News

Go as far as you can see, and when you get there, you’ll see farther, goes a saying attributed to Thomas Carlyle. The Supreme Court has gone as far as invalidating an attempt to provide a legislated  alternative to its own collegium system  of judicial appointments. After restoring the judge-made system, it has to necessarily see farther and come up with improvements that will enhance transparency in appointments and provide reasonable eligibility criteria for prospective judges. Having both struck down the Constitution amendment to set up a National Judicial Appointments Commission and admitted to serious shortcomings in the system it has been implementing for over two decades, the court has to take the next logical step of reforming the existing mechanism. It has embarked on a unique process to involve the entire society in the exercise by inviting suggestions from the public. For the first time, the average citizen will be involved in a process hitherto seen as arcane and...

Telecom satellite GSAT-15 launched The 3,164-kg spacecraft will replace the ageing Insat-3A and 4B spacecraft that are in the same orbital slot when they expire.  GSAT-15, the nation's newest communications satellite, was launched in the wee hours of Wednesday from Kourou in French Guiana in South America. The 3,164-kg spacecraft will replace the ageing Insat-3A and 4B spacecraft that are in the same orbital slot when they expire. Its 24 transponders in the Ku-band will mainly cater to public and private direct-to-home broadcasters besides VSAT operators. (A majority of private operators use capacity leased on foreign spacecraft). GSAT-15's lone GPS-augmentation or GAGAN transponder in the L1 and L5 bands will ensure back up for GPS-based satellite navigation across the region. The Indian Space Research organisation said GSAT-15 was put into space at 3.04 a.m. IST by the European launch vehicle Ariane VA-227; it had Arabsat-6B as a co-passenger. The initial e...

The clear mandate for the Grand Alliance of the Janata Dal (United), the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress in Bihar is not only a vote for social welfare and economic development, but also a vote against all forms of divisive politics of communal hate and religious intolerance. Between the  Lok Sabha election of 2014  and this year’s Assembly election, politics in Bihar saw unprecedented churning, bringing together parties of different ideologies and social bases in the face of a rising tide of aggressive majoritarianism stirred up by the Bharatiya Janata Party. Indeed, for the BJP, its very success in last year’s Lok Sabha election in Bihar proved to be its undoing. As fringe elements allied to the party and within the Sangh Parivar misinterpreted the 2014 verdict as public endorsement of their hidden agenda, opposition parties realised that they stood no chance if they did not jointly resist this common threat. As a matter of fact, the seeds of the BJP’s defeat in Bi...

One Rank One Pension (OROP) has been the subject of debate over the last few months with accompanying media glare highlighting the struggle of veterans. OROP is symptomatic of perceived denial of justice after drop in pension percentages from 70 to 50 per cent for soldiers (term includes servicemen from all services), and a corresponding increase for civilian government employees from 30 to 50 per cent. The anomaly of ‘soldiers holding same rank not getting same pension, regardless of the last pay drawn, years of service and years served in a particular rank’, though unacceptable, has been a reality for the last 42 years. The inadequacy of the pension to meet the basic needs of soldiers and their family, as soldiers are denied the benefit of serving till 60 years of age, combined with lack of alternate career options after retirement, compounds the problem. Favourable OROP (whenever implemented) notwithstanding, transition to a suitable second career is soldiers’ primary concern, mer...

  In line with the Modi government’s Digital India initiative, Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry today launched a number of mobile apps and web-based platforms allowing students to access study material online, and parents to keep a track of the performance and attendance of their children. Elaborating about the initiatives, HRD minister Smriti Irani said through mobile apps and website ‘E-pathshala’ students, parents and teachers can access study material online. Another initiative for CBSE schools ‘Saransh’, which was launched at an event at Vigyan Bhawan here, will help parents to compare subject-wise learning outcome of their children, with others at district, state and national levels. “We are trying to leverage technology not only to bring more transparency in school education system but also to create new learning opportunities for the children,” Irani told reporters while speaking about the initiatives. She said her ministry, along with some state govern...

Dreaded till recently by everyone, the Income Tax Department officials now appear to be heading towards a strict discipline in their operation under a constant watch of Prime Minister  Narendra Modi . Though it has been apparent in the last few months that the Income-Tax Department has been taking steps which indicated that the days of high-handedness in picking up cases and assessment orders which were unlikely to stand the legal scrutiny may soon be a thing of the past, the whole exercise nevertheless appeared to be a part of the reform exercise of the Central Board of Direct Taxes. But, it is clear now, who is the driving force here. Inaugurating the Delhi Economics Conclave, organized by the finance ministry, PM Modi said: “I have asked the Income-Tax Department to move to a system where not only returns but also scrutiny is done without having to go to the office. Queries could be raised and answered online or by email. There should be a visible electronic trail of wha...

For a scheme meant to be used by the poorest of the poor in their leanest times, it is unconscionable that the government owes Rs.3,200 crore to beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). Yet that is exactly where matters have reached with the ten-year-old scheme,  a fact the Supreme Court took notice of earlier this week.  The scheme was launched by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in its first term and delays in wage payments preceded the change in government, but matters have come to a head over the last year, resulting in a decline in the number of people participating. The number of households that got the legally guaranteed 100 days of work fell from 51.73 lakh in 2012-13 to 46.73 lakh in 2013-14 (under the UPA), and then dipped sharply to 23.24 lakh in 2014-15 (under the NDA). Funds sanctioned for the scheme show a similar steep decline under the NDA government, from Rs.27,484 crore in 2013-14 to Rs.17,074...

A new era in monetary policy formulation is set to start with the Union Finance Ministry releasing the revised draft of the Indian Financial Code (IFC). It provides for the setting up of a Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to debate on monetary affairs and decide the policy rate. This move is in line with practices in many of the developing countries where the central banks have pursued the committee approach to address monetary policy issues. Currently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the monetary policy regulator, goes by the views of a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) on such issues. The TAC comprises officials from the RBI besides a few external experts. It advises the central banker on the monetary policy stance based on macro-economic and monetary developments. However, the RBI Governor has the last word, and the right to veto any decision of the TAC. The draft IFC, submitted by the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) headed by former Supreme Court judge B....

Download

Downlaod

TN gets 12 cities; Jammu and Kashmir and UP still have to nominate one city each; Mumbai, Bengaluru and Patna don’t figure in the list. Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu Thursday unveiled the list of 98 urban centres that will be transformed into 'smart cities' over the next five years. In an intra-state competition, Uttar Pradesh topped the list with its 13 urban areas meeting the smart-cities criteria, followed by Tamil Nadu, which got an approval for developing 12 towns into smart cities. “In the next couple of days,” said Mr. Naidu while addressing a press conference, “we will release Rs. 2 Crores for each of the 98 cities for preparation of smart city plans.” The Ministry, Mr. Naidu said, has set up region-wise panels of “reputed agencies for assisting smart city aspirants” to draft the plans of developing the qualified urban centres. Out of 98 cities and towns that five years down will graduate into smart cities, 24 are capital cities, another 24 are...

The Law Commission of India has recommended amending the Constitution to ensure that children below six years of age are protected from “all forms” of neglect, harm and exploitation. The commission has also recommended that their right to basic care and assistance be made an enforceable right. It has said that the early childhood is the phase of “maximum vulnerability” and deprivation can seriously impact a child’s health and learning potential.The commission, in its report submitted to the Law Ministry, has also recommended amendments to the Right to Education Act, Maternity Benefit Act and creation of a statutory authority for early childhood development to ensure “proper emphasis” on the promotion of early childhood development. The report of the commission, whose term is ending on August 31, is the result of demands made by representatives of Alliance for Right to Early Childhood Care and Development and Mobile Creches who highlighted the issue relating to the rights of children u...

Download

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s second consecutive successful launch of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), with an indigenous cryogenic upper stage (CUS), proves that its earlier success in January 2014 — which came after a failed launch in 2010 — was no fluke. Also, this is the first time a GSLV rocket with an indigenous CUS has crossed the two-tonne payload mark: the GSAT-6 that it lifted weighed all of 2,117 kg. The ability of ISRO scientists to learn from failures, and their resilience in overcoming technical obstacles, are commendable indeed. Gaining mastery in managing the CUS, which involves a complex process of using propellants at extremely low temperatures in flight, requires higher-order skills in space technology. ISRO has not had a single launch failure in four and a half years, a fact that boosts the confidence level and morale of the scientific fraternity in the country. The record also buttresses the image ISRO commands in the realm of space ...

Download By teamwork