NATIONAL APRIL 2014

NATIONAL APRIL 2014

• The Supreme Court on 22nd April appointed a panel to suggest measures to prevent road accidents and to ensure accountability. Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan, Retired Supreme Court judge will be part of this panel along with S. Sundar, Former Transport Secretary and Dr. Nishi Mittal, formerly HoD, Traffic Engineering and Safety (TES). A Bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and N.V. Ramana, gave this direction acting on a PIL filed by renowned orthopedician Dr. S. Rajasekaran. It is reported that road traffic accidents in 2010 numbered 4, 30,654 resulting in 1, 26,896 deaths and serious injuries 4, 66,600 that includes amputation of limbs. One serious road accident in the country occurs every minute; and one person dies in a road traffic accident every 4 minutes. The Bench asked the three-member panel to submit a report to the apex court after receipt of reports from Centre and States on the status of implementation and enforcement of various road safety laws. 
  
• The Supreme Court on 21st April lifted a 19 month ban on mining iron ore in Goa, but the court put an annual limit of 20 million tonnes on excavation. In its judgment, the Green Bench, comprising Justices A.K. Patnaik, S.S. Nijjar and Ibrahim Kalifulla, said that the expert committee had suggested that for the time being, annual excavation of 20 million tonnes of iron ore may be permitted in Goa with adequate monitoring of its impact on different ecological and environmental parameters, which would also help the expert committee in its future appraisal. The Bench said a ban to protect the environment would seriously affect the livelihood of nearly 1.5 lakh people in the State who were employed in the industry. Many people had taken loans and bought lorries for transportation of iron ore. The Supreme Court also asked the Goa state government to create an expert panel and submit a report regarding capping of output and other issues within six months, a three-judge bench headed by justice A.K. Patnaik said.
  • Goa is the top iron ore-exporting state.
  • A ban on production and exports in Goa imposed in September 2012, coupled with similar curbs enforced earlier in neighbouring Karnataka.
  • India was once the third-largest exporter of iron ore, but has now slipped to No. 10 
    
• The central government on 25th April, constituted an expert committee to study the various alternatives regarding the new capital for the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh following the decision to create Telangana. The committee is chaired by K.C Siva Ramakrishnan, a retired Indian Administrative Service officer. It will submit its report by Aug 31st.The other members of the committee are Rathin Roy, director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy; Aromar Revi, director, Indian Institute for Human Settlements; Jagan Shah, director, National Institute of Urban Affairs; and KT Ravindran, former dean, School of Planning and Architecture. The committee will study various alternatives for locating the new capital of the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh and make appropriate recommendations in pursuant to section 6 of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014. The Committee will look into factors like availability of land, water and other essential natural resources, potential connectivity by rail, road and air, among other things. It would evaluate their comparative suitability based on available data, site visits and consultations with the stakeholders, Central government and the existing government of Andhra Pradesh and the successor state of Andhra Pradesh and submit its report by August 31st . 
  
• A Supreme Court bench comprising Justices R M Lodha and A K Patnaik on 23rd April, ordered that former Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Vinod Rai would supervise special audit of property of Kerala's famous Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, which is facing charges of financial irregularities. It also constituted a new administrative committee headed by District Judge, Thiruvananthapuram. The court clarified that until further order, no property of temple will be alienated, sold or dealt with in any manner, and in case the District Judge comes from the community other than the Hindu, the next senior most judge of the Hindu faith in the district will be the administrative committee's Chairman. 
  
• The Supreme Court on 22nd April asked the Centre to enact the National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board Bill 2010 for creation of a National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board (NRSTMB) to provide for increased compensation to victims of road accidents. A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justices Rangan Gogoi and N.V. Ramana noted that the Bill was now pending consideration before a parliamentary standing committee. The Bench quoting statistics said road crashes cost approximately one to three per cent of a country’s Gross Domestic Product. The bench said under the proposed Bill the maximum annual income for calculation of compensation is proposed to be fixed at Rs.1 lakh as against the present amount of Rs. 40,000. The minimum compensation amount payable is increased to Rs. 1 lakh from Rs. 50, 000. In case of death of non-earning person, the schedule fixes the compensation at Rs. 1 lakh for children up to 5 years of age and at Rs. 1.5 lakh for persons more than 5 years of age. Where such a person is grievously injured in an accident, the maximum compensation that may be awarded is Rs. 50,000. 
  
• Supreme Court of India on 25th April 2014 referred the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case to the Constitutional Bench. The matter will be taken up by the Constitutional bench within three months. During this period the Constitution bench will look into the constitutionality of the issue whether the sentence of a prisoner, whose death penalty has been commuted to life, can be remitted by the government. The decision was made by the apex court while hearing the petition filed by the Centre challenging the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to remit the sentences. 
  • The Tamil Nadu government on 19th February 2014 decided to set free all the seven convicts in the assassination case.
  • The Rajiv Gandhi assassination case pertains to the remission of the life imprisonment of seven convicts. In its direction, the Supreme Court said that the interim order of staying the Tamil Nadu Government’s decision to free them will continue.
  • The Supreme Court on 20th February 2014 gave a stay on the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to release the three convicts, namely Murugan, Santhan and Arivu. The death sentence of these three convicts was commuted to life term by the SC on 18th February 2014. 
    
• Supreme Court of India in a judgement on 15th April 2014 recognised transgender as the third category of sex. In a land mark judgment that came while hearing PIL (Public Interest Litigation) of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) v/s Union of India & Ors., the Supreme Court claimed transgender as socially and economically backward. A bench of Supreme Court comprising Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and A.K. Sikri in its decision had directed the centre and state governments to take essential steps for bringing the community into the mainstream by providing adequate healthcare, education and employment. The Court expressed concern over discrimination and harassment of the transgenders across the country hence it has asked the government to take remedial measures. In its direction, the bench has also asked the governments to grant them all facilities like voter, driving license, ration card and passport. 
  
• Kul Bhushan, Member of Railway Board inaugurated a web based Electrical Energy Management System called RAILSAVER on 15th April. The new system will improve the energy efficiency on Indian Railways. RAILSAVER is a web based Electrical Energy Management System, which was developed by Centre of Railway Informatics System (CRIS), an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Railways. This portal will be very useful for Indian Railways in reducing carbon footprint which is very important for addressing the challenges of global warming and sustainability of our environment. 
  
  The portal RAILSAVER will provide a perfect IT based platform for energy consumption data which will pave the way for systematic collection, assimilation, interpretation and analysis of data in evolving future strategies for conceiving, implementing and further intensifying energy conservation efforts on Indian Railways. The portal is a part of the project for “Improving Energy Efficiency in Indian Railway System” being executed by Indian Railways under programmatic framework of UNDP through Global Environmental Facility (GEF) funding of US $ 5.2 million. 
  
• The Supreme Court on 9th April rejected a plea to stay the Centre’s recent notification to include the Jat community in the OBC list for providing the benefits of reservation. But, Supreme Court directed the Centre to file counter-affidavit in three weeks. The bench is headed by Chief Justice P. Sathasivam, comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and N.V. Ramana. Senior advocate K.K. Venugopal, appearing for OBC Reservation Raksha Samiti — an organisation of members of communities which are included in the Central List of Backward Classes alleged that the March 4 notification was issued a day before the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) came into force and it was done by the party in power to garner votes. 
  
• The decommissioned aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy, INS Vikrant has been sold for Rs. 60 crore. The auction process of INS Vikrant was completed last week and a company named IB Commercial Pvt. Ltd won the bid. Earlier, the Maharashtra Government had expressed its inability to maintain Vikrant. INS Vikrant is the Indian Navy's first aircraft carrier which was commissioned in 1961. It was decommissioned in January 1997. It had played an important role in the 1971 Indo-Pak war. Defence sources told that the condition of the ship was so bad that it was not worth converting it into a museum.
  • INS Vikrant is the Indian Navy's first aircraft carrier which was commissioned in 1961. It was purchased from Britain in 1957.
  • It played a key role during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971.
  • It was decommissioned in January 1997. 
    
• India ranks 102 among the 132 countries on the Social Progress Index, a measure of human wellbeing. It differs from traditional economic measures such as GDP or per capita income. Using measures of access to basic human needs such as food and shelter and of equality of opportunity such as education and personal freedom, the index aims to measure quality of life throughout the globe. Last year the first Social Progress Index ranked 50 countries. This year, its ranking includes 132 countries around the world. Top four countries are New Zealand, Switzerland, Iceland, and Netherlands. Chad ranks the lowest in the index. Of the BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, only India ranked lower than the 100th position on the list of the Social Progress Index 2014.China was next lowest of the five, in the 90th position, and Brazil was the highest, at 46th. India ranks 102nd on social progress with challenges across all three dimensions with particularly low scores on shelter (39.77) in the basic human needs dimension, access to information (39.87) in the foundations of wellbeing dimension, and tolerance and inclusion (21.54) in the opportunity dimension.
  • The Social Progress Index measures the extent to which countries provide for the social and environmental needs of their citizens. Fifty-two indicators in the areas of basic human needs, foundations of wellbeing, and opportunity show the relative performance of nations.
  • It is compiled by US-based non-profit group Social Progress Imperative and is based on the writings of Amartya Sen, Douglass North and Joseph Stiglitz.
  • The SPI measures the well-being of a society by observing social and environmental outcomes directly rather than the economic factors. The social and environmental factors include personal safety, ecosystem sustainability, health and wellness, shelter, sanitation, equity and inclusion and personal freedom and choice.
    
• The Supreme Court on 1st November issued a notice to the Centre over its decision to include the Jat community in central list of OBCs in 9 states (Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and the National capital territory of Delhi) that will benefit around nine crores people. The apex court passed the order in response to a plea challenging the Centre's notification on inclusion of Jats in OBC category. The Supreme Court asked the Centre to place before it the entire material and files that provided the ground for its decision to bring Jats under the OBC category. The development comes nearly ten days after the Union Cabinet cleared an ordinance paving way for Jat reservation in government jobs. The decision aims at providing the Jat community members the benefits of reservation in central government jobs and central education institutions as per the existing norms. 
  
• Former Central vigilance Commissioner (CVC) Pratyush Sinha is to be head a five-member committee to decide on allocation of officers belonging to all India services for newly formed Telangana state. The committee will make suitable recommendations regarding determination of the cadre strength of the three all India services-- Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS) of the two successor states, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Besides Pratyush Sinha, the Committee will have Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary, Special Secretary (Internal Security) in Ministry of Home Affairs and Inspector General (Forests) cum Special Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests as members. An Additional Secretary (Services and Vigilance) under Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) will be member secretary of the committee. According to terms and reference for the committee, the committee will recommend objective and transparent criteria for the allocation or distribution of personnel belonging to IAS, IPS & IFoS, and borne on the existing cadre of Andhra Pradesh between the two successor states i.e. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, within three weeks. 
  • Telangana, the country's 29th state, will be born on June 2nd and start functioning from that day.
  • The central government has already issued a gazette notification on the formation of Telangana.
  • Parliament gave its approval on February 20th for the creation of Telangana by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh.
    
• The Union Cabinet on 3rd April gave its approval for the constitution of an 'apex council' for Krishna Godavari River Water. The council will comprise of the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and the Union Water Resources Minister. Besides, Krishna and Godavari Water Management Boards will also be formed with each board having a Chairman, two member secretaries, one independent expert and four chief engineers. The members would be identified before the Appointed Day for Telangana, which falls on June 2nd. 
  • The Cabinet also decided to extend the mandate of Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal, headed by Justice Brijesh Kumar. It would be extended till July 31st, 2014 and additional terms of reference would be entrusted to make specific project wise allocation between Seemandhra and Telangana.
  • The Cabinet also gave its nod for reconstitution of the Tungabadra Board with Karnataka, Seemandhra and Telangana as members under Section 94 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 
    
• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 4th April successfully launched its navigation satellite, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS-1B). The IRNSS-1B is India’s second navigation satellite and it was put into its initial orbit of 20,630 km x 283 km by the ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C24). A PSLV-C22 had put the first navigation satellite called the IRNSS-1A into orbit on July 1st, 2013. A total of seven satellites will form the IRNSS constellation. The ISRO will put the remaining five IRNSS satellites by the end of 2015. India had become a member of the club of the U.S., Russia, Europe, Japan and China by building these satellites. 
  • The Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) is an autonomous regional satellite navigation system being developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) which would be under complete control of the Indian government. 
    Uses of IRNSS—
  • The IRNSS constellation will help ships navigate towards their destination through safe and short routes and in guiding them to enter harbours.
  • The IRNSS would provide two services, with the Standard Positioning Service open for civilian use and the Restricted Service, encrypted one, for authorised users (military).
  • Inland navigation, drivers of cars and trucks, with a receiver in their mobile phone, can reach their destination through the shortest route.
  • In defence, the IRNSS will help missiles in accurately reaching their targets.
  • In aerial navigation, aircraft will use the IRNSS satellites when they are cruising, approaching an airport to land or during landing. The satellites will help the aircraft land on runway with an accuracy of 20 metres.