NATIONAL MARCH 2014

NATIONAL MARCH 2014

• The Supreme Court on 24 March ordered the government to withdraw all notifications that make Aadhaar cards mandatory for availing social security benefits. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the body until recently headed by Nandan Nilekani and now headless after the former Infosys boss stepped down to contest Lok Sabha elections, the top court also acceded to its request to not have to share biometric data collected by it with other government agencies or authorities. A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice BS Chauhan and Justice J Chelameshwar ordered the immediate delinking of Aadhaar cards and social security payments. The apex court bench noted that no citizen could be deprived of any benefit for lack of an Aadhaar card if he was otherwise eligible for it. Investigative portal Cobra post.com ran a sting that showed these cards could be obtained for a price by people otherwise ineligible to have them. Aadhaar, which was conceived by UPA in 2009 to help ensure that cash payments and subsidies can be accessed by the really needy, has already been under attack for some time now from political parties. The top court had last September asked the government to refrain from insisting on Aadhaar cards for dispensing social security benefits. But on 24 March judgement, the judges said they had received several complaints that the authorities were insisting on it. The bench also restrained UIDAI from sharing biometric or any other data collected by it without consent from Aadhaar card-holders, effectively shutting the option for law enforcement agencies to use biometric information such as fingerprints and iris identification collected for issue of Aadhaar cards in criminal investigations. It also restrained other authorities from accessing the data currently with UIDAI. 
  
• The Supreme Court on 28th March, refused to lower the age of a juvenile from 18, saying the legislature has fixed the age, which is constitutionally permissible. A three-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice P. Sathasivam, rejected two petitions, filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and parents of the December 16 gang-rape victim, challenging the constitutional validity of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000.The judgement states that ‘If the legislature has adopted the age of 18 as the dividing line between juveniles and adults and such a decision is constitutionally permissible, the enquiry by the courts must come to an end. Even otherwise, there is a considerable body of world opinion that all under-18 persons ought to be treated as juveniles and separate treatment meted out to them so far as offences committed by such persons are concerned,’ said the Bench. 
  
• The discovery of two more mounds in January at the Harappan site of Rakhigarhi in Hisar district, Haryana, has led to archaeologists establishing it as the biggest Harappan civilisation site. Until now, specialists in the Harappan civilisation had argued that Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan was the largest among the 2,000 Harappan sites known to exist in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The archaeological remains at Mohenjo-daro extend around 300 hectares. Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and Ganweriwala (all in Pakistan) and Rakhigarhi and Dholavira (both in India) are ranked as the first to the fifth biggest Harappan sites. “With the discovery of two additional mounds, the total area of the Rakhigarhi site will be 350 hectares,” asserted Professor Vasant Shinde, Vice-Chancellor/Director, Deccan College Post-Graduate & Research Institute, a deemed-to-be university in Pune. The two mounds are in addition to the seven mounds already discovered at Rakhigarhi, about 160 km from New Delhi. The eighth and ninth mounds, spread over 25 hectares each, are situated to the east and west of the main site. A team of archaeology teachers and students of the Deccan College discovered them when they surveyed the site in January. The Harappan civilisation had three phases: the early Harappan from circa 3,500 BCE to circa 2,600 BCE, the mature Harappan which lasted from circa 2,600 BCE to circa 2000 BCE, and the late Harappan from circa 2000 BCE to 1,600 BCE. 
  
• The World Health Organisation (WHO) on 27th March, presented official certification to India for its ‘Polio Free’ status. India is among other countries in its South East Asian region which have been certified as being free of the wild polio virus. The Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad received the official certificate at a function in New Delhi. This achievement makes the South-East Asia Region, the fourth WHO Region to be certified as polio-free, after the Region of the Americas in 1994, the Western Pacific Region in 2000 and the European Region in 2002. Mr. Azad stated that India has been polio free since January 2011. The Health Minister stated that India embarked on the programme to eradicate the nation of polio 19 years ago in 1995, when the disease used to cripple more than 50,000 children in the country every year. He stated that this achievement has been possible with resolute will at the highest levels, technological innovations like the indigenous bivalent polio vaccine, adequate domestic financial resources and close monitoring of polio programme, with which immunization levels soared to 99% coverage and India achieved polio eradication. A 2.3 million strong team of polio volunteers and 150, 000 supervisors worked day and night to reach every child. The Health Minister expressed gratitude towards WHO, UNICEF, Rotary International, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others stakeholders, including the parents of the children, for their strong technical and operational support to this collective effort in this region.
  
• Khushwant Singh, the renowned author and journalist died on 20 March 2014 at the age of 99 at his home in New Delhi. In 2002, he wrote his autobiography, Truth, Love and Little Malice. Some of his most successful books were Train to Pakistan, I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale and Delhi - A Novel. The Sunset Club was written by him at the age of 95. His acclaimed non-fiction books were A History of the Sikhs written in two volumes. He was born on 2 February 1915 in Hadali (Pakistan’s Punjab).During 1970s to 1980s; he edited the Illustrated Weekly of India, the Hindustan Times and the National Herald. In 1974, he was awarded with Padma Bhushan but he returned it in 1984 in protest of entrance of the Indian Army in the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab. In 2007, he received Padma Vibhushan by Government of India. In 2010, he received Sahitya academy fellowship award by Sahitya academy of India 
  
• The Andhra Pradesh State government has in principle decided to spare 121 hectares of revenue land for the Rs. 1,000-crore Missile Test Launch Facility project proposed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Nagayalanka mandal of Krishna district. According to the DRDO Hyderabad team, which carried out the land suitability study in and around the Sorlagondi Reserve Forest and strategic areas in Nagayalanka, a total of 151 hectares were identified and marked. They include 41 hectares of forest land, including a portion from the Krishna Wildlife Sanctuary (KWL).However; talks with the AP Wildlife Board are yet to materialise in this regard in order to spare the respective forest area in Nagayalanka mandal. 
  
• The government, which owns a little more than a fifth of Axis Bank through the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI), plans to raise about Rs 5,500 crore by selling a 9% stake, or 4.22 crore shares, through block trades on bourses. The move will boost government's fund mobilisation via share sale to over Rs 21,000 crore, surpassing its revised estimate of a total Rs 19,000 crore from asset disposals for the current fiscal year, as mentioned in the interim budget for 2014-15. This will be the government's largest fund-raising exercise this fiscal year. Earlier this month, the government sold a 10% stake in its largest oil marketing company, Indian Oil Corporation, for Rs 5,340 crore to other state-run companies, ONGC and Oil India. LIC is a co-promoter of Axis Bank along with state-owned, non-life insurers. The other insurance firms together own a 3.16% stake in the lender, one of the largest private sector banks started in the early nineties. In December, the government allowed Axis Bank to increase the cap on stakes held by foreign institutional investors or FIIs to 62% from 49%, a move that will ensure demand for the stock from them. FIIs currently own 44.93% of the bank. After the conclusion of the share sale, SUUTI's stake will come down to 11.72% from 20.72%. Besides its holding in Axis Bank, SUUTI also owns stakes in ITC Ltd and India's largest engineering and construction company Larsen & Toubro. 
  
• India and Russia are set to sign the much delayed techno-commercial agreement for Kudankulam 3 and 4 reactors later this month. Government sources on 20 March, said that all differences resulting from India's contentious Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Act, 2010 have been taken care of with Russia finally agreeing to bring the pressurised water reactors under the purview of the law. 
  Russia had until now maintained that the liability law, which makes suppliers of equipment financially accountable in the event of an accident, was a recent and an unnecessary invention in its civil nuclear partnership with India. Unlike Kudankulam 3 and 4, the first and second Kudankulam units will function independent of the liability law. Fearing that allowing the same concession for the third and fourth units could lead to similar demands from other countries, India had officially conveyed to Russia in 2012 that both the units will have to operate under the liability law. The cost for the two reactors is expected to be more than $ 7 billion. The agreement, however, was not delayed only because of the liability issue. At one stage, the UPA government deliberately slowed down negotiations as it waited for protests in the coastal town against nuclear reactors to subside. 
  
• The Centre on 18 March brought out the 'draft' notification on Western Ghats reducing the originally earmarked Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) by 3,115sqkm. The reduction — from existing 59,940sqkm to 56,825sqkm — is mainly due to the cutting down of the Kerala’s ESA. The ministry of environment and forest had reduced the area following the state's strong protest against the Centre's previous order. The ESA — spreading over six states including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala — is meant for making the earmarked zone a 'no-go area' for high polluting human activities like mining, quarrying, big constructions and setting up industries. A gazette notification can, however, be made effective only by the new government at Centre. Under the Election Commission's direction, the ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) cannot come out with the 'final' notification till the Parliamentary elections are over. The MoEF, in the meantime, will get the stakeholders' (including villagers) objections or suggestions on the draft notification during the next 60 days, beginning from 18th March. The draft notification carries list of villages and their detailed area maps within the ESA spreading over six states. It also has annexure identifying the industries (Red category) and big constructions which are completely prohibited within the protected zones. Under the draft notification, setting up hydropower plants will not be banned. Such plants will, however, be set up after getting required environmental clearance. The MoEF, through its draft note changing its previous orders on Western Ghats, has made it clear that "the provisions in this notification shall be subject to the final orders of the court in pending litigation”. Kerala had been opposed to the ministry's earlier order saying it would affect livelihood of local population. It had pointed out that while in other states in Western Ghats, only a portion of natural landscape has been recommended as ESA by the High Level Working Group (HLWG), in Kerala the ESA (13,108sqkm) was more than the area of natural landscape (12,477sqkm). Keeping this in mind, the Centre has now reduced the ESA in Kerala from 13,108sqkm to 9,993.7sqkm.
  
• Sarnath in Varanasi (UP) is the place where Lord Buddha gave his first sermon and thus it is also called the place of origin of Buddhism. Archaeological Survey of India has once again started excavations at the Protected Site of Sarnath from 19th February, 2014 after a gap of over 80 years with the main objective of collecting samples for dating in the labs through C14 method from the earliest levels of the site to find out if there are remains of pre-Mauryan era available at the site as the site in the past has yielded remains of the time of King Asoka but Buddha had come to the site more than 200 years before Asoka and stayed there for some time and a well established monastic system existed afterwards which is also mentioned in the pillar edict of Asoka from the site. Dr B.R. Mani, Additional Director General, Archaeological Survey of India who is directing the excavation informed that during the British period in excavations not much emphasis was given on stratigraphy and succession of cultural deposits and as such in spite of so many years of early excavations no section drawing is available. The second objective of present excavation is also to define different strata from the earliest times to the 12th century A.D. when the site was abandoned after medieval period attacks. In one of the trenches near the circular shrine some rare pieces of Gupta art of Sarnath School depicting Lord Buddha in various postures have been found which are considered to be very significant find. 
  
• Fifteen security personnel were killed in a Maoist ambush on 11 March, in Sukma district of south Chhattisgarh. Additional Director-General of Police Mukesh Gupta said 11 of the personnel who died belonged to the CRPF, while four were from the Chhattisgarh police. This is the second major attack on security forces in the past fortnight. 
  
• Supreme Court on 12 March directed the Law Commission of India to look into issue of hate speeches being made by politicians and to consider framing guidelines to prevent such provocative statements. In a PIL filed by an NGO, Pravasi Bhalai Sangathan, asked the court to give directions to stop people from making inflammatory speeches and argued that unrestrained comments made by politicians and religious leaders violate the Constitution. The PIL had named Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh as respondents as the two states witnessed incidents of alleged hate speeches. It had referred to the alleged hate speeches made by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Chief Raj Thackeray and claimed that no FIR was registered against them in the state. It said that in Andhra Pradesh, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Akbaruddin Owaisi had allegedly made hate speeches and was arrested for them. But after being released on bail, he had again made similar speeches in Nanded, Maharashtra. The Election Commission had told the court that there are provisions in law for governments to take action against hate speeches. A bench headed by Justice B.S. Chauhan had refused to frame guidelines itself, asked the commission to look into it and give its recommendation to the Centre. 
  
• The Election commission has created a multi-agency grid of revenue and security intelligence agencies to regularly update it about suspected financial movements as part of measures to curb use of black money in Loksabha and assembly polls. In a first-of-its-kind measure, the EC has created a board of senior officials drawn from ten financial and security intelligence departments which will meet twice a week at 'Nirvachan Sadan', the EC headquarters, to generate common leads and flag suspect money instances. The agencies that have been pooled in for the task include Income Tax intelligence and investigations, Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Central Economic Intelligence Bureau, Narcotics Control Bureau and the snoop wings of border guarding forces of SSB and BSF and those of CISF and the Railway Protection Force. This is the first time that these officials will be holding meeting sessions with the EC in comparison to previous times when they would only generate and send reports, the official said. The EC has also asked these agencies to compile their respective information in a standard format so that the poll panel is updated about the use of illegal money and other inducements in the polls. A comprehensive report prepared after these meetings would be shared with the respective Chief Electoral Offices of various states and Union Territories. Sources said EC has put maximum stress on reports generated by the FIU and I-T intelligence in this regard as these two agencies are mandated under law to obtain information from banks and other financial intermediaries across the country. 
  
• After ordering disqualification of MPs and MLAs immediately after conviction for heinous offences, the Supreme Court on 10 March, took a second big step towards cleansing the political process by directing that trial proceedings in cases of corruption and serious crimes against elected representatives must be completed within a year. The apex court's July 10, 2013 judgment had robbed elected representatives of the benefit under Section 8(4) of Representative of People Act which allowed them to save their membership in respective Houses by merely filing an appeal within three months of the order of conviction. However, "tainted" MPs and MLAs drew comfort from the snail-paced judicial process, hoping that cases against them would linger indefinitely, or that they could use delaying tactics to prevent the court from reaching a final conclusion about their alleged guilt and pronounce a judgment. The order, passed by a bench of Justice RM Lodha and Justice Kurian Joseph, ends the last hope of MPs and MLAs of evading early adjudication of their alleged guilt and a possible conviction resulting in a sentence of more than two years or more, which generally follows in a corruption case or in serious offences. In its interim order on a PIL by NGO "Public Interest Foundation", the bench said, "Where sitting MPs and MLAs are facing corruption cases and other serious offences (which involve a punishment of more than two years on conviction), the trial will be completed expeditiously on a day-to-day basis and in no instance later than one year from the date of framing of charges."This means, those who get elected in the coming general elections and have pending criminal and corruption cases against them, the verdict will be out before May next year. If found guilty and sentenced to more than two years of imprisonment they will immediately loose their membership. This order will also have a sanitizing effect on political parties and ensure that they do not field candidates with criminal background. According to an estimate, the order will have a bearing on the political career of 162 MPs who are facing criminal charges. The bench directed all trial courts, which are hearing cases of corruption and serious offences against MPs and MLAs, to strictly adhere to the one-year limit from framing of charges and warned that if they overshot the deadline, then they would have to give written explanation to the chief justice of the high court concerned."In extraordinary circumstances, where the trial court is not being able to conclude the trial within one year of framing charges, it would submit a report to the chief justice of the concerned HC indicating the special reasons for the delay. 
  
• Indian Railways launched yet another innovative scheme called the ‘SMS Gateway’, which will enable passengers to get SMS alerts on the status of reserved tickets. The ‘SMS Gateway’ which was developed by Centre for Railway information Systems (CRIS), an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Railways, was launched by the Minister of State for Railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in New Delhi on 3 March. The ‘SMS Gateway’ project will be used to send SMS alerts to passengers in case of status change in the PRS tickets, as compared to the initial booking status (For example W/L to RAC, RAC to CNF, W/L to CNF). SMS alerts prior to chart preparation will be sent once a day, in case of status change only, beginning from 5 days before the journey date. The SMS alerts after chart preparation (which is normally done 3-4 hours before train departure), will convey the actual Berth No., Coach No. and RAC No. for those passengers whose final Charting status has changed as compared to the initial booked status. In case of any ticket up gradation or seat re-allotment also SMS alerts will be sent. This service will be provided free of cost to the users. This will enhance the image of Indian Railways. Taking the things forward, CRIS took up the project for setting up of SMS Gateway of sending alerts to passengers, sanctioned by the Railways Board. Till now passengers can find about their PNR status through website enquiries or Call Centre (139) or IVRS or SMS enquiry. Railways decided to proactively send the SMS alerts to passengers at no extra charges to them. 
  
• The Supreme Court on 3March, issued notice to the central and all state governments on a petition seeking framing of guidelines to ensure that there is no discrimination against HIV positive children during school admissions. The notice has also been issued to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.A bench of Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice J.Chelameswar issued notice after NGO Naz Foundation (India) Trust urged it to issue directions that HIV positive school children should not be discriminated against for admission to schools or turned out after their HIV positive status is revealed. The PIL has sought directions that no child affected by HIV would be denied admission, suspended, segregated or expelled on the basis of their HIV status or the status of their parents or guardians. It has further sought directions to the government to frame guidelines under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 to ensure non-discrimination in schools in this regard. The Naz Foundation has also sought direction that children affected by HIV be notified as a “disadvantaged” group under the act, as it would put the central and state governments as well private schools under further obligation to ensure such children’s right to education without discrimination. Seeking directions to the government to take steps for the elimination of discrimination against HIV positive children, the PIL has invoked the fundamental rights to life, education and equality guaranteed under the Indian constitution. The PIL referred to March 2011 statement of Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in parliament that in 2008-2010, 61 HIV positive children were removed from school. 
  
• According to the second update of the Annual Health Survey released New Delhi on March 6 all major health indicators in the country’s worst-performing States are showing a gradual improvement over the years but inter-State variations persist, Districts with the highest and lowest values of Crude Birth Rate and Infant Mortality Rate remained the same over the three rounds. Top 100 districts constitute about 51 per cent of total infant deaths across 9 States (284 districts), whereas it was 50 per cent during the baseline. The nine States for which AHS is conducted — Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Assam — have 50 per cent of the country’s population, 60 per cent of births, 71 per cent of infant deaths, 72 per cent of under 5 deaths and 62 per cent of maternal deaths. The reference period for the current round is January to December 2011. As far as IMR is concerned, 9 districts — Purbi Singhbhum, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Giridih and Kodarma (Jharkhand); Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Pithoragarh and Almora (Uttarakhand) — have already achieved the Millennium Development Goal-4 national target of 28. During the first update and baseline, there were 7 and 6 districts respectively. Another 11 districts — Ranchi, Deoghar, Hazaribagh and Garhwa (Jharkhand), Nainital, Bageshwar, Champawat, Udham Singh Nagar and Dehradun (Uttarakhand), Patna (Bihar), and Durg (Chhattisgarh) — are in closer vicinity of achieving the target. Importantly, 100 districts account for 52 per cent of under-5 mortality rate whereas it was 63 at the baseline. In U5MR, 15 districts — Pithoragarh, Almora, Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Nainital, Bagheswar, Dehradun and Champawat (Uttarakhand) and Purbhi Singhbum, Hazaribagh, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Girdih, Deoghar and Kodarma (Jharkhand) — have already achieved the MDG national level target of 42. During the first update and baseline, there were 12 and 7 districts. Champawat, Hazaribagh, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Kodarma (first update), Giridih, Deoghar and Dehradun (second update) are new additions.Another 11 districts — Ranchi and Garhwa (Jharkhand); Durg (Chhattisgarh); Udham Singh Nagar and Pauri Garhwal (Uttarakhand); Dhemaji and Kamrup (Assam); Indore (M.P.); Kota (Rajasthan); Jharsuguda (Odisha); and Patna (Bihar) — are in closer vicinity. Chhattisgarh and Bihar recorded the highest fall (7), while UP and Uttarakhand recorded the lowest (3) from the baseline to the second update round. More female infants die, compared with males. In Rajasthan, the female IMR is 60, compared with 51 for males, the difference is the highest. In the baseline also, Rajasthan recorded the maximum difference with female IMR as 65 compared with 55 for males. The Annual Health Surveys for these nine States are conducted to monitor the impact of targeted interventions in the low performing districts so as to remove disparities. The indicators in these States also bring down the national averages. 
  
• The Union Minister of Minority Affairs K Rahman Khan on 4 March launched two new initiatives in New Delhi for the welfare of Minorities. The twin initiatives are Maulana Azad Sehat Scheme, and Nalanda Project, a Faculty Development Program for Minorities’ Higher Educational Institutions. The Minister also handed over Sehat Cards to few students. Speaking on the occasion K Rahman Khan said Under the Maulana Azad Sehat scheme, “Sehat Card” would be issued to every student of the Institution financially aided by MAEF. Preventive Health Check-up Camps would be organized by the Institute twice in a year, through Government/Private Hospitals/Nursing Homes. In exceptional and deserving cases for serious ailments, the poor students belonging to notified minorities would be provided financial assistance for treatment in Government/Recognized Hospitals. Serious ailments of Kidney, Heart, Liver, Cancer and Brain or any other life threatening diseases including Knee surgery and Spinal surgery would be covered. The Minister said that “Nalanda Project” is an innovative Faculty Development Program of Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India, under its Information, Education and Communication (IEC) strategy for awareness, orientation and development of faculties of Minority Universities/ Minority Managed Degree Colleges (MMDCs) and higher educational institutions located in minority concentration areas in the country. 
  
• The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation announces on 4 march, the establishment of the R.C. Bose Centre for Cryptology and Security in the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, at a cost of Rs. 115 crores in the 12th Five Year Plan Period. The Permanent Centre is an important element of the overall efforts and framework to enhance capabilities to ensure holistic security of Indian cyber space. It represents a significant step forward in augmenting indigenous capabilities in the critical fields of Cryptology and Information Security. The centre will act as a hub for all cryptographic requirements, cutting edge research and technology development within the country. The centre will host an eminent body of permanent faculty members as well as a continuous flux of eminent personalities connected with this field. The Centre will harness and foster scientific talent in India by offering facilities for degree and diploma courses as well as dedicated programs in Cryptology, Cyber Security and allied disciplines.