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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 06 May 2014

Constitutional validity of RTE Act

The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutional validity of Articles 15(5) and 21-A of the Constitution in so far as it relates to unaided educational institutions to provide compulsory education for children in the age group of 6 to 14 years.
A five-judge Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice R.M. Lodha and Justices A.K. Patnaik, Dipak Misra, S.J. Mukhopadhaya and Ibrahim Kalifulla also upheld the provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2010.
The Constitution 93rd Amendment Act, 2005, inserting clause (5) in Article 15 enables the State to make special provisions for members of the SCs, STs and socially and educationally backward classes, for admission to all educational institutions, including private unaided institutions, but except minority institutions. The right to education law was enacted by Parliament in 2009 by inserting Article 21A to provide free and compulsory education to children between 6 and 14 years.
It imposed obligations on the schools, which included privately-managed unaided educational institutions to admit at least 25% students from weaker sections. A three-judge Bench upheld the constitutional validity of this Act by a majority of 2:1. On a reference that the matter ought to have been decided by a Constitution Bench, it was heard by a five-judge Bench.
Writing the judgment, Justice Patnaik, however, said the minority unaided educational institutions could not be compelled to provide free and compulsory education to children belonging to weaker sections. To this extent the Bench overruled the three judges’ decision upholding the RTE law.
The Bench held that the 93rd Constitution Amendment inserting clause 5 in Article 15 to provide for reservation to weaker sections in admission to unaided private educational institutions did not violate the basic structure of the Constitution.

INS Vikrant’s another lifeline

India’s first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, which was headed for the scrap yard, got another breather from the Supreme Court as it blocked the vessel’s journey to ignominy.
The ship was due at the scrapyard on May 17 after it was sold for Rs.60 crore through an e-auction to the Mumbai-based IB Commercials Pvt Ltd.
Through the ‘Save Vikrant Committee’, Mr. Paigankar and other activists last month moved the apex court in a bid to save the vessel which saw action in the 1971 India-Pakistan war.
The imposing vessel, commissioned in the Indian Navy in 1961, was decommissioned in 1997 and has been kept anchored at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai.
During the hearing of Mr. Paigankar’s public interest litigation in January, the Central government informed the Bombay High Court that the 15,000-tonne ship had completed its operational life.
The Maharashtra government expressed its inability to preserve it as a floating museum owing to financial constraints, following which the Bombay High Court dismissed Mr. Paigankar’s PIL.
The 70-year-old vessel, purchased as HMS Hercules from Britain in 1957 and rechristened as ‘INS Vikrant’, helped enforce a naval blockade of East Pakistan — now Bangladesh — during the 1971 war.

Abuse of power case

Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra defended herself against abuse of power allegations in a crucial court case that is one of several legal challenges, which could remove her from office.
Ms. Yingluck is accused of abusing her authority by transferring her National Security Council chief in 2011 to another position. Critics say the transfer was to benefit her ruling party and violated the Constitution.
The case was lodged by anti-government senators, who won an initial victory in February when another court ruled that the official, Thawil Pliensri, must be restored to his job.
If Ms. Yingluck is found guilty of interfering in state affairs for her personal benefit or that of her political party, she would have to step down as Prime Minister.

E-auction of iron ore

The Goa Mines and Geology Department will hold its third e-auction of iron ore on May 12, wherein six lakh tonnes of ore, lying at jetties and the Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) would be e-auctioned.
The State, through MSTC Ltd., has auctioned 1.62 million tonnes of iron ore through two e-auctions in February and March, realising around Rs.260 crore, which would go to the State treasury.
These e-auctions are held under the supervision of a Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee, headed by U. V. Singh.
The Supreme Court, partially relaxing its October 5 ban on iron ore activities in the State, in December last had permitted the Goa Mines Department to auction about 15 million tonnes of iron ore lying at jetties, mining leases, plots, beneficiary plants and port, all under the supervision of its committee.
However, on April 21, the apex court lifted its ban on mining activities, but putting a cap of 20 million tonnes for annual production and ruling that since the renewal of all the deemed mining leases in the State had expired on November, 2007, and the operations carried out, thereafter, have been termed illegal, the mining lessees will not be entitled to the sale value of the ore sold in e-auction but to the approximate cost (not actual cost) of the extraction of the ore.
Making government the custodian of the money collected through e-auction, the court directed the State to pay 50 per cent of wages of all the workers who were laid off or were not paid salaries since the time the mining operations were suspended.

Metro AG

German retailer Metro AG plans to have 50 wholesale stores in India by 2020 and make the country one of its 'focus expansion' markets alongside Russia, China and Turkey.
India has always been an important future growth market of Metro .
The Dusseldorf-based company was the first global player to enter the cash-andcarry wholesale segment in India, back in India. It currently operates 16 outlets in the country.

No impact of global warming

A New Study Done By Researchers From Florida State University (FSU) Claimed That Though The World Has Been Warming Over The Past 100 Years, There Are Some Areas In The World Which Are Still Cooling.
The researchers analyzed global land and surface temperature trends since 1900 and concluded that the arctic and subtropical regions in both hemispheres were first to witness global warning. It is to be noted that the researchers did not look at temperatures from Antarctica.
According to researchers, the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitude regions witnessed maximum amount of heating, but some areas of the world, including the some equatorial regions, actually cooled down.
The findings of the study are published in the journal Nature Climate Change. "The global climate has been experiencing significant warming at an unprecedented pace in the past century" the FSU study aid. "This warming is spatially and temporally non-uniform, and one needs to understand its evolution to better evaluate its potential societal and economic impact" .

New RCA president

Following the election of Lalit Modi as president of Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) hits back by 'indefinitely' suspending the association. The cricket board also appointed an ad-hoc body to run RCA's cricket affairs.
Modi was elected President of RCA, setting the stage for yet another round of legal tussle between him and the Board, which had threatened to ban the state association in anticipation of this result.
The RCA elections were held in December last year but the results were sealed following a Supreme Court directive. And it was opened recently by a court-appointed observer with the former Indian Premier League commissioner defeating his opponent, Rampal Sharma. Ouf of the 33 votes, Modi got 24, while Sharma got five.
The BCCI had asked the RCA to dissociate itself from Modi, or face action after the latter was banned for life for financial irregularities in the IPL in September 2013.
However, Modi – riding on the Rajasthan Sports Act 2005, contested the election for the post of president. The former Commissioner of the IPL was seeking to return to cricket administration.