25 April 2024, The Indian EXPRESS
Water a trickle, now diamonds are rust in dry Bundelkhand
Page no- 1
GS1- Distribution of Key Natural Resources across the world (including South Asia and the Indian sub-continent)
- Diamonds may be forever, but not in Madhya Pradesh’s Panna district, whose famed mines are running dry.
- Standing atop a mound of excavated earth in Sarkoha village, supervising four workers chipping away to reach the kimberlite, which may or may not contain diamond deposits, mine operator Vijendra Kumar, 39, says he is done.
- “We are not getting the same volume of diamonds and it is costly to run this operation… I will do something else,” Kumar says, worried it might involve moving out as “there are no jobs in Panna”.
Verification of VVPAT slips: Top court says source code of EVMs cannot be disclosed
Page no-5
GS2- Salient Features of the Representation of People’s Act.
- Stating that no candidate has yet pointed to a mismatch between the votes polled on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and the slips printed by the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine, the Supreme Court Wednesday reserved its order on a bunch of petitions seeking 100 per cent verification of votes with the slips, saying it cannot issue directions on the basis of mere suspicion.
- A two-judge bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta also said “we cannot control elections” and “we are not the controlling authority of another constitutional authority”.
Dangerous to suggest material resources of community don’t cover pvt property: SC
Page no- 7
GS2- Structure, Organization and Functioning of the Judiciary
- The Supreme Court Wednesday said “it will be a little extreme to suggest that material resources with the community will only mean resources which do hot have their origin in the private property of an individual”.
- The remarks came from Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud who is presiding over a nine-judge Constitution bench that is answering a reference to it on the question whether the phrase “material resources of the community” in Article 39(b) of the Constitution covers what is privately owned.
- The bench also comprises Justices Hrishikesh Roy, B V Nagarathna, Sudhanshu Dhulia, J B Pardiwala, Manoj Misra, Rajesh Bindal, Satish Chandra Sharma, and Augustine George Masih.
Message in turnout patterns
Page no-9
GS2- Salient Features of the Representation of People’s Act.
- The first and the largest phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections has registered an underwhelming voter turnout of around 66.1 per cent, which is a drop of nearly four percentage points compared to 2019.
- There is a decline in turnout in 19 of the states, which had one or more seats going to polls in this phase.
- To enable us to arrive at a few distilled facts, we group the states in three categories: Hindi-speaking states, East and Northeast states and The Rest of India (Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra) and the Union Territories).
- This grouping draws on certain common characteristics: For instance, in most of the Hindi-speaking states, the BJP has traditionally been strong with deep networks. In 2014, it won 35 out of the 36 seats from this group that went to polls in the first phase. In 2019, it won 29 out of 36.
Illegal forex trading: RBI cautions banks, customers
Page no- 13
GS2- Statutory, Regulatory and various Quasi-judicial Bodies
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cautioned banks and customers again about unauthorised entities offering foreign exchange trading using the banking channels.
- In a circular issued on Wednesday, the RBI said it has come across instances of unauthorised entities offering foreign exchange (forex) trading facilities to Indian residents with promises of disproportionate and exorbitant returns.
Case before SC: Can Govt redistribute privately owned property?
Page no- 14
GS2- Indian Constitution—Historical Underpinnings, Evolution, Features, Amendments, Significant Provisions and Basic Structure
- As wealth distribution dominates news headlines in India, the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday (April 24) began hearing an unrelated case about whether the government can acquire and redistribute privately owned properties if they are deemed as “material resources of the community” — as mentioned in Article 39(b) of the Constitution.
Biden signs TIKTOK ban bill into law: Why is this significant
Page no-14
GS2- Effect of Policies and Politics of Developed and Developing Countries on India’s interests
- A Bill that could force social media app TikTok's sale by its Chinese owner, or ban it outright, has been passed in the United States Senate, underscoring the continuing tensions between Washington and Beijing amid backchannel parleys to mend diplomatic ties.
- The move by the US is the latest salvo aimed at targeting the Chinese tech industry, which has so far included tough economic sanctions and export controls.
Understanding inheritance tax
Page no-14
GS3- Indian Economy and issues relating to Planning, Mobilization of Resources, Growth, Development
- ‘After Sam Pitroda, a former adviser to Rajiv Gandhi and an associate of Rahul Gandhi, described the inheritence tax in the United States as an "interesting law", Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleged on Wednesday that the Congress would snatch property left behind by people for their children — the party’s mantra, he said, was to “loot”, “zindagi ke saath bhi, zindagi ke baad bhi (both when you are alive and when you are dead)”.
- During the day, as BJP leaders seized on Pitroda’s statement, Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh said there was “no plan whatsoever to introduce an inheritance tax”, and it was in fact, the “Modi Sarkar that has wanted to do so (bring an inheritance tax)”.
Art 244 (A), the constitutional promise of autonomy for Assam tribal area
Page no- 14
GS2- Indian Constitution—Historical Underpinnings, Evolution, Features, Amendments, Significant Provisions and Basic Structure
- In Assam’s tribal-majority Diphu Lok Sabha constituency, which votes on April 26, candidates of all parties have promised the implementation of Article 244(A) of the Constitution to create an autonomous ‘state within a state’.
- This, in fact, has been the primary election promise in Diphu for decades. What is Article 244(A) of the Constitution, and why is it important in this constituency?
