DNA 27th JULY

Privacy is a fundamental but wholly qualified right: Centre

• The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that privacy was indeed a fundamental right, but a “wholly qualified” one
• This led a nine-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar on Wednesday to sum up Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal’s submission thus: “You are saying that right to privacy is a fundamental right. But not every aspect of it [privacy] is a fundamental right. It depends on a case-to-case basis.

 

• The Attorney General explained to the Bench that the government did not consider privacy to be a single, homogeneous right but rather a “sub-species of the fundamental right to personal liberty and consists of diverse aspects. Not every aspect of privacy is a fundamental right.” Some aspects of privacy were expressly defined in the Constitution, while some were not
• Mr. Venugopal argued that privacy was submissive to the fundamental right to life under Article 21. Aadhaar was a measure by the state to ensure the teeming millions of poor in the country were not reduced to lead an “animal existence.”

Ruckus over MP filming House 

The Congress demanded that the act of filming the live proceedings of the Lok Sabha by Anurag Thakur, BJP MP, be referred to the Privileges Committee.

Dual yardstick Alleging a dual yardstick, the party recalled that Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann had been suspended for an entire session for a similar offence, but Mr. Thakur had been let off with a “simple warning” 

Committee of Privileges[Lok Sabha]

• This committee consist of 15 members nominated by the speaker.
• Its function is to examine every question involving the breach of privilege of the House or of the members of any committee thereof referred to it by the house or by the speaker .It determines with reference to the facts of each case whether a breach of privilege is involved and makes suitable recommendations n its report.
• With the coming into force w.e.f 18.03.1986 of the members of Lok sabha (Disqualification on ground of Defection)Rules 1985 ,made by the speaker under 10^th Schedule to the Constitution ,an additional function has been assigned to the  committee .The Speaker may refer to the committee any petition regarding disqualification of a member on ground of defection for making a preliminary enquiry and submitting a report to him.

Policy boosts care for blood disorders

• People living with Thalassaemia, sickle cell anaemia and other variant haemoglobins can now look forward to better screening and treatment.
• The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry’s new policy on the Prevention and Control of haemoglobinopathies in India.
• Supported by the National Health Mission, Blood Cell and the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram, the guidelines provide for screening of pregnant women during antenatal check-up, pre-marital counselling at college level and one-time screening for variant anaemia in children.
• Thalassaemia and sickle cell anaemia are the most frequently encountered ‘rare blood disorders’ in the country and impose a significant economic burden on families.
• The policy aims at creating treatment protocol benchmarks, to improve the quality of life of patients.
• It is also a guide on prevention and control, which includes antenatal and prenatal testing to reduce the incidence of live haemoglobin disorder births (currently pegged at 10,000-15,000 live births a year).
• The guidelines include the creation of a national registry to plan future patient services. The registry will also collect useful data, such as the location of patients to identify areas of high concentration, ethnicity or other characteristics, age distribution, records of deaths and their cause.
• Testing cannot be made compulsory and people should opt for it.  

 ‘India-Israel ties can affect Al Aqsa conflict’

• India’s friendly ties with Israel could ‘interfere’ with the ongoing Israel-Palestinians conflict over the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem
•  The Palestinian Ambassador, termed Israel’s latest security measures in Al Aqsa compound a ‘religious war’ and said Palestine expected a “positive attitude” from the Indian government
• The Al Aqsa mosque is an Islamic place of worship. 
• Jerusalem is a city of three religions and we respect all religions

CAC adopts Codex norms for three spices

• In a significant move, the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) adopted three Codex standards for black, white and green pepper, cumin and thyme paving the way for an universal agreement on identifying quality spices in various countries
• The CAC cleared these standards at its session held in Geneva recently. 
• It will help evolve a common standardisation process for their global trade and availability.
•  Codex standard will bring harmony to the global spice trade and ensure availability of high quality, clean and safe spices to the world
• small beginning considering the number of commodities waiting in the ranks for the standardisation process. But what is really heartening is that spices have made a definitive entry into the league of commodities having Codex standards, and India played a key role in achieving this objective.
• The Codex Alimentarius or “Food Code” is a collection of standards, guidelines and codes of practice adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
• The Commission, also known as CAC, is the central part of the joint FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations)/WHO (World Health Organisation) Food Standards Programme.
• It was established by FAO and WHO to protect consumer health and promote fair practices in food trade.

‘India must free procurement’:RCEPTalks

• Pressure is mounting on India to open up its more than $300 billion-worth public procurement market under the proposed mega Free Trade Agreement (FTA) called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
• Government procurement broadly refers to the process by which government (at the Central, State and local levels), its agencies/ departments and State owned enterprises procure goods and/or services only for their own use, and not for sale/resale commercially.
• Insistence on binding commitments :An increasing number of countries including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand as well as a few from the 10-member ASEAN bloc including Singapore and Malaysia, were pushing for binding commitments to mutually liberalise government procurement markets in the 16 Asia Pacific nations, including themselves and India involved in the mega-FTA talks  
• The 16 countries agreed to constitute a Working Group on government procurement to take forward negotiations on the topic and include it as a separate chapter in the final agreement
• India would not give in to the demands from these countries for “market access and national treatment (equal treatment of foreign and local firms)” pertaining to government procurement in the RCEP agreement 
• India's firm stand :Even in India’s separate FTAs with Japan, South Korea and Singapore (that are already in force), “market access and national treatment” have been kept out of the government procurement chapter
•  The maximum extent that India could go to, is to agree to ensure transparency and cooperation in government procurement matters (including information exchange and sharing of knowledge) as part of the RCEP agreement
• ‘Language barrier’: Countries like China, Japan and South Korea, may outwardly have an open procurement market, but make it difficult for foreign firms to participate by phrasing requirements in local language
• India is not a signatory to the Government Procurement Agreement within the WTO framework because it wants to retain its policy space to meet its development needs through public procurement process.
•  In May 2017, the Indian government had brought out a policy providing preference in government procurement to local goods and services suppliers. 
• This was to push the ‘Make In India’ initiative, ensure greater flow of capital and technology into domestic services and manufacturing, and in turn, boost job creation locally as well as promote small enterprises.
• Then in June, it came up with an order restricting or excluding from public procurement tenders in India, the firms from those nations where Indian suppliers are not allowed to participate and/or compete in government procurement process.

Boost for India on easy visa norms 

• A few ASEAN countries are also understood to be supporting India’s proposal for an RCEP Travel Card to facilitate visa-free multiple short-term entry across the RCEP region for business and tourism purposes.
• India, which has a vast pool of services professionals, including from IT/ ITeS, sector, had been leading the talks on easing restrictions on temporary movement of professionals.