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Nearly 80 women officers in the Army have been cleared so far for the rank of Colonel (selection grade), making them eligible to command units in their respective arms and services for the first time.
The Women Officers Special No. 3 Selection Board proceedings, which began January 9, are currently underway at Army headquarters for promotion from the rank of Lt Colonel to Colonel to bring them on a par with their male counterparts.
As many as 244 women officers are being considered for promotion against 108 vacancies – from the batch of 1992 to 2006 – in various arms and services, including Engineers, Signals, Army Air Defence, Intelligence Corps, Army Service Corps, Army Ordnance Corps and Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
Defence sources told The Indian Express that of all the arms and services, the Corps of Engineers has the maximum vacancy at 28 for which 65 women are being considered, followed by the Army Ordnance Corps and Electrical and Mechanical Engineering which have 19 and 21 vacancies each, and 47 women officers are being considered for the rank of Colonel in each of them.
Seven women officers are being considered for promotion against three vacancies in the Army Air Defence and seven women officers are being assessed for promotion against five vacancies in the Intelligence Corps.
For the Army Service Corps and the Corps of Signals, 29 and 42 women officers are being assessed for promotion against 14 and 18 vacancies, respectively.
A senior woman officer said she is grateful that while the development came late, it did come finally.It is heartening to see that our sheer hard work and persistence paid off, irrespective of being late. It is a day most have been long waiting for.
In a rare instance, the promotion board is being held every day for a particular batch, starting with the 1992 batch, and the results are being declared immediately, an Army officer said, adding that each officer gets three chances for promotion.
For instance, if a 1995 batch officer did not make it on the first day, she will be assessed again the next day and the day after with other batches for promotion.
Defence sources said a total of 60 affected women officers have been called as observers for the selection board, to ensure fair conduct and clarify apprehensions, if any.
Supreme Court reveals Govt objections: ‘gay… posts critical of PM (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud reiterated its decision to appoint five advocates as High Court judges.
Significantly, in at least three cases, it made public both its reasons for reiteration and the government’s objections: A candidate’s sexual orientation and his “foreign-national” partner; an advocate sharing content critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and another’s views on social media critical of the government.
The five candidates: senior advocate Saurabh Kirpal for appointment as judge of the Delhi High Court; advocate SomasekharSundaresan as judge of the Bombay High Court; advocate R John Sathyan for the Madras High Court; advocates Sakya Sen and Amitesh Banerjee as judges of the Calcutta High Court.
The government had sought reconsideration of these names on November 25 last year. Apart from the CJI, the Collegium also consists of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph.
The most detailed Collegium statement is in the case of Kirpal, who if appointed, could be India’s first openly gay judge.The Collegium, referring to communication from the Research & Analysis Wing and former Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, said that “it appears that there are two objections to the recommendation which was made by the Collegium of this Court on 11 November 2021 approving the name of Shri Saurabh Kirpal namely: (i) the partner of Shri Saurabh Kirpal is a Swiss National, and (ii) he is in an intimate relationship and is open about his sexual orientation.
The letter of the Law Minister dated 01 April 2021 states that though ‘homosexuality stands de-criminalised in India, nonetheless same-sex marriage still remains bereft of recognition either in codified statutory law or uncodified personal law in India.
Moreover, it has been stated that the candidate’s ‘ardent involvement and passionate attachment to the cause of gay-rights’ would not rule out the possibility of bias and prejudice.
Rejecting these objections, the Collegium said: “As a matter of principle, there can be no objection to the candidature of Shri Saurabh Kirpal on the ground that his partner is a foreign National.
Express network
Hybrid immunity offers more cover than infection says study (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
A recent study in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases held that “hybrid immunity” provides better protection against severe Covid-19, while all immunity against a re-infection wanes within a few months.
The study is based on a meta-analysis of 11 other studies on the protective effectiveness of previous SARS-CoV-2 (Covid) infection and 15 studies on the protective effectiveness of hybrid immunity.
Hybrid immunity is gained from a previous infection plus vaccines – either the primary doses or both primary and booster doses. The study said that a hybrid immunity offers a “higher magnitude and durability” of protection as compared to infection alone, emphasising the need for vaccination.
However, with the faster-spreading omicron variants leading to more infections and consequently more people developing this hybrid immunity, the study suggested that booster doses may be delayed.
“We already know that hybrid immunity provides the best protection – an infection after vaccination acts like a booster. Getting a natural infection – best after vaccination so that the risk of death is lower – provides better protection than vaccines alone because it prepares the body against the entire virus, rather than say just the spike protein.
Protection against severe disease and hospitalisations from a Sars-CoV-2 infection alone was found to be 82.5% at three months after the last shot or infection.
This protection stood at 74.6% at 12 months and 71.6% at 15 months. Protection against reinfection declined faster, standing at 65.2% at three months and dropping to 24.7% at 12 months and 15.5% at 15 months.
In comparison, hybrid immunity with just the primary vaccine doses was found to be 96% at three months and 97.4% at 12 months. The same can offer 69% protection against reinfection at three months, dropping to 41.8% at 12 months.
The effectiveness of hybrid immunity gained from infection coupled with the primary as well as a booster dose stood at 97.2% at three months and 95.3% at six months. The same immunity was found to be 68.6% effective at three months and 46.5% at six months.
The Ideas page
Open the collegium door (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
A recent news report had it that the Law Minister had written to the Chief Justice seeking a place on the collegium for a representative of the government. Amidst a flurry of denunciations, the Minister denied making the request, saying he only had in mind a place on a potential search and evaluation committee to put forth names of candidates for judgeship.
Perhaps he should have done what he said he didn’t; and perhaps that would get us out of this huge controversy that the collegium system has become.
A place at the deciding table is not an unreasonable request for the government to make, considering that the Constitution envisaged appointment of judges by the President, after consultation with the Chief Justice and other judges.
The Supreme Court swung this power over to a body packed exclusively with judges and called it the collegium. Over the years, while it has functioned reasonably well it has also made startling errors of commission and omission.
One point on which it has been repeatedly upbraided, by the Bar and commentators and also respected retired senior judges, is its opacity, insularity and lack of transparency. There is little defence to this charge.
Nobody in their right minds wants to shift this back to executive control and decision, and indeed even the government is not desirous of that.
Its NJAC effort in 2015 envisaged a body where three senior most judges were equal in number to the others who consisted of the law minister and two eminent persons.
That, mind you, was enacted by the unanimous vote of Parliament and required State Legislatures. The Supreme Court struck it down using the basic structure formulation, saying that it endangered the independence of the judiciary.
A principal ground was that two members could effectively veto a proposal, so the judiciary could be obstructed. Jagdeep Dhankhar has targeted the basic structure doctrine in the cross-hairs of his vice-presidential rifle; that is unwise since the doctrine only establishes the inviolability of the essential features of our republic, without which it can become a Talibanised autocracy.
He is also mistaken in saying that a transient Parliament is supreme. It is the Constitution which is supreme and all organs of State must function within its limits, and all laws must pass the constitutional test which it is the duty of the Court to administer.
However, that still leaves open the sore point of judges being exclusively appointed by judges, and one may take it that unless properly resolved, it will continue to fester and damage the relationship between the court and the government.
Explained
Maldives polls, India’s concerns (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Maldives earlier this week, at a fraught time for the country’s president, Ibrahim Solih. The presidential election in Maldives is to be held on September 9 this year, with a runoff, if necessary, on September 30. Solih has announced he will run for a second term, but his candidature has been opposed within his party by former president and leader of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Mohamed Nasheed, who has thrown his hat in the ring. The two will face off in the party primary on January 28.
For Delhi, the feuding in the MDP is bad news. Relations between India and the Maldives have improved dramatically since 2018, when Solih defeated Abdulla Yameen, president from 2013 to 2018.
Yameen had given his country’s foreign policy a pronounced pro-China tilt, and has, over the last year, run an anti-India campaign alleging that the MDP government has sold out to India and permitted Indian troops to be based on Maldivian soil.
Yameen is now serving a 11-year prison sentence after his conviction late last year on charges of money laundering and bribery, which bars him from standing for election.
But his Progressive Congress Coalition is working to build a legal case for his acquittal by a higher court. Neither Yameen nor his party has spoken of any other person replacing him as a candidate, sending out the message that he has not yet been knocked out of the race.
Jaishankar’s visit apparently steered clear of the political wranglings in the country, but it did not leave anyone in doubt about what Delhi wanted.
As the minister put in a tweet, he “conveyed a strong message that India is a committed partner in the Maldives’s journey of progress and transformation”. He also flagged the “new disruptions” in the current geopolitics that made collaboration even more important.
Jaishankar did not touch down in the capital Male, landing in the northern atolls of the Maldivian archipelago instead. He and President Solih participated in the groundbreaking ceremony of an international airport being developed by India at Hanimadhoo in HaaaDahaalu atoll. In the Manadhoo island of Noonu atoll, the two sides signed three MoUs, including on a proposed collaboration between Cochin University and the Maldives National University, and a $100 million grant for “high impact community development” projects. Jaishankar handed over two sea ambulances to the Maldives Defence Ministry. He distributed books at a pre-school in Manadhoo.
In the Foakaidhoo island in the nearby Shaviyani atoll, Jaishankar and his counterpart Abdulla Shahid inaugurated an India-funded community centre.
Economy
FAME probe: Six more EV makers under scanner (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy/Environment)
With another half a dozen electric two-wheeler makers being investigated, the government has widened its probe of companies that have wrongfully claimed sops under the FAME II scheme.
In all, the government is now looking into the operations of around 18 companies to determine if the subsidies were rightly claimed.
The total amount of subsidy withheld has crossed Rs 1,000 crore, according to persons familiar with the development.
In 2022, the government suspended the then market leaders, Hero Electric and Okinawa Autotech, from availing subsidies after they were found to be flouting localisation norms under the scheme.
Sources said the government has now roped in accounting services firm EY to audit companies who claimed subsidies under the scheme.
EY wants to check our books of accounts for any misappropriation of the subsidies we claimed under the scheme. While no subsidies have been released since April, they have asked for financials of October and November too.
With companies not inclined to continue production without subsidies, production and despatches to dealers nosedived in December and January, manufacturers said. The subsidy ranges from Rs 17,000 to Rs 60,000 per electric two-wheeler.
Battery makers, whose order books were robust a year back, have reported a sharp dip in fresh orders. “Production has come down drastically over the past few weeks. Until there is clarity on subsidy, we do not see any uptick in demand,” said the owner of a battery making firm.