April 2020 Magazine - Abhyas | Homepage€¦ · 9. YUKTI 10. Convalescent plasma therapy 11. Belle...

Smart Abhyas/April/2020 1


Polity and Social Issues

1. Ways and Means Advances

2. New domicile rule for Jammu and Kashmir

3. Essential Commodities Act 1955

4. Restrictions on court hearings lawful, says Supreme Court

5. NHAI achieves highest ever Construction of National Highways in FY 2019-20

6. Rs 15000 crores for COVID-19 Emergency response

7. Kendriya Bhandar assists in the fight against COVID-19

8. TRAI wants set top boxes to be made interoperable

9. Indian Council for Cultural Relations(ICCR)

10. National Legal Services Authority (NALSA)

11. SC Collegium

12. National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of India

13. The World Press Freedom Index 2020

14. Cabinet approves ordinance making acts of violence against health care workers as cognizable, non-bail-able offences

15. Central Vigilance Commission (CVC)

16. Basic structure of India’s constitution

17. Strategic oil reserves

18. Global Report on Internal Displacement 2020

Geography. Ecology and Biodiversity

1. Grounding of planes partially hits IMD’s weather data supply

2. Record sea temperatures cause third mass bleaching of Great Barrier Reef

3. Biofortified carrot variety developed by farmer scien-tist benefits local farmers

4. Myristica swamps

5. Fall Armyworm: What you need to know

6. India to receive normal monsoon, forecasts IMD

7. The Indian Monsoon : What you need to know

8. Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB)

9. Ozone layer hole

Economy

1. Exclusive wing for banking fraud oversight

2. Currency swap line

3. e-NAM completes four years of implementation

4. RBI relief measures

5. Amendments to India’s consolidated FDI Policy, 2017

6. Currency exchange rate

7. Remittances to India likely to drop by 23 pct this year: World Bank urrency exchange rate

Government Schemes and Initiatives

1. New features of e-NAM platform

2. Ayushman Bharat Scheme

3. MP Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme

4. Pharmacists of Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Kendra

5. Swadesh Darshan Scheme

6. E-Gramswaraj Portal, Mobile app and Swamitva scheme

7. National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP)


Science and Technology

Point Blank (Facts for prelims)

International Relations, Summits and Meetings

1. NASA SunRISE Mission

2. COVID Quarantine Alert System

3. Impact of COVID-19 : Increase in NPAs

4. Hydroxychloroquine

5. ”Samadhan” Challenge

6. Disease cluster

7. Cytokine storms

8. Remote patient health monitoring system

9. YUKTI

10. Convalescent plasma therapy

11. Belle II experiment: What you need to know

12. US approves sale of missile, torpedoes worth $155 million to India

13. Biggest star explosion ever observed

14. Researchers use AI to predict battery health and safety

15. Scientists reveal planet ‘most similar to Earth’ found by NASA’s Kepler

16. Types of human coronaviruses

17. First merger of two black holes with unequal masses detected

18. Natural product based Alzheimer inhibitor

1. Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

2. Operation Sanjeevani

3. Asian Development Bank (ADB)

4. Global chemical weapons watchdog blames Syria for toxic attacks

5. World Health Organisation (WHO)

6. South Asia Economic Focus report 7. International Monetary Fund

8. World Economic Outlook

9. ASEAN Leaders Meet Online

10. Plenary Meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) of the IMF

11. 5th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of New Development Bank

12. India co-sponsors resolution calling for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines

13. The United States Commission on International Reli-gious Freedom (USCIRF) Report 2020

14. ADB approves $1.5 bn loan to India

15. ‘Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2019’ Report

16. US places India on ‘Priority Watch List’ 17. International Financial Services Centres Authority

18. India’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations

1. Operation Sanjeevani

2. Corona Bonds

3. World Health Day

4. 70 Years of Indian Council for Cultural Relations

5. Kendriya Bhandar

6. Lifeline Udan

7. SAMADHAN Challenge

8. Science and Technology of Yoga and Meditation (SA-TYAM) programme


9. Bharat Padhe Online Campaign and YUKTI web-portal

10. Sahyog App

11. CollabCAD in Atal Tinkering Labs

12. Portable Sensor for Heavy Metal Detection in Water

13. Kisan Rath App

14. National Analytical Platform for Dealing with Intelli-gent Tracing, Tracking and Containment (NAADI)

15. Operation Shield

16. SAFE PLUS Scheme

17. CovidGyan

18. Helicopter Money

19. e-Raktkosh portal

20. Kasowal Bridge on River Ravi

21. CovidIndiaSeva

22. Noor

23. COVSACK

24. Journalism Emergency Relief Fund

25. Crisis Recovery Facility

26. Trimeresurus salazar

27. 430 feet long bailey bridge at Daporijo


POLITY AND SOCIAL ISSUES

Ways and Means Advances

What is the issue?

• The government has increased the limit on Ways and Means Advance (WMA) by 60% to support the cash flow mismatch expected from higher spending to combat the spread of COVID-19.

More on the issue

• The Ways and Means Advances scheme was intro-duced in 1997.

• The Ways and Means Advances scheme was in-troduced to meet mismatches in the receipts and payments of the government.

• These are temporary loan facilities provided by the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) to the central and state governments to meet mismatches in the receipts and payments. But it has to return the amount with-in 90 days. Interest is charged at the existing repo rate.

• However, if the tenure is extended, it will be treated as an overdraft which is charged above the repo rate

• The limits for Ways and Means Advances are decided by the government and RBI mutually and revised periodically.

• A higher limit provides the government flexibility to raise funds from RBI without borrowing them from the market.

New domicile rule for Jammu and

Kashmir

What is the issue?

• A person residing in Jammu and Kashmir for at least fifteen years will now be eligible to be a domicile of the union territory, according to the new rule issued by the Centre.

More on the issue

• Section 3A of the J&K Reorganisation (Adaptation of State Laws) Order 2020, under the J&K civil services (decentralisation and recruitment) Act, has been introduced to define domicile as that “who has resided for a period of fifteen years in the UT of J&K or has studied for a period of seven years and appeared in class 10th/12th examination in an educa-tional institution located in the UT of J&K.”

• Before August 5, Article 35 A of the Constitution of India (now abrogated) empowered J&K assembly to define a J&K resident, who alone were eligible to apply for jobs or own immovable property.

• The definition within the gazette expands to include “children of those central government officials, all India services officers, officials of PSUs and auton-omous body of central government, public sector banks, officials of statutory bodies, officials of central universities and recognised research institutes of the central government who have served in Jammu and Kashmir for a total period of ten years or children on parents who fulfil any of the conditions in sections.”

• Additionally, persons registered as a migrant by the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner (Migrants) in the UT of J&K, will also be included in the definition. “Children of such residents of J&K as reside outside UT of J&K in connection with their employment or business or other professional or vocational rea-sons” but. their parents fulfil any of the conditions provided earlier.

• The provisions of the Act authorise the Tehsildar as the competent authority for issuing the domicile certificate, as opposed to deputy commissioner or any officer specially notified by the state government by way of a gazette notification in the form of a SRO.


Essential Commodities Act 1955

When was it enacted?

• Essential Commodities Act was enacted in 1955. It has been amended several times.

What is the main principle behind the Act?

• To ensure the delivery of certain commodities, the supply of which if obstructed owing to hoarding or black marketing would affect the normal life of the people.

Which commodities does it cover?

Seven major commodities are covered under the act. Some of them are:

1. Petroleum and its products, including petrol, diesel, kerosene, Naphtha, solvents etc

2. Food stuff, including edible and seeds, vanaspati, pulses, sugarcane and its products like, khandsari and sugar, rice paddy

3. Jute and textiles

4. Drugs- prices of essential drugs are still controlled by the DPCO

5. Fertilisers- the Fertiliser Control Order prescribes restrictions on transfer and stock of fertilizers apart from prices

Salient features

• Protects consumers against irrational spikes in prices of essential commodities.

• Food and civil supply authorities execute the provi-sions of the Act. They generally raid the premises of the businessmen to find out violations along with the local police, who have the power to arrest.

• The Act empowers the Centre to order states to im-pose stock limits and bring hoarders to task, in order to smoothen supplies and cool prices. Generally, the Centre specifies upper limits in the case of stock holding and states prescribe specific limits.

• In case there is a difference between states and the Centre, the act specifies that the latter will prevail.

Restrictions on court hearings lawful,

says Supreme Court

What is the issue?

• The Supreme Court deemed all restrictions imposed on people from entering, attending or taking part in court hearings as lawful in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic.

• SC said these restrictions were in tune with the social distancing norms and best public health practices advocated to contain the contagion.

• In the past few days, the SC and the High Courts had stopped open court hearings. Cases were heard via videoconferencing to ensure social distancing. The Supreme Court premises was completely shutdown.

More on the issue

• The court invoked its extraordinary Constitutional powers under Article 142 to step away from the convention of open court hearings. The open court system ensures transparency in the administration of justice.

• “Every individual and institution is expected to coop-erate in the implementation of measures designed to reduce the transmission of the virus. The scaling down of conventional operations within the pre-cincts of courts is a measure in that direction, it is necessary that courts at all levels respond to the call of social distancing and ensure that court premises do not contribute to the spread of virus. This is not a matter of discretion but of duty,”.

• The court made it clear that public health takes precedence over conventions. Judiciary would have to improvise and continue to bank heavily on “vid-eoconferencing technologies” in the wake of this “unprecedented and extraordinary outbreak of a pandemic”.

Guidelines issued by the Apex Court

• In a series of directions, the apex court allowed the High Courts to decide the modalities for the tempo-rary transition to the use of videoconferencing


technologies in their respective States. District courts in each State would adopt the mode of vid-eoconferencing prescribed by the respective High Courts. Helplines would be set up to receive and rectify technical complaints.

• The courts should make available videoconferencing facility for litigants who do not have it or appoint an amicus curiae.

• Until appropriate rules are framed by the High Courts, videoconferencing should be employed for hearing arguments. “In no case shall evidence be recorded without the mutual consent of both the parties by videoconferencing. If it is necessary to record evidence in a courtroom, the presiding officer shall ensure that appropriate distance is maintained between any two individuals in the court,” the apex court order said.

NHAI achieves highest ever Construc-tion of National Highways in FY 2019-

20

What is the issue?

• National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has accomplished the construction of 3,979 km of na-tional highways in the financial Year 2019-20. This is the highest ever highway construction achieved in a financial year by NHAI.

Bharatmala Pariyojana

• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has envisaged an ambitious highway development pro-gramme Bharatmala Pariyojana which includes the development of about 65,000 km national highways.

• Under Phase-I of Bharatmala Pariyojana, the Minis-try has approved implementation of 34,800 km of national highways in 5 years with an outlay of Rs 5,35,000 crore. NHAI has been mandated develop-ment of about 27,500 km of national highways under Bharatmal Pariyojna Phase-I.

National Highways Authority of India or NHAI

• National Highways Authority of India was formed under the NHAI Act in 1988.

• It is an autonomous organization that looks after the management of the complete network of National Highways in the country.

Functions of NHAI

• Developing, maintaining and managing National Highways (NH) across the country.

• Collecting fees/tolls on NH, regulating and con-trolling the plying of vehicles on NH for proper management.

• Developing and providing consultancy and construc-tion services on a national and international level. Also, conducting research activities that help devel-op, maintain and manage highways or other facilities thereat.

• Advising the Central government on issues related to NH.

• Formulating and implementing schemes for NH development.

• Constructing offices and residential buildings for NHAI employees.

• Providing facilities and amenities to NH users neces-sary for the smooth flow of traffic on such highways.

Rs 15000 crores for COVID-19 Emer-

gency response

What is the issue?

• The Centre has sanctioned 15 thousand crore rupees for India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package.

• Out of it, Rs. 7774 crore rupees will be utilized for immediate COVID-19 Emergency Response and rest for medium-term support of one to four years to be provided under mission mode approach.

More on the issue

• Key objectives of the package include mounting emergency response to slow and limit COVID-19 in the country through the development of diagnostics and COVID-19 dedicated treatment facilities, central-ized procurement of essential medical equipment


and drugs required for treatment of infected pa-tients.

• Besides, the aim of the package is also to strengthen

and build resilient National and State health sys-tems to support prevention and preparedness for future disease outbreak.

• It also includes setting up of laboratories and bolster surveillance activities, bio-security preparedness, pandemic research and proactively engage commu-nities and conduct risk communication activities. These interventions and initiatives would be imple-mented under the overall umbrella of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Kendriya Bhandar assists in the fight against COVID-19

What is the issue?

• Kendriya Bhandar, which functions under the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has taken the unique initiative of providing “Essentials Kits” to needy families

• Each such Kit consisting of 9 items is meant to assist one needy family for some time.

• 9 items in the kit are Rice, Wheat Flour, Dal, Cooking Oil, Chiwda/Poha, Salt, Bathing Soap bar, Detergent Soap bar, and Biscuits.

More on the issue

• Kendriya Bhandar is the Central Government Em-ployees Consumer Cooperative Society Ltd, estab-lished in 1963.

• The society endeavours to serve the Central Govern-ment Employees and the general public at large by providing quality goods of daily needs at reasonable prices and playing an effective role in the Public Dis-tribution System through its retail outlets.

• It is the largest Consumer Cooperative Society in the country. It is a Multi-State Consumer Cooperative Society, i.e. functioning in more than one state.

TRAI wants set top boxes to be made interoperable

What is the issue?

• The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has rec-ommended that all set-top boxes (STBs) in the coun-try must be interoperable, meaning that consumers should be able to use the same STB across different DTH or cable TV providers.

• The regulator also suggested that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting make the required amendments in licensing and registration conditions to make interoperability mandatory.

Observations made by TRAI

• The lack of interoperability of set-top boxes be-tween different service providers not only deprives the customer of the freedom to change her/his ser-vice provider, but also creates a hindrance to tech-nological innovation, improvement in service quality, and the overall sector growth.

• Noting that there are technical and commercial constraints to the universal STB, it added that the in-teroperability should be platform-specific, i.e., STBs are interoperable within the cable TV segment and similarly within the DTH segment

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

Nature of organisation?

• Independent Regulatory Body

Established in which year and under which act?

• Was established with effect from 20th February 1997 by an Act of Parliament, called the Telecom Regula-tory Authority of India Act, 1997, to regulate telecom services, including fixation/revision of tariffs for tele-com services which were earlier vested in the Central Government.

• The TRAI Act was amended by an ordinance, effec-tive from 2000, establishing a Telecommunications Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) to take over the adjudicatory and disputes functions from TRAI.


• TDSAT was set up to adjudicate any dispute between a licensor and a licensee, between two or more service providers, between a service provider and a group of consumers, and to hear and dispose of ap-peals against any direction, decision or order of TRAI.

Chairman/President?

• Chairman is appointed by the Appointments Commit-tee of the Cabinet.

Members

• Separate Secretariat to ensure smooth functioning of the body.

Functions of the organisation?

• TRAI is charged with ensuring the orderly growth of the telecom sector while protecting the interests of both telecom service providers and consumers.

• It encourages technological improvements and makes recommendations for how providers can im-prove efficiency and technical compatibility.

• TRAI establishes standards for quality of service and supervises how service providers share revenue.

• TRAI also conducts periodical surveys to ensure that telecom service providers are acting in the best in-terest of consumers and are operating in compliance with universal service obligations.

Indian Council for Cultural Rela-tions(ICCR)

What is the issue?

• The Indian Council for Cultural Relations(ICCR) is celebrating its 70th Foundation Day.

Indian Council for Cultural Relations(ICCR)

• The Indian Council for Cultural Relations(ICCR) is an autonomous body under the administrative control of the Ministry of External Affairs.

• It was founded in 1950 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad who was the first Education Minister of independent India.

Objectives:

• Formulate and implement policies and programmes pertaining to India’s external cultural relations

• Strengthen cultural relations and mutual understand-ing between India and other countries and

• Promote cultural exchanges with other countries and people and to develop relations with nations.

National Legal Services Authority (NALSA)

What is the issue?

• The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has said that around 11,077 undertrials have been released from prisons nationwide as part of the mission to decongest jails following the COVID-19 pandemic.

• NALSA said it had been providing assistance to prisoners who were eligible to be released on parole or interim bail under the relaxed norms, through its panel lawyers.

National Legal Services Authority

• The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) was constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 which came into force in 1995 to establish a nationwide uniform network for providing free and competent legal services to the weaker sections of the society.

• The Chief Justice of India is the Patron-in-Chief and the second senior-most judge of Supreme Court of India is the Executive Chairman of the Authority.

• NALSA identifies specific categories of marginal-ised and excluded groups and formulates various schemes for implementation of legal service pro-grammes.

• It provides services of free legal aid in civil and crim-inal matters for the poor and marginalised people who cannot afford the services of a lawyer in any court or tribunal.

• It also organises Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes.


• It works in close coordination with various State Legal Services Authorities, District Legal Services Authorities and other agencies.

SC Collegium

What is the issue?

• The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the appointment of a Calcutta High Court judge as the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court.

What is the Supreme Court of India Collegi-um system and how does it work?

• The Collegium of the Supreme Court consists of 5 se-nior most Judges including the Chief Justice of India.

• They will consider the elevation of Chief Justices/Judges of High Court to Supreme Court, the eleva-tion of Judges of High Courts as Chief Justices and elevation of Judges.

• In case of difference of opinion, the majority view will prevail. Since the Constitution mandates consul-tation with the Chief Justice of India is necessary for appointments to the judiciary, the collegium model evolved.

What is the Collegium System and is it rec-ognised by the Indian Constitution?

• It is a system under which appointments and trans-fers of judges are decided by a forum of the Chief Justice of India and the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court.

• It is not recognised by the Indian Constitution.

What does the Constitution actually pre-scribe?

• Article 124 deals with the appointment of Supreme Court judges.

• It says the appointment should be made by the Pres-ident after consultation with such judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court as the President may deem necessary.

• The CJI is to be consulted in all appointments, except his or her own.

• Article 217 deals with the appointment of High Court judges. It says a judge should be appointed by the President after consultation with the CJI and the Governor of the state. The Chief Justice of the High Court concerned too should be consulted.

How and when did the other system evolve?

First Judges Case: In S.P. Gupta Vs Union of India, 1981, the Supreme Court by a majority judgment held that the concept of primacy of the Chief Justice of India was not really to be found in the Constitution.

• It held that the proposal for appointment to a High Court can emanate from any of the constitutional functionaries mentioned in Article 217 and not nec-essarily from the Chief Justice of the High Court.

• The Constitution Bench also held that the term con-sultation used in Articles 124 and 217 was not con-currence—meaning that although the President will consult these functionaries, his decision was not bound to be in concurrence with all of them.

• The judgment tilted the balance of power in appoint-ments of judges of High Courts in favour of the ex-ecutive. This situation prevailed for the next 12 years.

Second Judges Case: In The Supreme Court Advo-cates-on-Record Association Vs Union of India, 1993, a 9-judge Constitution Bench overruled the decision in S.P. Gupta and devised a specific procedure called Collegium System for the appointment and transfer of judges in the higher judiciary.

• Underlining that the top court must act in ‘protecting the integrity and guarding the independence of the ju-diciary’, the majority verdict accorded primacy to the CJI in matters of appointment and transfers while also ruling that the term consultation would not diminish the primary role of the CJI in judicial appointments.

• Ushering in the collegium system, the court said that the recommendation should be made by the CJI in consultation with his two senior-most col-leagues and that such recommendation should normally be given effect to by the executive.

• It added that although it was open to the executive to ask the collegium to reconsider the matter if it had an objection to the name recommended, if, on recon-sideration, the collegium reiterated the recommenda-tion, the executive was bound to make the appoint-ment.


Third Judges Case: In 1998, President K.R. Narayanan issued a Presidential Reference to the Supreme Court over the meaning of the term consultation under Article 143 of the Constitution (advisory jurisdiction). The ques-tion was whether ‘consultation’ required consultation with a number of judges in forming the CJI’s opinion, or whether the sole opinion of CJI could by itself constitute a ‘consultation’.

• In response, the Supreme Court laid down 9 guide-lines for the functioning of the forum for appoint-ments and transfers—this has come to be the pres-ent form of the collegium, and has been prevalent ever since.

• This opinion laid down that the recommendation should be made by the CJI and his four senior-most colleagues, instead of two.

• It also held that Supreme Court judges who hailed from the High Court for which the proposed name came, should also be consulted. It was also held that even if two judges gave an adverse opinion, the CJI should not send the recommendation to the govern-ment.

• It was also held that even if two judges gave an adverse opinion, the CJI should not send the recom-mendation to the government.

What are the arguments against the collegi-um system?

Experts point to systemic errors such as:

• The administrative burden of appointing and trans-ferring judges without a separate secretariat or intelligence-gathering mechanism dedicated to collection of and checking personal and professional backgrounds of prospective appointees

• A closed-door affair without a formal and transpar-ent system.

• The limitation of the collegium’s field of choice to the senior-most judges from the High Court for appointments to the Supreme Court, overlooking several talented junior judges and advocates.

What is the suggested alternative to the colle-gium?

• A National Judicial Commission was recommended as a proposal.

• The Constitution (98th Amendment) Bill was intro-duced in the Lok Sabha by the NDA government in 2003.

• It provided for the constitution of an NJC to be chaired by the CJI and with two of the senior-most judges of the Supreme Court as its members. The Union Law Minister would be a member along with an eminent citizen to be nominated by the President in consultation with the Prime Minister. The Com-mission would decide the appointment and transfer of judges and probe cases of misconduct by judges, including those from the highest judiciary.

• In 2015, a 5-judge Constitution Bench declared as ‘un-constitutional’ the constitutional amendment that sought to create the NJAC, which had envisioned a significant role for the executive in appointing judges in the higher judiciary.

National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of India

What is the issue?

• Union Ministry of Culture launched the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of India. The National ICH List is an attempt to recognize the diversity of Indian culture embedded in its intangible heritage.

• It aims to raise awareness about the various in-tangible cultural heritage elements from different states of India at national and international level and ensure their protection.

• This initiative is also a part of the Vision 2024 of the Ministry of Culture

Following UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, this list has been classi-fied into five broad domains in which intangible cultural heritage is manifested:

• Oral traditions and expressions, including language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage;

• Performing arts;

• Social practices, rituals and festive events; • Knowledge and practices concerning nature and the

universe;


• Traditional craftsmanship.

About the List

• The present items in the list have been collated from the projects sanctioned under the scheme for ‘Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage and Diverse Cultural Traditions of India’ formulated by the Ministry of Culture in 2013.

• As of now, the list has more than 100 elements, It also includes the 13 elements of India that have al-ready been inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intan-gible Heritage

• It was adopted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2003 and entered into force in 2006.

Objectives: • to safeguard the expressions of intangible cultural

heritage that are endangered by the processes of globalization;

• to ensure respect for the intangible cultural heritage of the communities, groups and individuals;

• to raise awareness at the local, national and inter-national levels of the importance of the intangible cultural heritage.

The World Press Freedom Index 2020

What is the issue?

• India has dropped to rank 142, two points below its 2019 rank, in the World Press Freedom Index 2020

• The annual press freedom list is produced by the campaign group Reporters Without Borders(RSF) which surveys the state of the media in 180 countries and territories. Among the nations with the top ranks are Scandinavian countries Norway, Finland and Denmark, while countries like North Korea (180), Vietnam (175) and Syria (174) were some of the low-est-ranked. India ranked better than its neighbours Pakistan (145) and Bangladesh (151), but worse than Sri Lanka (127) and Nepal (112).

More on the issue

• RSF’s latest report attributes India’s rank to the government “tightening” its grip on the media, and pressuring it to “toe the Hindu nationalist govern-ment’s line”.

• Among other issues, it has listed coordinated social media hate campaigns against journalists reporting on issues that “annoy Hindutva followers”, criminal prosecutions to gag journalists critical of authorities and police violence against journalists.

• The report also suggests that India’s rank is heavily affected by the situation in Kashmir, where it has become “virtually impossible” for journalists to do their job.

• “With no murders of journalists in India in 2019, as against six in 2018, the security situation for the country’s media might seem, on the face of it, to have improved. However, there have been constant press freedom violations,” the group said.

• In the year 2020 so far, across the world, 10 journal-ists have been killed, 229 imprisoned and 116 citizen journalists imprisoned while one media assistant was killed and 14 media assistants imprisoned across the world.

• At the lowest rank of 180, North Korea scored the worst in terms of press freedom due to its leader Kim Jong-un’s totalitarian regime that has kept its citizens in a “state of ignorance”.

• Norway, which has consistently ranked number one since 2017, was cited for how its government prizes democracy and freedom of expression, and also noted the recent formation of a special commis-sion meant to conduct comprehensive reviews on conditions of freedom of speech. The commission is meant to specifically look into safeguarding journal-ists, and come up with ways to curb fake news and hate speech.


Cabinet approves ordinance making acts of violence against health care workers as cognizable, non-bailable

offences

What is the issue?

• The Union Cabinet has approved promulgation of Ordinance to amend the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 in the light of COVID-19 pandemic situation, making acts of violence against the healthcare workers as cognizable and non-bailable offences.

Provisions

• Provision to provide compensation for injury to healthcare service personnel or for causing damage or loss to the property.

• Any investigation into the cases of attack on health-care workers will be completed within 30 days and judgment will be pronounced within one year.

• The accused of the attack can attract a punishment ranging from 3 months to 5 years and a fine from 50 thousand rupees to 2 lakh rupees.

• In case of grievous injuries, the accused can be sen-tenced from 6 months to 7 years and they can also be penalized from one lakh to 5 lakh rupees.

• If the damage is done to the vehicles or clinics of healthcare workers, then a compensation amounting to twice the market value of the damaged property will be taken from the accused.

Other steps taken by the government

• Providing 50 lakh rupees insurance cover each for all healthcare workers including doctors, nurses and ASHA workers.

• Under Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Aro-gya Yojana, the beneficiary will get the treatment in COVID hospital free of cost in case of coronavirus infection and in case of non-COVID diseases, the beneficiary will also be eligible to get the treatment in non empanelled hospitals free of cost through the certificate issued by the government hospital.

Cabinet okays Rs 15,000 crore for ‘India COVID-19 emergency response, health sys-tem preparedness package’

• The Union Cabinet approved investments of Rs. 15,000 crore for ‘India COVID-19 Emergency Re-sponse and Health System Preparedness Package’ to enhance emergency response to slow and limit COVID-19 in India.

Objectives:

• Development of diagnostics and COV1D-dedicated treatment facilities,

• Centralized procurement of essential medical equip-ment and drugs required for treatment of infected patients,

• Strengthen and build resilient National and State health systems to support prevention and prepared-ness for future disease outbreaks,

• Set up of laboratories and enhance surveillance ac-tivities, biosecurity preparedness, pandemic research

• Engage communities and conduct risk communica-tion activities

Central Vigilance Commission (CVC)

Nature of organisation?

• Statutory

Established in which year and under which act?

• Central Vigilance Commission was set up by the Gov-ernment in February 1964 on the recommendations of the Committee on Prevention of Corruption, headed by Shri K. Santhanam.

• Consequent upon promulgation of an Ordinance by the President, the Central Vigilance Commission has been made a multi-member Commission with “statu-tory status” with effect from 25th August 1998

• CVC Bill was passed by both the Houses of Parlia-ment in 2003. Thus the Central Vigilance Commission Act 2003 came into effect from that date.


Works under which ministry/department?

• Autonomous

Chairman/President?

• Central Vigilance Commissioner

Members?

• Two Vigilance Commissioners

• The Central Vigilance Commission has its own Secre-tariat, Chief Technical Examiners’ Wing (CTE) and a wing of Commissioners for Departmental Inquiries (CDI).

Functions of the organisation?

• Exercise superintendence over the functioning of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (CBI) and also give directions for superintendence insofar as it relates to the investigation of offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

• To inquire or cause an inquiry or investigation to be made on a reference by the Central Government.

• To inquire or cause an inquiry or investigation to be made into any complaint received against any official belonging to such category of officials specified un-der their jurisdiction.

• Review the progress of investigations conducted by the DSPE into offences alleged to have been commit-ted under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 or an offence under the Cr.PC.

• Review the progress of the applications pending with the competent authorities for sanction of prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

• Tender advice to the Central Government and its organizations on such matters as may be referred to it by them.

• Exercise superintendence over the vigilance admin-istrations of the various Central Government Minis-tries, Departments and Organizations of the Central Government

• Shall have all the powers of a Civil court while con-ducting any inquiry.

• Respond to Central Government on mandatory consultation with the Commission before making any rules or regulations governing the vigilance or disciplinary matters relating to the persons appoint-ed to the public services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or to members of the All India Services.

• The Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) is the Chairperson and the Vigilance Commissioners (Mem-bers) of the Committee, on whose recommenda-tions, the Central Government appoints the Director of Enforcement and also officers to the post of Depu-ty Director and above.

• The Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) is also the Chairperson and the Vigilance Commissioners (Mem-bers) of the Committee empowered to recommend after consultation with Director (CBI), appointment of officers to the post of the level of SP and above except Director and also recommend the extension or curtailment of tenure of such officers.

Basic structure of India’s constitution

What is the issue?

• 47 years ago, the Supreme Court passed its landmark judgment in Kesavananda Bharati vs State of Kerala, considered among the most significant constitution-al cases in India’s judicial history.

• By a 7-6 verdict, a 13-judge Constitution Bench ruled that the ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution is invio-lable, and could not be amended by Parliament. The basic structure doctrine has since been regarded as a tenet of Indian constitutional law.

What is a Constitution, and how can it be amended• The Constitution of a country is the fundamental

law of the land. It is based on this document that all other laws are made and enforced. Under some Con-stitutions, certain parts are immune from amend-ments, and are given a special status compared to other provisions.

• In the early years of Independence, the Supreme Court conceded absolute power to Parliament in amending the Constitution, as was seen in the verdicts in Shankari Prasad (1951) and Sajjan Singh (1965).

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