India to grant citizenship to Pak, Bdesh, Afghan minorities under 1955 Act (GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Centre has decided to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan and currently living in two districts of Gujarat under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
Why they are not grantedciticenship under CAA?
- The move to grant citizenship under the Citizenship Act, 1955 and not the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA) bears significance.
- The CAA also provides for granting Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, but as the rules under the Act have not been framed by the government yet, no one so far could be granted citizenship under it.
Current notification:
- Those Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians residing in the districts of Anand and Mehsana in Gujarat will be allowed registration as a citizen of India under section 5 or will be granted certificate of naturalisation under section 6 of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and in accordance with the provisions of the Citizenship Rules, 2009.
- Such people living in the two districts of Gujarat have to submit their applications online which will then be verified by the collector at the district level. The application and reports thereon shall be simultaneously made accessible online to the central government.
- The collector may make such inquiry as he considers necessary for ascertaining the suitability of the applicant and for that purpose forwards the application online to such agencies for verification and comments as may be required for completing such an inquiry.
- After completing the entire process, the collector, being satisfied with the suitability of the applicant, grants him or her the citizenship of India by registration or naturalisation and issues a certificate of registration or naturalisation, as the case may be.
When CAA will come into force?
- Indian government wants to grant Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who had come to India till December 31, 2014.
- There were massive protests in some parts of the country after the CAA was passed by Parliament in December 2019 and the subsequent presidential nod.
- According to the Manual on Parliamentary Work, the rules for any legislation should have been framed within six months of presidential assent or seek extension from the Committees on Subordinate Legislation in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
- In January 2020, the Home Ministry notified that the Act would come into force from January 10, 2020, but it later requested the parliamentary committees in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha to give it some more time to implement rules as the country was going through its worst ever health crisis due to the Covid pandemic.
- While the permission has been granted from the Rajya Sabha till December 31, 2022, the Lok Sabha has granted time till January 9, 2023.
- This was the seventh extension given to the home ministry to frame the rules under the CAA.
Lula wins Brazils presidential election
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Why in news?
- Recently, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, popularly known as Lula, won the presidential race to become the 39th president of Brazil.
- In a closely contested election, he secured 50.9 per cent of votes compared to incumbent far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s 49.1 per cent.
About Lula da Silva:
- Lula, a leftist democrat, is set to become Brazil’s president for the third term, having severed the first two terms from 2003 to 2010.
- He was Brazil’s president for two terms from 2003 to 2006 and then 2007 to 2011, during which period the country saw a massive commodities boom, which paid for sweeping social welfare programmes that are credited with having raised millions of people out of poverty.
What is the significance of his victory?
- Lula’s victory underlines the decisive shift to the left in Latin American politics.
- The change began with the election in 2018 of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico, and was followed by the victories for Alberto Fernandez in Argentina in 2019, and Gabriel Boric in Chile, Pedro Castillo in Peru, and Gustavo Petro in Colombia.
- After Lula’s victory, six of the region’s biggest economies will be run by Leftist politicians.
What it translates for India?
- India has had excellent relations with Brazil under Lula. He visited India as the Chief Guest at the Republic Day parade in 2004, and then again in 2007 and 2008, and he hosted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2006 and 2010, and President PratibhaPatil in 2008.
- Lula was president of Brazil when the first BRIC (South Africa was still not a member of the grouping then) was held in Russia in 2009.
ISRO again test-fired CE-20 Cryogenic Engine
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully test-fired its CE-20 Cryogenic engine.
- Earlier, the ISRO placed 36 satellites of the UK-based 'OneWeb', into Low Earth Orbit, using its heaviest rocket LVM3.
- The next launch to be carried out using the LVM3 will be performed sometime around January or February 2023.
Stages of LVM3 rocket:
- The LVM3 rocket is a three-stage heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by ISRO.
- The vehicle has two solid strap-on boosters (burns solid fuel), a core-stage liquid booster (burns a combination of liquid fuels) and a cryogenic upper stage (burns liquid hydrogen with liquid oxygen).
- LVM3 is designed to carry a 4-ton class of satellites into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) or about 10 tons to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which is about twice the capability of its predecessor, the GSLV Mk II or GSLV rocket.
Solid-fuel boosters:
- The LVM3 is powered by three stages - solid, liquid and cryogenic.
- Solid-fuel boosters are the most reliable and the technology that ISRO has been using for the longest time.
- Hence, the need for testing is not as high, when compared to liquid-fuel and cryogenic engines which are far more complicated machines than solid-fuel ones.
- Also, the CE-20 Cryogenic engine being less than a decade old, means there are more reasons for ISRO to test-fire it.
Solid-fuel rockets are not re-usable:
- Solid-fuel rockets are only meant to be fired once and after a complete burn, they have to be discarded (comparable to a candle). So, the engine being tested is discarded after the test and a new one will have to be flown on the actual rocket.
- While some parts can be recovered, refurbished and re-used, it isn't commercially viable in most cases, so, a new solid booster is built. However, in the case of liquid-fuel or cryogenic engines, it is possible to refurbish and reuse the engine multiple times.
- This means, the same engine which is tested on earth at a test facility, can be checked, re-fuelled and flown. It is the same principle that is being used to execute missions by re-usable rockets, where the rocket engines fly to space, land back on earth and are refurbished and re-used for further launches.
Way Forward:
- Given the successful test, ISRO can now work on performing further refurbishment on the engine and integrating it into the Cryogenic stage, which can eventually be assembled onto the rocket.
Decentralise MGNREGS for better implementation, says govt. study
(GS Paper 2, Government Policies and Interventions)
Why in news?
- Recently, an internal study commissioned by the Ministry of Rural Development has argued for decentralisation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), allowing for more “flexibility” at the ground level.
Report of the sixth Common Review Mission:
- The Ministry recently made public the report of the sixth Common Review Mission.
- It surveyed seven States: Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Nagaland, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in February to assess the implementation of all rural development schemes, including the MGNREGS.
Key Highlights:
- It calls for greater diversification of permissible work; flexibility should be given at the ground level to select the type of work as per broad categories; it also flags delay in fund disbursal and notes that wages were far below the market rate.
- There should be a greater diversification of permissible works instead of listing the types of permissible works, broad categories of works may be listed out and flexibility should be given at ground level to select the type of works as per broad categories.
Challenges:
- It flagged the frequent delay in fund disbursal, and to deal with it suggested a “revolving fund that can be utilised whenever there is a delay in the Central funds”.
- In Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh, for example, the surveyors found that because of the delay in the material component, the beneficiaries ended up buying the construction material themselves to complete the projects.
- In Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, the delay in wages was by three or four months and the material component by six months.
Minimum Wage:
- The MGNREGS wages were far below the market rate in many States, defeating the purpose of acting as a safety net.
- At present, the minimum wage of a farm labourer in Gujarat is Rs. 324.20, but the MGNREGS wage is Rs. 229. The private contractors pay far more. In Nagaland, the wage is Rs. 212 per day, which does not take into account the difficult terrain.
- In Jammu and Kashmir, the rate is Rs. 214 per day. This, is lower than what is offered by private contractors which can go up to Rs. 600-Rs. 700 per day.
