Whatsapp 93125-11015 For Details
Setting the stage for a renewed confrontation with the Delhi Aam Aadmi Party Government, the Centre Friday promulgated an ordinance to create a National Capital Civil Service Authority that will have the power to recommend the transfer and posting of all Group A officers and officers of DANICS serving in Delhi.
The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, is seen as a bid to nullify last week’s ruling by a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court that handed over the reins of “services” to the Delhi Government.
The court had then underlined the importance of the people’s mandate in a democracy expressed through an elected government.
The authority will be chaired by the Delhi Chief Minister and will include the Chief Secretary and the Principal Secretary, Home, and “all matters required to be decided by the authority shall be decided by majority of votes of the members present and voting.”
In case the LG differed with the recommendation made, the ordinance said, they were empowered to “return the recommendation to the Authority for reconsideration” and, in case of difference of opinion, “the decision of the Lieutenant Governor shall be final.”
The ordinance gave more teeth to the L-G not only in terms of the transfer and posting of officials and vigilance matters related to them, but also in terms of governance in Delhi designating the individual occupying the post as “administrator” acting “in his sole discretion” in matters beyond the purview of the Delhi Assembly.
The ordinance also gives sweeping powers to the Secretary of the Department to the Council of Ministers: “In case the Secretary to the Council of Ministers is of the opinion that the proposal considered and decided by the Council of Ministers is not in accordance with the provisions of the law, it shall be the duty of the Secretary to the Council of Ministers to bring it to the notice of Lieutenant Governor for taking a decision thereon.
RBI withdraws its high-value Rs 2000 notes, sets Sept 30 as the deadline for exchange (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Friday announced the withdrawal of its highest value currency note, Rs 2,000, from circulation, adding that the notes will continue to be legal tender. It said the existing Rs 2,000 notes can be deposited or exchanged in banks until September 30, but set a limit of “Rs 20,000 at a time”.
The central bank advised the public to deposit Rs 2,000 notes — introduced during demonetisation in November 2016, when Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were withdrawn — into their bank accounts and/ or exchange them into notes of other denominations at any bank branch. It also advised banks to stop issuing Rs 2,000 notes with immediate effect.
In order to ensure operational convenience and to avoid disruption of regular activities of bank branches, exchange of Rs 2,000 banknotes can be made up to a limit of Rs 20,000 at a time, at any bank starting from May 23.
To complete the exercise in a time-bound manner and to provide adequate time to the members of public, all banks shall provide deposit and/ or exchange facility for Rs 2,000 banknotes until September 30, 2023.
Deposit into bank accounts can be made in the usual manner, that is, without restrictions and subject to extant instructions and other applicable statutory provisions.
The facility for exchange of Rs 2,000 notes, up to the limit of Rs 20,000 at a time, will also be provided at the 19 regional offices of the RBI having issue departments from May 23.
An hour after the announcement, when contacted by The Indian Express, a top official in the Reserve Bank of India said: “This is a routine exercise and a similar withdrawal of currency notes which had been printed before 2005 was done by the Government in 2013-2014.
So, nothing more should be read into this move this time around too. This is what other countries, including the United States do from time to time.
Express Network
At UN meet on disaster risk reduction, India says time to focus on funding, early warning (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Disaster Management)
For far too long the world has focused on financing disaster response and it is time to pay attention to funding disaster risk reduction (DRR) and developing early warning systems, India said at a meeting to review the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction at UN headquarters.
Headed by P K Mishra, principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian delegation emphasised that the issue of disaster risk reduction is getting the requisite attention in the global policy discourse as both G20 and G7 have accorded priority to this issue, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
Our state and local governments have access to about $6 billion for disaster risk mitigation over five years (2021-2025). This is in addition to a resource of $23 billion meant for preparedness, response and recovery,” Mishra said, addressing the UN gathering at the Midterm Review of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030).
During an ‘India-Japan Side Event’ at the UN on ‘The Roles of States for Promoting Investments in Disaster Risk Reduction Towards Resilient and Sustainable Future’, India underscored the need to evolve a financial architecture that can address the entire spectrum of disaster risk reduction needs in a balanced way and specify the role of the State in strengthening early warning systems in times of disaster.
We must pay adequate attention to financing disaster risk mitigation and disaster preparedness. This is not only a matter of making a larger quantum of resources available. We have to also contend with complex issues.
India said in just over a decade, it had been able to reduce the loss of lives from cyclones to less than 2%. It said it is now developing ambitious mitigation programmes to reduce the risk of losses from all hazards – landslides, glacial lake outburst floods, earthquakes, forest fire, heatwaves, and lightning.
We are working assiduously to improve access to early warning. We are implementing a Common Alerting Protocol, which will integrate alert generating agencies with disaster managers and telecom service providers.
This will ensure dissemination of geo-targeted alerts in regional languages to reach each one of 1.3 billion citizens of our country. We applaud the UN Secretary General’s initiative on ‘Early Warning for All by 2027’. Our efforts will contribute to achieving the target set by this timely global initiative.
According to the PMO, the member States emphasised initiating multi-country cooperation, including their respective roles in increasing access to hazard and risk information as well as enhancing disaster risk governance that guides proper budget allocation to DRR and also helps Build Back Better after disaster.
Explained
India’s Women in science, and their struggle (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 1, Social Issues)
In 2008, the Indian Academy of Sciences published Lilavati’s Daughters: The Women Scientists of India, a volume capturing the journeys of nearly 100 Indian women in science.
From botanist Janaki Ammal to India’s first woman physician Anandibai Joshi, from the chemist Asima Chatterjee to anthropologist Iravati Karve, from meteorologist Anna Mani to mathematician R Parimala, the essays covered the extraordinary spectrum of individual experiences of these women, and the complicated relationship between science and gender across the world, but especially in India.
Cut to 2023, to the publication of Lab Hopping: A Journey to Find India’s Women in Science, and the narrative has only shifted marginally, despite an increase in women’s participation in science over the past two decades.
Recent data from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) showed women made up 28% of participants in 2018-19 in extramural Research and Development (R&D) projects, up from 13% in 2000-01.
The proportion of women primary investigators in R&D increased more than four times — from 232 in 2000-01 to 941 in 2016-17. The proportion of women researchers rose from 13.9% in 2015 to 18.7% in 2018.
But while the presence of scientists such as Dr N Kalaiselvi at the helm of prestigious research institutes such as the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has helped foreground the contributions of Indian women in science, the dominant relationship status between women and science in higher academia remains as before: it’s complicated.
In 2016, Aashima Dogra and Nandita Jayaraj launched the website thelifeofscience.com that would profile the stories of women and non-binary people in science in India.
It would serve the dual purpose of throwing up role models for a younger generation and shedding light on the constraints that discourage diversity at India’s premier institutes and labs.
From institutional apathy to poor working conditions, from sexual harassment to carrying the twin burden of home and the workplace, from a lack of representation to deeply entrenched patriarchy (Nobel laureate CV Raman is known to have initially dismissed the research aspirations of Kam ala Sohonie, one of India’s first female chemists, on grounds of her gender), Dogra and Jayaraj note how over the decades, despite a purported intent of inclusivity, progress has been painstakingly slow.
Jerusalem Day (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Israeli nationalists marking the 1967 capture of East Jerusalem were to march through the Muslim quarter of the Old City in an annual parade that Palestinians see as a provocation.
Israel fought a number of Arab armies in a 1967 war, during which it captured territories including East Jerusalem. The annual commemoration can draw crowds in the tens of thousands.
Israel has since annexed East Jerusalem, in a move that has not won international recognition, and regards the entire city as its eternal and undivided capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.
The day’s events culminate with a flag-waving march that cuts through downtown Jerusalem before entering the walled Old City, home to sites holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims.
In recent years, the parade has increasingly become a show of force for Jewish nationalists, and for Palestinians a blatant provocation meant to undermine their ties to the city.
The heavily-policed procession passes through the Old City’s narrow streets, including areas that are popular among Palestinians such as Damascus Gate and the Muslim Quarter, forcing some Arab shopkeepers to close down. In the past, it has included some acts of racist incitement and violence.
Another source of tension has been visits by large groups of Jewish pilgrims, including members of parliament, to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound. Al-Aqsa is the third holiest site in Islam that Jews revere as the Temple Mount, a vestige of two ancient temples.
A general view shows The Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa compound, also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Old city as Israel marks Jerusalem Day, in Jerusalem May 18, 2023.
Palestinians say the visits and police enforcement around them are an Israeli attempt to encroach on one of the few places in the city where they sense a degree of sovereignty.Muslims say Jewish visitors are also increasingly violating a decades-old ban on non-Muslim worship on the compound. Israel says it prevents such prayer and maintains the status quo.
Freedom and Reasonable restriction: red lines around the right to assembly (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Andhra Pradesh High Court has set aside a Government Order (GO) issued by the Andhra Pradesh government that sought to regulate public meetings, processions, and assemblies on roads, highways, and streets.
In doing so, a two-judge bench of Andhra Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice D.V.S.S. Somayajulu said that “historically, culturally, and politically, the tradition of public meetings, processions, assemblies, etc., on streets, highways, etc., have been recognized in this country” and that it constitutes an important facet of our political life.
Additionally, the court said that the freedom struggle is replete with examples of processions, dharnas, and satyagrahas conducted on the roads that led to India’s “tryst with destiny” on August 15, 1947.
Adding that even the political history of contemporary Andhra Pradesh has witnessed many “processions, padayatras, assemblies, etc.” conducted on its public roads and highways, the court struck down the GO dated January 2, regulating the same.
The basis of the challenge in the present case titled ‘Kaka Ramakrishna vs. The State of Andhra Pradesh’ was GO dated January 2, by which the Andhra Pradesh government sought to regulate public meetings or “assembly on roads, roadsides and margins”. The directions under this order were issued under relevant provisions of the Police Act, 1861.
The Andhra Pradesh government contended before the court that in light of certain fatal accidents that occurred in the recent past, involving loss of life, etc., in a stampede, it had decided to “regulate” the conduct of meetings without imposing a blanket ban on the same.
It was also submitted that “roads are made for smooth movement of vehicular traffic and for transportation” and therefore if there is a hindrance to the same by holding meetings, the state can definitely impose reasonable restrictions.
The state government relied on Sections 30, 30A, and 31 of the Police Act, 1861, to issue directions under the GO. While Section 30 relates to the regulation of public assemblies and processions and licensing of the same, Section 30-A allows the magistrate, superintendent, or “any other officer” to stop the procession and order dispersal of the assembly if there is a violation of the licence conditions.
Meanwhile, Section 31 relates to the police’s duty to keep order on “public roads, public streets, thoroughfares, ghats, and landing places”, and “other places of public resort”, along with the prevention of obstruction during assemblies and processions on such roads, streets, or near places of worship.
However, the court said that a “plain language interpretation” of Section 30 clarifies that the Police Act only gives authorities the power to “regulate” the conduct of assemblies, processions, etc., on public roads or thoroughfares.
Idea Page
Delhi to Canberra, a new journey (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Australia, early next week, despite the cancellation of the Quad Summit meeting in Sydney, is illustrative of the importance that New Delhi accords to the bilateral relationship with Canberra.
This is Modi’s second visit to Australia since he assumed office. Few relationships have undergone such a dramatic transformation in just about a decade, and even fewer command greater bipartisan support in Canberra.
When we started the Australia India Institute in Melbourne over a decade ago, we were confronted by 60 years of misperception, lack of trust, neglect, missed opportunities and even hostility.
Today, we can say a new chapter in India’s relations with Australia has well and truly begun. This partnership will survive the vicissitudes of international politics as it is built on a near-complete convergence of values and interests.
For those in Australia who have roots in India, we see a seamless connectivity between the cultural mosaic of Parramatta in Sydney and Polo View in Srinagar. We are at home in both these culturally vibrant, robustly democratic societies and nations.
It has only been two months since Anthony Albanese’s first visit to India as prime minister. The grand welcome for PM Albanese reflected the respect India has for its relationship with Australia.
Arriving in Ahmedabad at the time of the festival of Holi, as well as the last match of the test series between the two countries, the timing couldn’t have been better.
Modi’s last visit to Australia in 2014, not long after he had been elected, saw him address record crowds of people from the Indian diaspora.
A repeat of that visit is currently being organised by Sydney’s Indian community. It will no doubt prove to be a big event. During PM Modi’s last visit, the Australia India Institute convened a meeting of the most powerful CEOs in Australia and the Indian Prime Minister was accompanied by the who’s who of corporate India.
But touchpoints for these two leaders are not rare these days with interactions occurring on the sides of multilateral, trilateral or minilateral fora including the G7 (where India is a special invitee), the East Asia Summit, the G20, the Indian Ocean Rim Association, just to name a few.
In addition, the Quad is regarded as an important forum to ensure peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region. Important regional issues for both nations, such as maritime domain awareness, supply chain resilience, climate change and food and energy security drive the Quad. Despite the cancellation of the formal summit, they will find resonance when the leaders meet in Tokyo.