Flipkart

Tuesday, 7 July 2015

Daily News Mail - News of 04/07/2015

57 MLAs want motion against Lokayukta
The pressure on Karnataka Lokayukta Y. Bhaskar Rao to quit has increased further with 57 MLAs seeking permission from the Speaker to move a motion in the Assembly for initiating the process of his removal from the office.

  • Bhaskar Rao is caught in row over an alleged bribery scandal involving his son.
  • The Opposition parties are also seeking the recourse under Section 6 of the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, 1984, relating to the process for removal of a Lokayukta or Upalokayukta for “proved misbehaviour or incompetency.

How Lokayukta can be removed?

  • Under the the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, 1984, the Lokayukta can be removed by an order of the Governor after an address by each House of the legislature, supported by not less than two thirds of the members of that house present and voting.
  • The investigation for proof of misbehaviour or incapacity of Lokayukta has to be done as provided in the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, by a three-member committee, comprising two judges and a jurist.
  • The procedure is similar to that for impeachment of a High Court or Supreme Court judge, except that the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, 1984, uses the word “removal”, instead of impeachment.

Who is Lokayukta?
As per the Lokayukta act, Lokayukta means the person appointed as the Lokayukta (Note: the institution and the head of the institution have the same name), who either held the office of a Judge of the Supreme Court of India or that of the Chief Justice of a High Court in any states of India.

 Appointment: The Lokayukta is appointed by the Governor of Karnataka on advice of Chief Minister of Karnataka in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court of Karnataka, the Chairman of Karnataka Legislative Council, the Speaker of Karnataka Legislative Assembly, the Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Council and the Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.

 The institution of lokayukta was established first in Maharashtra in 1971. Although Orissa had passed this regard in 1970, it came into force only in 1983.

 Powers: The Lokayukta has the power to investigate Chief Minister, all other Ministers and Members of the State Legislature and all state government employees.

 BLACK MONEY RULES NOTIFIED
The Union government has notified the rules under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act.

 Details of the Notified Rules:

  • All deposits made in an undisclosed overseas bank account since opening will be clubbed while assets like immovable property, shares and jewellery will be valued at fair market price for levy of tax and penalty under the new black money law.
  • All overseas income and assets, including the ones voluntarily declared within the 90-day compliance window ending September 30, will be valued in rupee terms.
  • The fair market value of assets like bullion, jewellery or precious stone, immovable property, drawings, paintings, archaeological collections, and sculptures or work of art, will be “its cost of acquisition” or the price that the asset “shall ordinarily fetch if sold in the open market on the valuation date”, whichever is higher.
  • As per the rules, for shares and securities, the fair market value will be the higher of the cost of acquisition or average of the lowest and highest price on the date of valuation.
  • The rules also provide a formula for calculating the fair market value of an unquoted equity shares and provided a methodology for calculating the interest of a person in a partnership firm, association of persons or Limited Liability Partnership (LLP).
  • The rules also say that in case the person disclosing foreign income does not have a PAN, he or she would be required to apply for it.

KERALA’S RESPONSE SOUGHT
The Supreme Court has sought Kerala’s response to Tamil Nadu’s petition that the security of the Mullaperiyar dam be handed over to the CISF.
  • The Tamil Nadu government had on February 20 moved the apex court seeking deployment of CISF for protection of Mullaperiyar dam in Kerala.
Mullaperiyar Dam- Quick facts:
  • It is a masonry gravity dam on the Periyar River in Kerala.
  • It is located 881 m (2,890 ft) above mean sea level, on the Cardamom Hills of the Western Ghats in Thekkady, Idukki District of Kerala.
  • It was constructed between 1887 and 1895 by John Pennycuick to divert water eastwards to the Madras Presidency area (present-day Tamil Nadu).
  • The Periyar National Park in Thekkady is located around the dam’s reservoir.
  • The dam is located in Kerala on the river Periyar, but is operated and maintained by Tamil Nadu state.
Loss of polar bear habitat is imminent, warns study
A recent U.S. government report shows that about a third of the world’s polar bears could be in imminent danger from greenhouse gas emissions in as soon as a decade. A report by the U.S. Geological Survey said scientific models don’t bode well for polar bear populations across the world.

Important observations made by the report:
  • Greenhouse gases are blamed for the climate warming that’s reducing polar bears’ summer sea ice habitat.
  • Polar bears use sea ice for feeding, mating and giving birth. When the ice retreats in the summer, polar bears are forced to the land. The report says that the land-based food would not help bears adapt to the loss of sea ice.
Polar Bear- Basic Facts:
  • It is a carnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses.
  • Their scientific name means “maritime bear”.
  • Polar bears hunt their preferred food of seals from the edge of sea ice, often living off fat reserves when no sea ice is present.
  • The polar bear is classified as a vulnerable species, with eight of the nineteen polar bear subpopulations in decline.
  • The World Conservation Union (IUCN) estimates that there are between 20,000-25,000 polar bears in the world.
BSNL launches ‘mobile wallet’
State-run operator BSNL recently launched a pre-paid card linked mobile wallet service which would allow its customers to transfer money, pay for services as well as withdraw cash of up to Rs. 1 lakh.

Details:
  • The wallet service, Speed Pay, allows a customer to load money even if he does not have a bank account.
  • The money loaded in the mobile wallet can be transferred to a bank account and even withdrawn at bank branches or BSNL outlets.
  • Loading money into wallet from a bank account is an option. BSNL customers, who don’t have bank accounts, can also load money by visiting any BSNL retail outlet and asking the retailer to recharge their mobile wallet account and pay for various services.
  • The service has been launched in partnership with IT company Pyro.
Govt releases socio-economic and caste census for better policy-making
The union government recently released socio-economic and caste census (SECC) 2011.
  • This is the first paperless census conducted on hand-held electronic devices by the government.
Details of the Census:
  • According to the census, there are a total number of 24.39 crore households in the country, of which 17.91 crore live in villages. Of these, 10.69 crore households are considered as deprived.
  • The census says that 23.52% rural families have no literate adult above 25 years, suggesting a poor state of education among rural masses.
  • The census indicates that one out of three families living in villages is landless and depends on manual labour for livelihood. The deprivation data reveal that 5.37 crore (29.97%) households in rural areas are landless deriving a major part of their income from manual labour.
  • As many as 2.37 crore (13.25%) families in villages live in houses of one room with ‘kaccha’ walls and roof.
  • 53%, or 3.86 crore, families living in villages belong to SC/ST categories.
  • 6% of all rural households in the country pay income tax.
  • As for sources of income, 9.16 crore households (51.14%) depend on manual casual labour followed by cultivation (30.10%).
  • 5 crore (14.01%) rural families are dependent on income from other sources which include government service, private sector and PSUs.
  • 08 lakh households fall back on ragpicking while 6.68 lakh depend on begging and charity alms.
  • Transgenders comprise 0.1% of India’s rural population. Andaman & Nicobar islands, West Bengal, Gujarat, Odisha and Mizoram have the highest proportions of transgenders.
  • 6% of rural Indians were unmarried, 40% are currently married and 3.5% are divorced.
  • Daman and Diu lead the country in the proportion of their rural population that has remained unmarried — at 55.9%, this is far higher than the national average. Chandigarh, on the other hand, has only 23.2% of its population that has never married.
  • The rural development ministry has taken a decision to use the SECC data in all its programmes.
Data on Literacy:
  • The Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (SECC) has found that 36% of the 884 million people in rural India are illiterate. This is higher than the 32% recorded by the Census of India 2011.
  • Of the 64% literate rural Indians, a more than a fifth have not even completed primary school. The SECC also found that only 5.4% of rural India has completed high school with a mere 3.4% having graduated from college.
  • This poor state of rural education is reflected in the fact that 23.5% of rural households had no adults above the age of 25 who are literate – one of the categories of deprivation measured by the SECC.
  • The performance within States is hugely varied, with an alarming 47.6% of rural Rajasthanis remaining illiterate, compared to 9.3% in Lakshadweep and 11.4% in Kerala.
  • Delhi performs the best when it comes to percentage of its rural population that has completed graduate studies – at 9.6%, its performance is almost thrice as good as the national average.

Know Your College (KYC)
“Know Your College” is a portal developed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development which is aimed at helping the students make an informed decision on the choice of college and the courses.

Details:
  • This portal covers almost 10,500 colleges which conduct about 14,000 programs in Technical Education and 35000 colleges conducting at least 20,000 programs in Non-Technical education.
  • It is a repository of information pertaining to colleges and information related to its faculty, labs, library, infrastructure, and availability of hostel facilities etc.
  • Students are also encouraged to send their complaints on discrepancies of information provided by colleges through this portal.
  • This portal is being maintained by AICTE. This portal also acts as a single stop destination for students for making an informed choice.
Critically analyse the important findings of the first socio-economic and caste census in India since 1934, the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (SECC), with reference to education, health, land, water and electricity accessibility. (200 Words)

Important findings of Socio Economic and Caste Census, 2011 will laid the policy makers to focus on the data for better implementation of the socio and economic programmes. One of the reason of recent failure of the government programmes is non-availability of the data related to the basic conditions of the people.

Some of the key findings in census that will help policymakers are:

1) 23.5 percent of 17.91 crore rural households have no literate adults above 25 years, this shows lack of education infrastructure in rural areas. Universalisation of education under the aegis of sarva shiksha abhiyan is not going to achieve soon. It needs to overhaul the system and synergy of public and private partnership requires.With 36 percent of rural population illiterate, development and digitisation of India is not possible.

2) More than 70 percent of the rural population are dependent on private hospital/doctor to avail health care facilities. With 85 percent of the people have no health expenditure support, either from a government scheme or through an employer or private insurance, hence two out of 3 households have to dip int their savings to pay for hospitalisation. These figures says people are still struggling for better public hospital facilities and need health care insurance. With such figures, there is also need to figure out why Rashtriya Swastha Bima Yojana is not reaching to below poverty line peoples ?

3) 1 in 3 rural households or 30 percent of rural households are landless and depend on manual labour for their livelihood. These landless people must be included under National skill Development Program. MUDRA bank is a better initiative by the government which can fund these landless people for setting up micro and small enterprises instead of depending on manual labour for their livelihood.

4) Data collated during the survey in urban areas, shows as many as 50 lakh households have drinking water away from the premises, while 20 lakh households have no electricity supply and no water sealed toilets. Drinking facilities are still not provided,it shows lack of basic infrastructure. Electric supply need to be distributed rationally so that it must shift from wastage to necessity.

Do you think India’s economic progress and its inclusive growth strategy has reduced poverty and inequality in the country? Critically analyse, especially with reference to the plight of tribal population. (200 Words)
On one hand, India has become 3rd largest economy, its growth rate is predicted to be among the best in the world by IMF and WB. On the other hand, out of the 20% poorest people in the world, 1/4th are in India. Marginalized sections like tribals are among the most disadvantaged in India. This has begged the question if the increasing growth rate has translated into inclusive growth for all the sections. Inequality in India operates on multiple axes — of gender, class, caste, region, religion and ethnicity. But perhaps the worst suffering is of India’s tribal people

Our inclusive growth strategy, since 1990s LPG reforms, has been free market economy for wealth creation and State interventions for socialistic goals. Further, our strategy works on the assumption of growth spurring further development in neighbouring regions through ancillary economic activities.

Poverty Reduction:
1. This strategy has worked to some extent as seen in the decline in the poverty rate in the country. Last decade saw the fastest reduction in poverty in India.
2. However, still large gaps remain. Marginalized groups like tribals still do not have access to basic facilities like health, education, decent income source etc.

Inequality Reduction:
1. Poverty might have reduced to some extent but inequality has only grown. Today, top 1% of Indians hold 49% of the wealth. The share of India’s richest 10 per cent families has grown from 66 per cent in the year 2000 to 74 per cent today.
2. Further, the model of economic growth that we are following is further widening the gaps. Eg:- Around 40 per cent of the 60 million people displaced following development projects in India are tribals, which is not a surprise given that 90 per cent of our coal and more than 50 per cent of most minerals and dam sites are mainly in tribal regions.
3. The policies also favour the richer. Eg:- rights of earning money from forest produce are denied to tribals in practice while forest resources are exploited by the industries.
4. Even in many developed districts, we find pockets of most backward subdistricts in India. These are mostly the regions where tribals reside.

our focus should be not just on GDP growth itself, but on achieving a growth process that is as inclusive as possible. For example, faster growth for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises segment will generate a much broader spread of employment and income earning opportunities and is, therefore, more inclusive than growth largely driven by extractive industries or the service sector.
Huge income-generation and biodiversity conservation possibilities also exist if we can imaginatively utilise the vast unutilised potential of the Non-Timber Forest Products market, which is estimated to run into several thousands of crores, of which only a minuscule fraction accrues to the tribal communities.
Therefore, our economic model needs a course-correction towards compassionate capitalism and respect for the rights of disadvantaged, especially tribals. Better implementation of Forest Rights Act, providing health, education, developing skills and creation of jobs through MSMEs will go a long way.

In recent years India has become a haven for commercial surrogacy, a controversial assisted reproductive technology. Critically examine why this is popular in India, the various concerns raised against this practice and the efficacy of legislation in regulating this practice. (200 Words)

Surrogacy is popular in India not only among the couples in India but also among the NRIs and the foreign nations like Europe and Asia.

Reasons for popularity of Surrogacy in India are as follows:
1. Surrogacy is considered as livelihood opportunity for women and their families, because of their poor economic and social conditions, women are coming forward to offer this service.
2. Loopholes in regulation in India is also making things easier for couples domestically and abroad to reach out to surrogacy clinics in India.

Various concerns in this regard are:
1. Lack of safeguards for the women against deterioration of their health conditions during the surrogacy and post surrogacy.
2. Citizenship complexities arose, a case where baby belongs to the couple from abroad but is born in India which offers him an Indian citizenship.
3. Clinics are making facilities of surrogacy options even for a single parent which is undesirable.
4. Opaqueness in the operations of surrogacy clinics like the unethical practices, payment norms.

Till now there is no regulation in the form of a law, however certain guidelines were in force from IMA and MHA. 
The first ICMR guidelines in India were released in 2002, and in October 2008, the Supreme Court unequivocally ruled that “commercial surrogacy is legal and an industry in India”, making it a legally protected and viable option for international couples.
Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill, 2013(ART Bill, 2013) is pending for more than 4 years now.The ART Bill has undergone atleast two revisions, but there still seemed several loopholes the last time I read through it.

The following issues may be covered in the Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill
  • Age limits for the surrogate mothers.
  • Minimum compensation payable to the surrogate mothers in surrogacy arrangements
  • Eligibility criterion for International Couples to take up surrogacy arrangments in India
  • A couple or an individual shall not have the service of more than one surrogate at any given time.
  • A couple shall not have simultaneous transfer of embryos in the woman and in a surrogate.
Is it the liquor or excise policy that kills the people in India? In the light of recent illicit liquor consumption related deaths, critically comment on the statement. (200 Words)
The Subject of the Liquor is the Subject of social and Health factor driven by the Economics in India. Though Directive principal say the state to move in direction of prohibition of the Liquor Consumption , The State can’t implement it cause the Excise duty form the liquor is important source of the Revenue basket of the state.

In General , States tends to Keep the High Rate of duty on the liquor to increase the revenue ( and also encourage the people to leave the habit of Alcohol) but it proved the counter productive as it Effect on the health of the people in following manner :-

1.Due to high taxation on Factory made liquor ( Leal) , It’s become costly and due to that Poor people tends to Consume the locally available liquor which do not follow any drug or food regulation. So , It’s prone to health hazard.

2.Higher Cost of Legal liquor , Indirectly Increase the producer of the illegal liquor maker in Area and Illegal liquor came more easily available , It increase the consumption of liquor.Even the “deshi” (country liquor sold in government-recognised outlets) is often three times more expensive—thanks to the excise policy—than the brew sold illegally in pouches which also promises the extra kick from added chemicals. Liquor, whether legal or illegal, has become a curse for lakhs of families—a drain on their resources, a cause of domestic violence and a contributor to ill health.

3.Liquor , Legal or illegal drain the wealth of family and also increase the case of the Domestic violence and other social evil in society. ( Anti arrack movement in AP)

So, More or less the Govt taxation policy related to the Liquor play huge role in the Death related to the consumption of illegal liquor.

Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)