically rejected yet another unacceptable reference to matters internal to India at the conclusion of the 14th Islamic Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC

• Meeting was held at Makkah, Saudi Arabia on 31st May. In response to media queries, on the reference to the Indian State of Jammu Kashmir in the OIC Final Communique, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that the OIC has no locus standi in matters relating to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

• Mr. Kumar said Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of India and reiterated that OIC should refrain from making such unwarranted references.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Army rehabilitation centre brings in ‘Udchalo’ initiative

• In a bid to make wounded soldiers, who are now confined to wheelchairs, self-reliant, an initiative ‘UdChalo’ is all set to take off at the Army’s Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre (PRC) in Punjab’s Mohali.

• ‘UdChalo’ is a travel portal, that caters for the personal travel of the military and paramilitary forces personnel by aggregating defence fares and getting exclusive discounts. The PRC has joined hands with UdChalo with an aim to empower the disabled military veterans.

• Col. Chadda points out that paraplegic and quadraplegic veterans have found a purpose in life through ‘UdChalo’, when they interact with fellow soldiers and resolve their concerns.

• “It is a life re-lived. The initiative is unique and has given a new lease of life of these soldiers who are now confined to wheelchairs,” he said. PRC provides institutionalised care to soldiers, who are wounded in military or insurgency operations and can’t adequately provide for themselves the constant medical care associated with quadriplegia and paraplegia. Currently, PRC has 31 ex-servicemen from across the country.

::SPORTS::

World archery gives warning to Indian association on separate election issue

• World Archery, the governing body for the sport on Monday warned the Archery Association of India of immediate suspension if it goes ahead with two separate elections on June 9.

• The suspension would mean that the Indian team competing in the World Championships would only be able to compete under a World Archery flag and not the national flag.

• The Indian archery team will kick-off its World Championships campaign on Tuesday, aiming to seal the quota places for Tokyo Olympics.

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