DNA 26th July

In a first, Nifty breaches the 10,000-mark

What is the Nifty and the Sensex ?

• Both the Nifty and the Sensex are the Indices.
• They represent a group of top companies averaged out in a single number.If the sensex is up,you can say that on average ,most stocks are gaining and vice-versa.
• There are two main exchanges in India-The NSE & the BSE
• The Nifty is an index from the NSE ,it has 50 stocks in the Index.
• The Sensex(or sensitivity Index ) is from the BSE and comprises of 30 stocks.
• Nifty is weighted average of 50 stocks from 24 sectors .

Centre gives 35 names for High Court judges

• The Law Ministry has forwarded the names of 35 candidates to the SC collegium for appointment as judges in five High Courts, as recommended by the HC collegiums of Madras, Kerala, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Gujarat. 
• The government has forwarded the names following a background check by the Intelligence Bureau. 
• It is learnt that most candidates are from the subordinate judiciary. The five HCs had a vacancy of 97 judges as on July 1

 BACKGROUND:Memorandum of Procedure 

earlier Clauses in the MoP ,like the Executive's prerogative to reject Judicial Candidates recommended by the collegium on the ground of "national security" are no longer a roadblock.

supreme court collegium,initially,wanted the Government to specify the reason for rejecting a name forwarded to it by the top court.

The MoP is the procedure evolved in 1998 under which the transfer/appointment of Judges are done with mutually acceptable norms between the collegium comprising the five senior most SC Judges led by the CJI and the Government.     

Govt. may not split Air India for stake sale

• The central government may not sell Air India's domestic and international operations separately, senior government officials have said.
• "We are not willing to go back to the days of Air India and [erstwhile] Indian Airlines as the disinvestment process of the national carrier may become unattractive," a senior Aviation Ministry official, requesting anonymity, said.
• India's largest low-cost carrier IndiGo expressed formal interest in buying Air India's foreign operations and its low-cost international airline Air India Express.
• Since its inception days, Air India's operations were split into two companies - Air India for international routes and Indian Airlines for the domestic market.
• In 2007, the government merged the two airline operations into a single entity - National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL) which was later renamed as Air India Limited in 2010

Sri Lanka clears revised deal for Hambantota port

• Sri Lanka’s Cabinet cleared a revised deal for the Chinese-built port in Hambantota.
•  The modified agreement, the government added, was more profitable to Sri Lanka and also addressed security concerns raised by other countries

Contours of Revised deals:

1.To sell 70% stake in the southern port to the state-run China Merchants Port Holdings for $1.12           billion

2.As per the revised agreement Sri Lanka will manage the port security

3.While the Chinese would manage port operations, no naval ship, including Chinese ones, can call at    Hambantota without our permission

Wary of the Chinese:

• India’s apprehensions about the apparently growing Chinese presence in the island nation are well known, given the two countries’ competing strategic interests here. 
• The Hambantota port is part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. 
• Beijing’s stake in the port and its plan to acquire 15,000 acres of adjoining land to help Colombo set up an industrial zone have strengthened the fears of those wary of China’s growth in the region. 

For China’s global ambitions, ‘Iran is at the centre of everything’

• For millennia, Iran has prospered as a trading hub linking East and West. Now, that role is set to expand in coming years as China unspools its ‘One Belt, One Road’ project, which promises more than $1 trillion in infrastructure investment — bridges, rails, ports and energy — in over 60 countries across Europe, Asia and Africa. 
• Iran, historically a crossroads, is strategically at the centre of those plans. 
• Like pieces of a sprawling geopolitical puzzle, components of China’s infrastructure network are being put in place. In eastern Iran, Chinese workers are busily modernising one of the country’s major rail routes, standardising gauge sizes, improving the track bed and rebuilding bridges, with the ultimate goal of connecting Tehran to Turkmenistan and Afghanistan
• Much the same is happening in western Iran, where railroad crews are working to link the capital to Turkey and, eventually, to Europe. Other rail projects will connect Tehran and Mashhad with deepwater ports in the country’s south
• Once dependent on Beijing during the years of international isolation imposed by the West for its nuclear program, Iran is now critical to China’s ability to realise its grandiose ambitions. Other routes to Western markets are longer and lead through Russia, potentially a competitor of China.

•                                
• A 575-mile electrified rail line linking Tehran and Mashhad, financed with a $1.6 billion loan from China. 
• When completed and attached to the wider network, the new line will enable China to export his goods as far as northern Europe, Poland and Russia, at much less cost than today
• When finished, the proposed rail link will stretch nearly 2,000 miles, from Urumqi, the capital of China’s western region of Xinjiang, to Tehran. 
• If all goes according to plan, it will connect Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan

‘India’s concerns slowing RCEP talks’

India’s reservations regarding the potential adverse impact of eliminating duties on its local manufacturing and job creation is understood to be slowing down the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations

What is RCEP ?

• Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) and the six states with which include India, China, Australia, Japan, South Korea and New zealand.
• In total, the grouping of 16 nations includes more than 3 billion people, has a combined GDP of about $17 trillion, and accounts for about 40 percent of world trade.
• If negotiated successfully, RCEP would create the world’s largest trading bloc and have major implications for Asian countries and the world economy.

Widening trade gap

• “India’s trade deficit [annual] with RCEP nations is about $100 billion, and half of this is with China alone even without an FTA with China.” 
• “Post India’s FTA with ASEAN, Japan and Korea [who are all RCEP members], our trade deficit with them have increased, and the government needs to take this into account during RCEP negotiation

DNA 25th jULY

Speaker suspends six Cong. MPs for 5 days 

• Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan suspended six Congress MPs for five days for "unruly behaviour" and disrupting the proceedings of the House.
• The Lok Sabha got off to a stormy start with leader of the Congress' Legislative Party Mallikarjuna Kharge demanding a discussion on widespread incidents of mob violence and murder.
• The party had moved an adjournment motion for the discussion but it was denied by the Speaker.
• This is not the first time Ms Mahajan has suspended opposition MPs; in July 2015 she had suspended 25 Congress MPs for five days for causing disruption.

Related Terms:

Question Hour:The first Hour of every sitting of the Parliament is generally reserved for asking and answering of Questions.

Zero Hour:The time immediately following the Question Hour  has come to be known as Zero Hour.It starts at around 12 noon (hence the name) and members can,with prior notice to the speaker,raise issues of importance during this time.Typically,discussions on important Bills,the Budget and other issues of national importance takes place from 2 PM onwards .  

Gangotri glacier retreated 0.15 sq km in 9 years: govt

The Gangotri glacier has retreated 0.15 sq km between 2007 and 2016, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Monday. 

The melting of Gangotri glacier has been studied by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) by taking Survey of India maps of 1962 as the base 

Study over 40 years: The ISRO study during last four decades has revealed that loss in area of Gangotri glacier during the years: (i) 1962 and 2005 was 3.19 sq km; (ii) 1990 and 2007 was 0.13 sq km and (iii) 2007 and 2016 was 0.15 sq km

Major initiatives taken under the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE) under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) include establishment of a Centre for Himalayan Glaciology at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology in Dehradun and setting up of six thematic task forces

Climate changes: They include natural and geological wealth, water, ice, snow including glaciers, micro flora and fauna and wildlife and animal population, Himalayan agriculture, traditional knowledge system and forest resources and plant diversity. 

He said climate change centres have been set up in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and West Bengal.

He added that as per the fifth assessment report (AR5) of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published in 2014, globally land and ocean surface temperature has risen by 0.85 degrees Celsius (0.65 to 1.06 degrees) over the period of 1880 to 2012

Soul of India is in tolerance: Pranab

In his last address to the nation as the Head of State, President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday stressed the need for pluralism and tolerance, saying that the soul of India resides in these values. 

He also made a strong pitch for freeing public discourse from violence, both “physical as well as verbal”

“Multiplicity in culture, faith and language is what makes India special. We derive our strength from tolerance ” 

Plurality had become an essential part of the country after centuries of assimilation of ideas. The soul of India resided in pluralism and tolerance

 Compassion and Empathy were the “true foundation” of India’s civilisation

He contended that only a non-violent society could ensure the participation of all sections of the people, particularly the marginalised and the dispossessed, in the democratic process

 “India is not just a geographical entity. It carries a history of ideas, philosophy, intellect, industrial genius, craft innovation and experience ”

“We may argue, we may agree or we may not agree. But we cannot deny the essential prevalence of multiplicity of opinion. Otherwise, a fundamental character of our thought process will wither away,” he asserted. 

He reminded people of Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy and said that the creation of an inclusive society had to be an article of faith. The President also stressed the need for financial inclusion for an equitable society, and said that the poorest needed to be empowered.

Opposition seeks scrutiny of Banking Regulation Bill

• Union Finance Minister introduced the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2017, in the Lok Sabha on Monday. 
• The Bill seeks to authorise the RBI to resolve the problem of stressed assets, even as the Opposition demanded that it be sent to a standing committee for scrutiny.  
• The Bill seeks to amend the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, and replace the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance promulgated in May. 
• It allows the RBI to open an insolvency resolution process in respect of specific stressed assets. 
• The RBI will also be empowered to issue directives for resolution and appoint authorities or committees to advise the banking companies on stressed asset resolution.

IMF retains India 2017 GDP growth forecast at 7.2% 

• The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) July World Economic Outlook Update retained India's projected GDP growth rate for 2017-18 at 7.2%, and at 7.7% for 2018-19.
•   “Growth in India is forecast to pick up further in 2017 and 2018, in line with the April 2017 forecast,” the IMF said
• The IMF added that while activity slowed following demonetisation, growth for 2016-17 was higher than anticipated on the back of government spending and stronger momentum in the first part of that year, as revealed by data revisions.
• On the other hand, the growth outlook was revised upwards for Japan, the euro area, and China.
• "Inflation in advanced economies remains subdued and generally below targets; it has also been declining in several emerging economies, such as Brazil, India, and Russia," the IMF said.

DNA 24th JULY

Finally, compensation for women in Odisha's ‘village of widows'

• A labour court in Odisha's Keonjhar district has awarded a compensation of Rs. 46 lakh to the families of those whose bread-winning male members died of silicosis, a preventable occupational lung disease.
• As many as 16 families, mostly represented by widows of diseased employees of a defunct pyrophyllite grinding unit in Madarangajodi, will share the compensation amount among themselves.
• A Jharkhand-based mining company had held the pyrophyllite mining rights over 53.8 hectares at Madarangajodi village, about 25 km from the district headquarter town of Keonjhar. The mining lease was executed in 1982.
• Most male members from Madarangajodi village had started working in the mining unit where pyrophyllite was ground to powder. During the 25 years of operation, most of the workers were exposed to silica.
• Subsequently, they developed breathing problems as a result of years of inhalation of crystalline silica. Villagers, who were unaware of the danger of silicosis, died one after another.
• An Angul-based non-government organisation had moved the National Human Rights Commission, which directed the Keonjhar district administration to carry out an investigation.
• The administration had found merit in the complaint. Although there were allegations of 50 Madarangajodi males dying of silicosis, subsequent investigation by the State labour department had found 29 death cases.
• The deaths could have been easily prevented had the operators adopted occupational safety measures.
• After a social activist came forward to help the innocent villagers and mobilise legal assistance, the labour department sped up the process.

Ordinances should be last resort: Pranab 

• Ordinance route should not be taken on matters which are being considered or have been introduced in the House or a committee of the house.
• If a matter is deemed urgent,the concerned committee should be make aware of the situation and should be mandated to present its report within a stipulated time.
• with the heightened complexity of administration,legislation must be preceded by the scrutiny and adequate discussion .
• scrutiny in committee is no substitute to open discussion on the floor of the house.when the Parliament fails to discharge its law making roles or enacts laws without discussion,it breaches the trust reposed in it by the people.  . 
• Article 123 and Article 213-statement of object and reasons
•   The Bihar State government had approached the Supreme Court after the High Court of Patna declared that repeated re-promulgation of the ordinances was unconstitutional after relying on the D.C. Wadhwa judgment on the dos and don’ts of promulgation of ordinances by another Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in 1986

Suprem Court on state of Bihar vs D C Wahwa case

• In a blow to Ordinance Raj, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court widened the boundaries of judicial review to the extent that it can now examine whether the President or the Governor was spurred by an “oblique motive” to bypass the Legislature and promulgate an ordinance.
• In case the apex court concludes that the President or the Governor was influenced by ulterior motives to promulgate the ordinance, such an act by the two constitutional authorities would amount to a fraud on their powers, the apex court
• “The satisfaction of the President under Article 123 and of the Governor under Article 213 is not immune from judicial review ,”Justice wrote in a common judgement.
• Justice  observed that the apex court would scrutinise whether the satisfaction of the President or the Governor to promulgate an ordinance was based on relevant material or whether it amounted to a “fraud on power or was actuated by an oblique motive.”
• The seminal question that came up in reference before the seven-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur dealt with the constitutionality of seven successive re-promulgations of The Bihar Non-Government Sanskrit Schools (Taking Over of Management and Control) Ordinance of 1989

Forum concerned at ‘secret’ RCEP talks 

• Technical-level talks of the proposed FTA, officially known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), are being held at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre from July 18 to 28.
• Liberalised norms:The RCEP, among other things, aims to liberalise investment norms as well as boost trade by eliminating/ drastically reducing import duties on goods and bringing down ‘barriers’ in the services sector
•  After a daylong meeting, the People’s Resistance Forum against FTAs and RCEP, an umbrella body representing farmers, industrial workers and service sector employees, street vendors, HIV-positive persons, tribal people, environmental activists and women’s organisations, among others, said in a statement that the RCEP would have wide-ranging impact on agriculture, services, access to medicines, investment and e-commerce

Russia keen on selling MiG-35 jets to India

• Russia is keen on selling its new fighter jet MiG-35 to India with the MiG corporation’s chief saying the country has evinced interest in the aircraft and talks were on to understand its requirements.
• It is said to be better than Lockheed Martin’s fifth-generation combat aircraft F-35.  
• He claimed that the MiG-35 would beat the American jet in air-to-air combat.
• The MiG-35 is Russia’s most advanced 4++ generation multipurpose fighter jet developed on the basis of the serial-produced MiG-29K/ KUB and MiG-29M/M2 combat aircraft 

MPC members to get ₹1.5 lakh per meet, must disclose assets 

The government appointees on the powerful Monetary Policy Committee will be paid ₹1.5 lakh per meeting along with air travel and other reimbursements, but will need to observe a “silent period” seven days before and after the rate decision for “utmost confidentiality”.

The silent period and confidentiality requirements will also apply to the three RBI members, including the Governor, on the panel that has been deciding on policy rates since October last year, the central bank has said. 

‘Conflict of interest’
Other Regulations:

• The six-member MPC, constituted in September 2016, has three persons appointed by the central government while the rest, including the Governor, are from the RBI.
• The panel is required to meet at least four times in a year and the RBI has been convening a bi-monthly meeting of this committee
• They are also required to be mindful of, and weigh carefully, any scope for conflict between personal interest and public interest While interacting with profit-making organisations or making personal financial decisions.
•  The regulations further said the schedule of the MPC meetings for the entire fiscal year needs to be announced in advance. 
• At least 15 days of notice is required for convening a meeting ordinarily, but an emergency meeting can be called with 24 hours notice for each member and technology-enabled arrangements need to be made for even shorter notice period meetings.  
• “Members shall observe a silent or blackout period starting seven days before the voting/decision ray and ending seven days after the day policy is announced. During this period, they will avoid public comment on issues related to monetary policy other than through the MPC’s communication framework

DNA 23rd JULY

EC failed to curb ‘invisible money’ in polls, says Jaitley

Union Minister for Finance, Defence and Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley on Saturday blamed the Election Commission for failing to check the use of ‘invisible money’ in elections

 He also took on political parties for preferring the status quo instead of suggesting improvements to the electoral bonds scheme proposed in the Budget

He said the government was already seeing the first signs of improvement in direct and indirect tax compliance due to reforms such as demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax, both of which will make it difficult to generate cash in the future.

                                               ELECTORAL BONDS-explained 

A Sunderbans denizen staves of extinction

A critically endangered resident of the Sunderbans is set to get a new home, beginning a slow journey to recovery from a disastrous decline in the wild. It is more threatened than the Bengal tiger, but far less known

Northern river terrapin (Batagur baska), whose presence in the wild in West Bengal and Odisha had declined to undetectable levels a decade ago.

Batagur baska, the 60- cm-long turtle that is presumed extinct in several Southeast Asian countries, is classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN) in its Red List of threatened species

For the past ten years, officials of the Sunderban Tiger Reserve with support from experts at Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA), have coordinated a recovery program for what is described as the world’s second most endangered turtle, through captive conservation breeding.

 FLUOROSIS

• The Hogenakkal water supply & Fluorosis Mitigation Project ,funded by the Japan Bank for International Co-operation ,seeks to provide potable water to Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri Districts of Tamilnadu ,which are Drought-prone and have recorded Fluoride content above the permissible level in the Ground water  
• Fluoride is an important mineral for all children. Our mouths contain bacteria that combine with sugars in the foods we eat and the beverages we drink. The acid that is produced harms tooth enamel and damages teeth. Fluoride protects the teeth and can even help reverse early signs of decay. But the increased availability of fluoride today has resulted in more of something called dental fluorosis.
• 
  

What is Fluorosis ?

• Dental fluorosis is a change in the appearance of the tooth's enamel surface. The most common types do not affect the function of the tooth and don't cause pain.
• It is a defect in the tooth enamel caused by the excessive exposure to the high concentration of fluoride .Brown,grey and black teeth patches and pits are common among the people living in this area(Tamilnadu)
• Dental Fluorosis is not treatable and the stains are permanent.Excessive consumption of fluoride-contaminated water over time can lead to skeletal Fluorosis 
• The main source of fluoride in the underground water is the rocks that are rich in it.
• The most seriously affected states are Andhra Pradesh,Odisha,Haryana,Punjab,Uttar Pradesh,Rajasthan ,Gujarat and Tamilnadu.     

Govt. delineates 23,000 hectares for petrochemical complex

• Activists say the project will worsen the situation in Cuddalore, Nagapattinam
• Food security issue: The activist felt that the PCPIR would only turn a bad situation worse. The coastal areas in Cuddalore, including the endangered mangrove forests in Pichavaram, are already under threat due to the petrochemical industries. 

In KG basin, is the sea rising or land sinking?

• Fertile agricultural lands in the Krishna Godavari basin are turning saline, raising questions on what is primarily responsible for the phenomenon.
•  land subsidence could be a greater threat to the eastern coast with its fertile river deltas than sea-level rise of a few millimetres per year expected due to climate change.
• The resulting increase in soil salinity affected farms. Increased coastal erosion had also damaged structures.

Naval safety wing remains a pipe dream

• The Union government is yet to give formal sanction to a dedicated organisation for dealing with naval accidents despite a series of accidents involving submarines and ships and loss of several lives.
• An audit by the Comptroller and Auditor-General also says a series of missteps led to the deadly 2013 accident in a submarine off Mumbai in which 18 people were killed.
• "The Indian Navy, since inception, has no institutionalised framework to deal with safety issues. A dedicated organisation for dealing with safety issues was set up by the Indian Navy only in 2014; however, it awaits government's sanction," the CAG report tabled in Parliament said.
• The explosion aboard INS Sindhurakshakand its sinking off Mumbai in August 2013 resulted from a series of missteps, the audit says.
• The audit found that many recommendations of the inquiries into naval accidents had not been implemented. This included installation of smoke and fire detectors in all compartments of submarines and procurement of extended line breathing apparatus (ELBA) sets, carbon composite submarine breathing apparatus (SBA), light weight breathing sets for submarines etc.
• The idea of creating an Indian Navy Safety Organisation was mooted first in 2006 and ultimately promulgated in October 2012, the audit says. "It was set up in February 2014, though it is yet to be sanctioned by Government," the audit said.
• From 2007-08 to 2015-16, a total number of 38 accidents occurred, which led to a loss of 33 lives of service officers and sailors.
• The Navy lost two ships (INS VindhyagiriandTRV A-72) and one submarine (INS Sindhurakshak) in these accidents.
• The audit points out that out of 38 accidents, 15 (39%) occurred due to fire/explosion/flooding, six (16%) of vessels touching the bottom, another six (16%) were caused by collision of vessels and remaining 11 (29%) were of miscellaneous nature which included accidental stranding and suspended movements, venting of poisonous gas, damages to sonar while docking and damage to aircraft hangar onboard the vessel.

Nilekani moots new data protection law

• Former UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani has proposed a new data protection and empowerment law to ensure that individuals have control over their data and can ask service providers to return the data stored with them.
• Terming data the most important resource in the current century, Mr. Nilekani said India must have a strategic policy position on data related issues. Mr Nilekani also backed China's approach of compelling companies to host Chinese users' data within the country, instead of overseas.
• Companies or governments must return user data on demand' under law, says ex-UIDAI chief
• He backed China's approach of compelling companies to host Chinese users' data within the country, instead of overseas.
• "This way, you address the issue of privacy, data colonisation and competition. This is what can be called a data democracy. The time is now because India is now adopting digital at an unprecedented pace," Mr. Nilekani asserted.

What is minimum support price for crops?

• Amid farmers' unrest in many parts of the country, the demand for an increase in minimum support price (MSP) has been voiced regularly.
• A part of the agricultural price policy, MSP is the price at which the government offers to procure farmers' produce during the season.
• While farmers are free to sell their produce to government agencies or in the open market, it is when market prices fall below the MSP that government agencies step in to buy the crop to protect the growers.
• Also, the aim is to safeguard the interest of the consumer by ensuring supplies at a reasonable price.
• The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs announces the MSP at the start of each sowing season, taking into account the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).
• The key considerations, while recommending the MSP for crops, are :

(1)  demand and supply,

(2)  production cost,

(3)  price trends in the domestic and international market and the

(4)  likely implications of the price on consumers.

• The CACP's recommendations are in the form of price policy reports every year, separately for five groups of commodities:

(1)  kharif crops,

(2)  rabi crops,

(3)  sugarcane,

(4)  raw jute and

(5)  copra.

• At present, agricultural commodities for which MSP is given include paddy, wheat, maize, sorghum, pearl millet, barley, ragi, gram, tur, moong, urad, lentil, groundnut, rapeseed-mustard, soyabean, sesamum, sunflower, safflower, nigerseed, copra, sugarcane, cotton and raw jute.

History

• Recognising the need to evolve a balanced and integrated price structure to serve the interests of both producers (farmers) and consumers, the Union government set up a committee on August 1, 1964 to advise the Agriculture Ministry to determine the prices of rice and wheat.
• The domain of coverage was expanded to coarse cereals.
• Later, the government decided to set up a permanent body, called the Agricultural Prices Commission, in 1965.
• This was renamed as the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices in 1985.
• To ensure remunerative price to farmers, the government procured 38.65 million tonnes of rice, 22.93 million tonnes of wheat and 1.3 million tonnes of pulses during 2016-17 in various States.

Concerns:

• Agricultural experts point out that there is hardly any dependable mechanism of government procurement for crops on the MSP in most parts of the country.
• Problems like delay in the setting up of procurement centres by government, exploitation by commission agents (Arthiyas), who most of the time buy the produce from farmers below MSP on one pretext or the other, defeat its purpose.

Way ahead:

• Farming for a majority of small and marginal farmers has not been remunerative.
• Taking advantage of the complexities in the supply chain, middlemen appear to be causing disparities in the price.
• There's a gap between the price of the produce got from the farmer and the price it is sold to the consumer.
• Even though the long-term answer to farmers' indebtedness and distress is a rise in their income, the government till then should either purchase all major crops at the MSP, as is done in the case of wheat and rice in Punjab and Haryana, or subsidise the input costs.
• The concern that a rise in MSP would push up the prices seems unfounded.

Tiger reserves: Economic and environmental win-win

• Tigers are what conservationists call "umbrella" species. By saving them, we save everything beneath their ecological umbrella - everything connected to them - including the world's last great forests, whose carbon storage mitigates climate change.

• What all does a tiger reserve offer?

(1)       employment generation,

(2)       agriculture (incidentally the famous IR-8 rice was discovered from the wild rice plants found in one such reserve),

(3)       fishing,

(4)       fuel wood,

(5)       fodder and grazing,

(6)       timber,

(7)       pollination of plants,

(8)       kendu leaves,

(9)       carbon storage and sequestration (vital for climate protection against global warming), (10) water and its purification by filtering organic wastes,

(10)    soil conservation,

(11)    nutrient cycling, and

(12)    moderation of extreme events such as cyclone storms, flash floods.

(13)    tourism,

(14)    education, research and development, and

(15)    spiritual ones (like visiting temples within some of them)

Heard of this deafness test?

• Inspiration gripped engineer-cum-industrial designer Nitin Sisodia has made a diagnostic device SOHUM to check if babies as young as three months may have a hearing problem.
• The device, comprising a headset connected to an iPad-like monitor, can be used as preliminary tool to check for early signs of deafness.
• Globally, 8,00,000 hearing-impaired babies are born annually, nearly 1,00,000 in India.
• The so-called auditory brainstem response (ABR) test involves placing electrodes on a baby's forehead and ears and sending an electronic "click".
• The brain's response, in the form of electrical waves, provides information on the time it takes for structures of the auditory pathway to respond and thus can be used to identify an underlying hearing problem.
• However, a drawback of using an ABR is that it needs to be done in an extremely quiet room.
• Mr. Sisodia's system, which he developed as part of a fellowship at the Stanford Biodesign programme, claims to eliminate the latter requirement. "We have made a novel algorithm that can extract the relevant signal even in noisy surroundings," he says.
• Results from the test are available immediately as a PASS or REFER.
• The latter means that the child needs to go in for further tests with audiologists to confirm the diagnosis and begin remedial measures such as a cochlear implant or appropriate hearing aids.

DNA 22 JULY

‘Six private telcos shortchanged govt.’ [GS Paper-3]

• The Telecom Operators share a percentage of their gross revenue with the Government as annual License fee 
• Besides,they are also required to pay SUC for the airwaves allotted to them 

Government Share =25% of Gross Revenue +SUC 

• Six leading private telecom players understated their revenues by over ₹61,000 crore, depriving the exchequer of ₹7,697.62 crore
• In its response to the audit finding, the DoT pointed out that the basic definition of gross revenue and adjusted gross revenue was challenged by the operators in 2002-03.
• Since then, there has been protracted litigation and it is continuing till date. 
• According to the auditor, the telecom players suppressed revenues through accounting adjustments for commissions or discounts paid to distributors and promotional schemes like free talk time, as well as discounts for users of post-paid and roaming services

‘Protection of personal data a right’ [GS Paper-2]

• Personal data is an integral part of one’s dignity and life, the Centre told the Supreme Court
• Any sharing of personal data by service providers or social media platforms, which impinges on a person’s right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution, requires regulation, the government submitted before a five-judge Constitution Bench
• This data includes photographs, messages and pictures shared by users on WhatsApp
• However, this stand taken by the Centre in the WhatsApp case does not quite gel with its position before a nine-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar, currently examining whether privacy is a fundamental right with respect to Aadhaar
• The question before the nine-judge Bench is whether the right of a citizen to choose to remain private and to not part with personal information to either the state or private parties is fundamental to his dignity
• The petitioners in the Aadhaar case have argued that right to a dignified life includes the right to privacy. 
• Citizens cannot be compelled by the state to suffer the indignity of being made to part with their personal data like biometric details to access public welfare and benefits. 
• But the Centre has maintained in the Aadhaar case that privacy or the “right to be left alone” is not a fundamental right under the Constitution

Mentally retarded adult not a child: SC[GS Paper-2]

• A “mentally-retarded” adult cannot be considered a child and given refuge under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act of 2012, the Supreme Court.
• The case before the court was that of a rape victim, whose biological age is 38 though medical reports conclude that her “mental age” is that of six-year-old.
• The woman’s mother had moved the Supreme Court to expand the definition of the term ‘child’ in Section 2 (d) of the POCSO Act to embrace adults who are “mentally-retarded or extremely intellectually-challenged.”  
• The mother’s petition said the biological age of a person should not be the governing yardstick for POCSO, which seeks to protect children from sexual abuse, treat them with fragility and provide them gentle care throughout the criminal trial and swiftly punish the guilty.
• Justice Misra said the definition of the term ‘child’ in Section 2(d) is exhaustive and includes only persons below the biological age of 18. 
• The 2012 Act recognises the phenomenon of “mental disability,” but confines its ambit to only the mental disability of minors

Audit slams Railways on food quality [GS Paper-2]

• A Comptroller and Auditor General report tabled in Parliament on Friday has found severe deficiencies in the catering services of the Indian Railways, with several stations and trains serving food items “unfit for human consumption”, unpurified tap water being used for food preparation, and food being left unprotected from insects and rats

• During the joint inspection of the selected 74 stations and 80 trains over Zonal Railways, the audit found that cleanliness and hygiene standards were not being maintained in the catering units at stations and on trains.

• The CAG also found unfair trade practices at stations and in trains. Bills were not provided for the food items served on trains; waiters and catering managers on the trains did not carry printed menu cards with tariffs; the food served was less than the prescribed quantity; unapproved packaged drinking water was sold; and Proprietary Article Depot items were being sold in railway stations at their maximum retail prices.
• The report also found that the weights and prices of the items sold at railway stations were different from the open market, and that the unit price of food articles sold in railway premises was significantly higher.

‘Major deciencies in Army’s ammunition reserves[GS Paper-2]

•  Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has presented a dismal picture of the Army’s War Wastage Reserve (WWR) ammunition, especially of high calibre equipment needed to wage intense war
• WWR is the reserve quantity of ammunition needed to meet the requirements for the expected duration of operations

Vector-Borne Diseases Have Claimed 1,010 Lives So Far: Government

Vector-borne diseases have claimed 1,010 lives so far this year, including 632 deaths due to H1N1, the government informed the Lok Sabha.

Steps Taken :

[1] “National Quality Assurance Programme (NQAP) has been rolled out, under which quality standards for different health facilities, including primary health centres and community health centres have been defined and these health facilities are assessed against them and certified

[2]There is also coordination with the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) to detect early warning signals such as any upsurge in fever cases or any reports of malaria outbreaks.

[3]Memorandum of understanding between Madhya Pradesh, ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) and Sun Pharma for the malaria elimination initiatives, among other such programmes.

DNA 21 July

 Half of HIV-infected get treatment now: UNAIDS

• The report, Ending AIDS: Progress towards the 90-90-90 target, is the annual scorecard for progress
• The idea behind the 90-90- 90 target is 1) to diagnose 90% of people who are HIV positive; 2)get 90% of the diagnosed HIV+ people on antiretroviral treatment, and 3) 90% of those on antiretrovirals should be virally suppressed.
• The latest UNAIDS report,reveals that more than half of all People Living with HIV (PLHIV) now have access to HIV treatment
• For the first time since the global onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the scales have tipped in favour of patients
• "We met the 2015 target of 15 million people on treatment, and we are on track to double that number to 30 million and meet the 2020 target," said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS.
• As of last year, 19.5 million of the 36.7 million HIV+ patients had access to treatment.
• Further, globally AIDS-related deaths have almost halved since 2005.
• Deaths caused by AIDS have fallen from 1.9 million in 2005 to 1 million in 2016.
• The bad news is that the majority of the cases - nearly 95 per cent of the cases in 2016 - were concentrated in just 10 countries, India being one of them.
• India has 2.1 million people living with HIV, with 80,000 new infections annually, as of 2016. In 2005, the annual incidence was 1,50,000 people.
• “India is the country where most new HIV infections are occurring in the Asia-Pacific region.
• port Team for Asia-Pacific. 
• While the world seems to be on track to reach the global target of 30 million people on treatment by 2020, access to medicines remains a major barrier and India plays a special role. The report states that “although important progress has been made in improving access to medicines for people living with HIV, insufficient availability and poor affordability of essential medicines in low- and middle-income countries remain major barriers 
• Actions focused on the intersections between intellectual property rights, innovation, and public health are vitally important for resolving market failures in medicine development and manufacture, unmet needs for research and development, and pricing. 
• This is especially true in light of the concentration of the generic pharmaceutical industry in India, and the global AIDS response’s continued reliance on the Indian industry, which supplied nearly 90% of antiretroviral medicines in low- and middle-income countries in 2015”

 India and China should withdraw together

•  India's MEA:All countries are with us .All countries understand that the position India has adopted is not unreasonable.
• Our position is just and all countries recognise our position as such
• Highlighted that Panchsheel, the Nehruvian principle of peaceful mutual coexistence, is on track but any unilateral altering of the border by China will amount to a “direct threat” to India’s security concerns    
• The comment on Panchsheel is significant as the English media from Beijing in recent weeks had described the Indian action in Doklam, as against Panchsheel’s emphasis on ‘peaceful co-existence 
• BRICS summit “National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will travel to China to participate in the BRICS NSAs’ meeting

Panchsheel:
This agreement stated the five principles as:

• Their first formal codification in treaty form was in an agreement between China and India in 1954.
• The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, known in India as the Panchsheel Treaty are a set of principles to govern relations between states.
• Mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
• Mutual non-aggression.
• Mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.
• Equality and cooperation for mutual benefit.
• Peaceful co-existence.

DNA 20 July

SC wonders whether privacy could be an absolute right

• Right to privacy is not absolute and cannot prevent the state from making laws imposing reasonable restrictions on citizens, the Supreme Court orally observed
• ‘Amorphous’ term The court said ‘right to privacy’ is in fact too ‘amorphous’ a term
• To recognise privacy as a definite right, it has to first define it.
• But this would be nearly impossible as an element of privacy pervades all the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.
• “How do we define privacy?
• What are its contents... Its contours?
• How can the state regulate privacy?
• What obligations do the state have to protect a person’s privacy?
• The court said that an attempt to define the right to privacy may cause more harm than good.
• Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal has already submitted in the Supreme Court that right to privacy is merely a ‘common law right’, and the Constitution makers ‘consciously avoided’ making it a part of the fundamental rights
• Another Justice said, “In the Internet age, a person should have control on how much he should put forward and not be compelled,”
• He said that there is hardly any data protection in this digital age, inevitably leading to a compromise in privacy.
• But Justice Chandrachud observed that right to privacy cannot be linked to data protection. He said this is the age of ‘big data’, and instead of focussing on privacy, steps need to be taken to give statutory recognition to data protection.

Ministry, NITI Aayog moot privatisation of select services in district hospitals

• As a part of a radical ‘privatisation project’, the Health Ministry and the NITI Aayog have developed a framework to let private hospitals run select services within district hospitals, on a 30-year lease
• In a 140-page document, prepared in consultation with the World Bank, the government will be allowing “a single private partner or a single consortium of private partners” to bid for space in district level hospitals, “especially in tier 2 & 3 cities.”
• Under this Public Private Partnership (PPP), care for only three non-communicable diseases — cardiac disease, pulmonary disease, and cancer care — will be provided
• People’s Health Movement said that the government was handing over critical public assets without gaining anything much in return.
• “NITI Aayog has no locus standi to make health policy, which is a state subject in India.
• The logic behind shutting down the Planning Commission was to ensure that policies are not centralised.
• NITI Aayog was to be an advisory body but here they are rushing through a policy that will essentially hand over public assets to the private sector, leading to a further dismantling of the public services available for free.
• If the government has to give seed money, share blood banks and other infrastructure, and still not be able to reserve beds for poor patients, it seems like we are not getting much in return

Viability gap funding

• Further, the State governments will give Viability Gap Funding (VGF), or one-time seed money, to private players to set up infrastructure within district hospitals. The private parties and State health departments will share ambulance services, blood banks, and mortuary services.
• A major concern about the policy is that under ‘principles’ of the financial structure, the document states that “there will be no reserved beds or no quota (sic) of beds for free services” in these facilities
• “While it is clear that insured patients will receive free care, it is not at all clear what will happen to the vast majority of the population
• “If implemented, these proposals could threaten to take India away from UHC(Universal health Care), a key sustainable development goal, rather than towards it

New social security net planned

The Union government plans to introduce a universal social security network for workers in both the informal and formal sectors. The scheme will be rolled out in a phased manner

A question was asked about a proposal to lower the employee’s and the employer’s contribution from the present 12% to 10%

IT Sector

An MP raised the issue of IT sector employees, stating that there was no superannuation fund in the country and EPF alone was the support for the employees who were retiring or getting terminated.

 Take any cosmopolitan city, services of thousands of IT employees are being terminated. As the Labour Ministry is not having any control over IT companies and multinational corporates, what is the measure that the Labour Ministry is intending to do to the Employees’ Provident Fund to protect the IT sector employees ?

Labour minister replied to the question and said the law might confine to wages of those who had got a ceiling of Rs.15,000, for that EPFO eligibility would be there. 

Apart from that, the government would provide social security to IT workers and also IT employers. Loan, PF, Pension, everything would be protected under wages’ safeguards. 

China shows zero tolerance to ‘sovereignty’ threats

The latest posturing is in line with its stand on areas of hypersensitivity — Tibet, Taiwan and South China Sea

China’s insistence on the withdrawal of Indian troops from the Doklam plateau as a precondition for negotiations is consistent with its position on Tibet, Taiwan or the South China Sea — areas of hyper-sensitivity where Beijing perceives that its “territorial sovereignty” is at stake

Diplomatic entangling between China and other countries

1.Proposed visit of the Dalai Lama to Botswana  

2.Moves by the United States to reopen naval port calls with Taiwan. 

3.Indonesia’s cartographic dalliance, by renaming a portion of the South China Sea as North Natuna      Sea,

4.Last year, Mongolia’s decision to welcome the Dalai Lama in Ulan Bator resulted in Bejing’s 

   decision to impose stringent trade restrictions on its unequal neighbour 

Dalai Lama

 The 14th Dalai is a political exile who has long been engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the cloak of religion with the attempt to split Tibet from China. China is firmly opposed to Dalai’s trip to any country for activities aimed at splitting China in any capacity or name

China perceives any encouragement to the Dalai Lama by foreign powers or military or political support to Taiwan as a challenge to its “One China” policy

Indonesia

China has also raised the red flag on Indonesia’s decision to issue a new official map renaming a part of the South China Sea (SCS) as the North Natuna Sea. 

The map apparently intersects a part of the Nine-Dash line, which defines China’s maritime boundary in the SCS, thus rejecting Beijing’s “sovereignty” in the entire area

Panel for bigger Indian role in Afghanistan

• India has a “critical role” to play in breaking the stalemate in Afghanistan, the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Forces has said, calling for enhancing trilateral cooperation between Afghanistan, India and the U.S
• In a report accompanying the National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA) 2018, the committee also called for enhancing the overall defence cooperation between the U.S. and India, and “eventually joint naval patrol of the Indian Ocean.”
• The Senate Committee also pulled up the Department of Defense for not making faster progress in improving cooperation between India and the U.S.
•  While acknowledging improvement in partnership, the report said the committee was “concerned by a growing gap between the overarching goals of the bilateral defence relationship and the Department’s implementation of these objectives”.
• The committee specifically noted the delay by the Pentagon in designating an individual within the Department to “coordinate and expedite bilateral defence cooperation,” as required by last year’s NDAA
• “The committee is concerned by the current stalemate in Afghanistan, and believes that the United States should leverage the capabilities of allies and partners to more effectively secure regional stability and security. 
• The committee believes that the United States needs to recommit to the fight in Afghanistan and that India, as a major defence partner of the United States and a contributor to regional security, has a critical role to play in this effort 
• The report noted the “positive adjustment of U.S. export controls for defence articles sold to India” after last year’s NDAA, but called for faster progress and focussed approach. 
• It said the 2012 Defense Technology and Trade Initiative has six ‘‘pathfinder’’ initiatives, which need to be more in alignment with the Joint Strategic Vision between the two countries. 

INDIA-Afghanistan Relationship

• India has been less than enthusiastic about joint patrol and cautious while expanding cooperation with the Afghan government. 
• India has a strategic partnership agreement with Afghanistan, but its military component remains limited.

AAI to bear capex for two airports

• The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will bear the capital expenditure at Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports even as private developers will only need to concentrate on operations and maintenance (O&M) of the two airports whose terminal buildings are set to be privatised.
• The concept of project cost will be different in case of these two airports as against the model adopted for privatisation of other airports, including Delhi and Mumbai airports.
• The private developers of Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) and Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) - GMR and GVK respectively incur the capital expenditure for expansion of the Delhi and Mumbai airports.
• As per the public-private partnership (PPP) agreement, DIAL has to share 45.99% of its revenues with AAI, while MIAL is supposed to share 38.7% of revenues.