SC open to liquor sale on city highways
- The Supreme Court prima facie observed that there may be nothing wrong in de-notifying particular stretches of highways running inside city limits as city roads and such declassification does not violate its order that national and State highways across the country should be liquor-free zones.
- A Bench of Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud orally observed that the purpose of the December 15, 2016 prohibition order on sale of liquorwithin a distance of 500 metres from the outer edge of national and State highways was to prevent drunken driving on high-speed thoroughfares.
- Chief Justice Khehar remarked that traffic inside city limits is usually slow and heavy, and stretches denotified fall within the city limits.
- The goal of the liquor ban was to prevent drunken driving in fast-moving traffic. The pace of traffic within the city is very different from traffic outside city limits. Purpose of the ban is to avoid drivers getting inebriated while driving on highways inter-linking cities,”
- The indication from the court may spell future relief to hotels, pubs, especially in the metros, which were forced to shut down following the ban.
- The relief is palpable among these establishments as the court, in March 2017, clarified that the ban was not restricted to just liquor shops alongside the highways but also to other larger establishments, including pubs and hotels.
Article 19(1)(g) provides that all the citizens have the right to practise any profession ,or to carry on any occupation,trade or business.
Governor threatened and insulted me, says Mamata
- West Bengal witnessed an unprecedented political showdown on Tuesday with Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee indulging in a public spat.
- At a press meet she called after Mr. Tripathi raised the communal flare-up at Baduria in the North 24 Parganas during a telephonic talk, the Chief Minister accused the Governor of “threatening and insulting” her.
- At one point, she was unable to take the “humiliation” and felt like “quitting” her post
- Observing that the Governor cannot remain a mute spectator to the affairs of the State, the statement said it is “proper for the Hon’ble Governor to bring to the notice of the Hon’ble Chief Minister any serious grievance made by any member of [the] public or any serious event happening in the State.”
(1) If the President, on receipt of report from the Governor of the State or otherwise, is satisfied that a situation has arisen in which the government of the State cannot be carried on in accordance with he provisions of this Constitution, the President may be Proclamation
Centre plans partial removal of AFSPA in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh
- The Union government is considering a partial removal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and has asked the State governments for their comments, a senior Home Ministry official said.
- AFSPA gives powers to the Army and central forces deployed in "disturbed areas" to shoot to kill and arrest any suspect without a warrant.
- AFSPA came into force in 1958 at the height of the Naga insurgency movement.
- It is in force in Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, in some parts of Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir.
- "Earlier, the notification for extending AFSPA used to be issued for six months or more. We are trying to reduce the duration to three months and will see if it could be withdrawn completely from certain areas. For the time being, proposal is only for Arunachal Pradesh and Assam," the official said.
- The official said that there was no such proposal for Jammu and Kashmir as of now.
- Tripura withdrew AFSPA in 2015.
We waited 70 years, Bibi tells Modi [GS Mains Paper 2]
- “We love India, Mr. Modi,” said Mr. Netanyahu, adding that Israel had awaited for the visit for “a long time, 70 years to be precise.”
- India had voted against the partition of Palestine in 1947 and also against its induction as a United Nations member, finally recognizing the Jewish nation in 1950.
- It wasn’t until 1992 that full diplomatic ties were established, however, by the Narasimha Rao government.
- On Tuesday evening, the leaders went to the Israel Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem together
WORLD HISTORY
- A long-forgotten slice of martial history related to Mysuru will be revisited when Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays tribute to fallen Indian soldiers at the Haifa cemetery in Israel.
- The Mysore Imperial Service played a big role in the liberation of Haifa on September 23, 1918, from Ottoman Turks and Germans, by allied forces.
- This is seen as one of the fiercest battles in the west Asian theatre of World War I in which India, as a British colony, fought German and the Ottoman troops.
- The Mysore Lancers were in the 15th Imperial Service as the forces sent by the princely states of Mysore, Jodhpur and Hyderabad.
- A special recruitment drive was conducted in the princely State and 5,000 men drafted for the war. The then Mysuru Maharaja Nalwudi Krishnaraja Wadiyar sent his troops to defend the empire and even gave nearly ₹50 lakh to the India War Fund
Drug-resistant TB higher among children than expected: report
Multi-Drug Resistant
(MDR) TB is higher
among children than expected.
As many as 5,500 of over 76,000 children tested in nine cities have been diagnosed with TB.
Nine per cent of these paediatric TB cases have been diagnosed to have MDR TB, according to the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and Central TB Division under the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP).
. In 2016, the
proportion of children
among new TB patients reported
was 6%
WHY??
Absence of
appropriate samples coupled
with decentralised capacity
to get good samples from
children to test for TB remains
a challenge in paediatric
TB case detection
Paediatric
MDR-TB cases had not been
documented so far.Children were more prone to
primary MDR infection as
they were in close contact
with their parents and grandparents,
who would have
been infected.
Challenges involved
TB
diagnosis in children is complicated
due to challenges associated
with sample collection
and poor sensitivity of
tests like the Acid fast bacilli
(AFB) smear.
Solutions:
[i] FIND, through
this project, has collaborated
with the Central TB Division
to improve access to more
sensitive diagnostic tools like
the GeneXpert in the paediatric
population
[ii] GeneXpert labs have been established
within the reference
labs of RNTCP in each of
the project cities, catering to
patients in both the public
and private sectors
[iii]GeneXpert MTB/RIF testing
was performed free of
cost for all presumptive paediatric
TB and drug-resistant
TB patients (aged under 15
years).
[iv]As per WHO recommendations,both sputum and non-sputum
specimens are being
tested using GeneXpert except
stool, urine and blood
Malformed baby born to woman whose abortion plea was denied
- On March 27, the Supreme Court rejected the plea of a 28-year-old Mumbai woman to abort her pregnancy in the 27th week. The SC stated that the baby could be ‘born alive’ during the process of abortion
- On Saturday midnight, the woman gave birth to a baby boy with the Arnold Chiari Type II syndrome, which leads to a malformed brain and spinal cord
- The parents say they do not want to take the baby home. “I want to give up the baby for adoption,” Sarika Ghatge (names changed) says, from her hospital bed. “He has so many medical needs. How will we fulfil them?” Ms. Ghatge gave up her job in a private firm to concentrate on her baby, and her husband Hemant works in the HR department of a hospital in Andheri and earns ₹21,000 a month
- He says, “They have told us that the baby would need a spine and brain surgery. We don't know what to say. Everyone looks at us as if we are bad people when we say we can’t take the baby home.”
‘ASEAN seeks greater role by India’
- Opening new possibilities in Southeast Asia, Vietnam on Tuesday asked India to play a greater role in ASEAN’s strategic and security affairs
- Speaking at the Delhi Dialogue IX, a platform for discussion between ASEAN and India, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister said that India should support freedom of navigation in the South China Sea on the basis of international law and conventions.(UNCLOS)
- “ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) supports India to play a greater role in the political and security domain .
- The Vietnamese leader who is on a two-day visit to Delhi, is also the Foreign Minister of his country and held talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. His comments in support of greater role for India in Southeast Asia came even as tension is building up between India and China across the Sikkim sector
ASEAN-India trade relation
Trade & Investment
ASEAN is India's 4th largest trading partner
