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The centre appointed chief justices to five high courts, including Justice RD Dhanuka who will have a four- day tenure as chief justice of the Bombay High Court. He is due to retire on May 30.
The Collegium had recommended the appointment of Justice Dhanuka on April 19. He was appointed a judge of the Bombay High Court in 2012 and is currently the second senior most judge of the Bombay High Court.
The Centre appointed Justice SV Gangapurwala, currently the acting chief justice of the Bombay High Court, as the chief justice of the Madras High Court.
The appointment comes just a day after the retirement of Justice T Raja who was the acting chief justice of the Madras High Court for over six months and Collegium's recommenda tion for his transfer was pending.
World
US debt ceiling talks struggle as deadline nears: Issues remain (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
White House officials and Republican negotiators are continuing to move closer to an agreement to raise the debt ceiling while also capping spending, two sources familiar with the matter said.
The agreement is not yet finalized and there are a series of other outstanding issues beyond spending levels, with both sides especially far apart on work requirements for social safety net programs.
Under the potential agreement, the debt ceiling would be raised for two years while also capping federal spending — except for defense and veterans spending — for the same period, two sources familiar with the negotiations said.
A separate source who's also familiar with negotiations said the two sides are still working out details on the length of the spending caps deal, which Democrats have insisted should only last for as long as a debt ceiling raise.
Based on current discussions, non-defense discretionary spending levels would be cut to a level slightly below funding levels for the current fiscal year.
Both sides still remain far apart on work requirements with Republicans still looking to add them to Medicaid, SNAP and TANF.
GOP negotiator Garret Graves told CNN Thursday evening that progress is slow, voicing frustration with the White House over key aspects of the negotiations, especially work requirements.
Explained
XPoSat (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Indian Space Research Organisation is collaborating with the Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bengaluru, an autonomous research institute, to build the X-Ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) that is scheduled to be launched later this year.
Recently, ISRO chairman S Somanath urged Indian scientific institutions to identify talented students and take steps to motivate them in effectively using the data emerging from science-based space missions. He mentioned the XPoSat in this regard.
According to ISRO, “XPoSat will study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions.
It has been billed as India’s first, and only the world’s second polarimetry mission that is meant to study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions.
The other such major mission is NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) that was launched in 2021.
IXPE carries three state-of-the-art space telescopes. Each of the three identical telescopes hosts one light-weight X-ray mirror and one detector unit.
These will help observe polarized X-rays from neutron stars and supermassive black holes. By measuring the polarisation of these X-rays, we can study where the light came from and understand the geometry and inner workings of the light source,” The Indian Express reported at the time in an explainer.
Indus civilisation Dancing Girl and her story (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 1, History)
The Dancing Girl figurine discovered in Mohenjodaro in 1926 recently found itself at the centre of controversy. On the occasion of International Museum Day (May 18), Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the International Museum Expo in Delhi’s Pragati Maidan. During the ceremony, PM Modi also unveiled the Expo’s mascot – a “contemporised” version of the famous Dancing Girl of Mohenjodaro.
The mascot is regarded as contemporary dwarpals extending an invitation to the expo,” it was announced during the unveiling.
The over five-feet tall adaptation drew flak from several quarters for distorting the original figure’s form.
The 4,500 years old bronze figurine, just 10.5 cm in height, is dark and completely in the nude with the exception of multiple bangles and a necklace. However, the adapted mascot has fairer skin, and is dressed in a bright pink blouse and an off-white waist-coat.
The Ministry of Culture insists it is not a transformation or a new look to the original piece of art, but just “an inspired craft work”.
The idea of introducing the mascot, especially through a toy, was also to bring forth the importance of Museum merchandise and in turn, self-sustainability of these cultural institutions.
They add, “The International Museum Expo 2023 Mascot was a stylised and contemporised life size (5 ft as compared to the original 10 cm) figure inspired from the Dancing Girl of the Sindhu Saraswati Sabhyata.
The Mascot was also to be interpreted as a modern-day Dwarpal or Door Guardian to usher audiences into the experience of Expo.
The traditional craft of Channapatna toys, also protected by a GI (geographical indication) tag, was used to create this mascot.
Editorial
A democratic protest (Page no. 14)
Symbols are important in public life. The choice and projection of symbols reflect ideologies, cultures, histories, a worldview and much else.
At the historic midnight session of the Constituent Assembly 75 years ago, in a solemn ceremony, the national flag was handed over to the president of the Assembly, Rajendra Prasad, by Hansa Mehta, freedom fighter and one of the 15 women members of the Constituent Assembly.
It is in the fitness of things that this first flag that will fly over this august House should be a gift from the women of India. This symbolised then and for all these years, the recognition of the role played by India’s women in the glorious struggle to free India from British rule.
But looking at that historic event today, there is another apparent significance. It was not Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, who received the flag, it was independent India’s first president of the Constituent Assembly, Rajendra Prasad.
This was before the Constitution of India was adopted, establishing the post of the President of India. There would have been no reason for Nehru, the acknowledged leader of the Assembly, not to have received the flag, since there were no set rules. Propriety and norms of respect for the president of the Assembly would have determined who received the flag.
Idea page
Centre's ordinance, Ambedkar's warning (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
In his “Grammar of Anarchy” address to the Constituent Assembly, Babasaheb Ambedkar sounded a warning that no matter how good a constitution is, it will turn out bad if those who are called to work it happen to be a bad lot.
With the BJP-run central government’s ordinance giving primacy to two Centre-appointed bureaucrats (not accountable to the people of Delhi) over the elected Chief Minister of Delhi, completely overruling the Supreme Court’s judgment, India once again witnesses echoes of Babasaheb’s warning.
The contestation regarding control of services in Delhi has been going on for eight years, and in multiple courts. It was finally put to rest on May 11 when the five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favour of the elected government of Delhi.
The Court’s verdict was that control over “services” in Delhi lies with the elected government of Delhi, and was derived from the provisions of the Constitution, that is, Article 239AA of the Constitution read with Entry 41 of the State List.
This meant that the Constitution Bench put power over bureaucrats in the hands of the elected government, saying that if an elected government does not have this power, then it cannot implement the “will of the people”.
So, after eight years of legal battles, it was established that the popularly-elected Kejriwal government would have decision-making powers in Delhi.
It took the central government eight days to make a brazen attempt to overturn this order. Knowing that the SC gave a strong, clear and unanimous verdict, they waited for the court vacation to start, and then within hours promulgated an unconstitutional ordinance.
The Centre does have powers to pass an ordinance or even legislate under Article 239AA(3)(b). However, the power to legislate in order to implement Article 239AA cannot be used to make laws in contravention of Article 239AA, or laws which turn Article 239AA on its head.
As the ordinance expressly restricts the powers of Delhi’s Vidhan Sabha, and removes any effective control of the elected government of Delhi over “services”, it is a clear violation of Article 239AA itself.
Economy
Plan being discussed to create petroleum reserves from salt caverns in Rajasthan (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
India is exploring the idea of developing salt caverns in Rajasthan as strategic petroleum reserves and public sector consultancy company Engineers India Ltd (EIL) has been tasked with studying its prospects and feasibility.
According to EIL’s Chairman and Managing Director Vartika Shukla, the company’s recent partnership with Germany’s DEEP.KBB GmbH is in line with the objective as neither EIL nor any other Indian company has the requisite technical knowhow, which the German company has.
The country has three strategic petroleum reserves at Mangaluru, Padur, and Visakhapatnam, but all of these are made up of excavated rock caverns.
Over the past decade, while there were plans to build a strategic oil reserve in Rajasthan’s Bikaner, the project never really took off. Shukla said that examining the possibility of salt cavern-based strategic storage in Rajasthan can be seen as a renewal of that proposal.
There are formations in geology which have salt inside. The salt has to be taken out and then the caverns have to be prepared for storage of crude. Majority of the caverns in the south in America, in the Houston area, are all salt caverns.
EIL and Indian companies do not have the technology for preparing salt formations underground for cavern storage of crude. We have done this alliance to get this technology into the country.