30 SEPTEMBER 2014

Komagata Maru centenary observedA year-long centenary commemoration of the Komagata Maru was launched in the presence of three granddaughters of Baba Gurdit Singh who was among the leaders of the 376 immigrants aboard the ship that had been turned away from Canada and forced to return to India.

The British imperial government saw the men on the ship as dangerous political agitators, and sent the police to arrest Singh and others. While Singh escaped arrest, 19 men were killed in the firing.

About Komagata Maru incident:A Japanese steam ship named Komagata maru, filled with Indian immigrants was forced to return to India onSeptember 29, 1914from Canada when the passengers were not allowed to land in Canada(only 24 out of 352 passengers were admitted to Canada). This was due to the Continuous passage act enacted by the Canadian government to check the immigrants and particularly from India.

In this incident, 19 Canada-bound Indian immigrants were killed in police firing and many were arrested by the British police. This incident made the Ghadar Party proclaim war and inspired thousands of Indian immigrants to come back and organize an armed rebellion against British imperialism. However, this movement was crushed by the British.

Sources: The Hindu, Wiki.Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 which came into force on 6th December, 2013, is an important tool for achieving the governments objective of complete sanitation.The Act addresses the twin problems ofinsanitary latrinesandmanual scavengersin a very comprehensive manner. It provides for elaborate mechanisms at the local, state and central level to ensure that the insanitary latrines which are the root cause of manual scavenging are eliminated and the manual scavengers are rehabilitated in alternative occupations on a sustainable basis.

Highlights

The act prohibits the employment of manual scavengers, the manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks without protective equipment, and the construction of insanitary latrines.

It seeks to rehabilitate manual scavengers and provide for their alternative employment.

Each local authority, cantonment board and railway authority is responsible for surveying insanitary latrines within its jurisdiction. They shall also construct a number of sanitary community latrines.

Each occupier of insanitary latrines shall be responsible for converting or demolishing the latrine at his own cost. If he fails to do so, the local authority shall convert the latrine and recover the cost from him.

The District Magistrate and the local authority shall be the implementing authorities.

Offences under this act shall be cognizable and non-bailable, and may be tried summarily.

As per the Act, the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis has been mandated to monitor the implementation of the Act. It states that the Commission shall perform the following functions:

To monitor the implementation of the Act;

To enquire into complaints regarding contravention of the provisions of the Act, and to convey its findings to the concerned authorities with recommendations requiring further action; and

To advise the Central and the State Governments for effective implementation of the provisions of the Act.

To take suo motu notice of matter relating to non-implementation of the Act.

In the discharge of its above mentioned functions, the Commission has been given the powers to call for information with respect to any matter specified above from any Government or local or other authority.

Sources: PIB,www.prsindia.org.

About NABARD

It is an apex development and specialized bank established on 12 July 1982 by an act by the parliament of India.

Its main focus is to uplift rural India by increasing the credit flow for elevation of agriculture & rural non farm sector.

It was established based on the recommendations of the Committee set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under the chairmanship of Shri B. shivaraman.

It replaced the Agricultural Credit Department (ACD) and Rural Planning and Credit Cell (RPCC) of Reserve Bank of India, and Agricultural Refinance and Development Corporation (ARDC).

It is one of the premier agencies to provide credit in rural areas.

It has been accredited with matters concerning policy, planning and operations in the field of credit for agriculture and other economic activities in rural areas in India.

NABARD is active in developing financial inclusion policy and is a member of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion.

Its role and functions:

It looks after the development of the cottage industry, small industry and village industry, and other rural industries.

The Bank has been given certain roles as follows:

It Serves as an apex financing agency for the institutions providing investment and production credit for promoting the various developmental activities in rural areas

It takes measures towards institution building for improving absorptive capacity of the credit delivery system, including monitoring, formulation of rehabilitation schemes, restructuring of credit institutions, training of personnel, etc.

Co-ordinates the rural financing activities of all institutions engaged in developmental work at the field level and maintains liaison with Government of India, State Governments, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and other national level institutions concerned with policy formulation

It Undertakes monitoring and evaluation of projects refinanced by it.

NABARD refinances the financial institutions which finances the rural sector.

It regulates the institution which provides financial help to the rural economy.

It provides training facilities to the institutions working the field of rural upliftment.

It regulates the cooperative banks and the RRBs, and manages talent acquisition through IBPS CWE.

NABARD is also known for its SHG Bank Linkage Programme which encourages Indias banks to lend to SHGs.

Sources: The Hindu,www.nabard.org, Wiki.

01 OCTOBER 2014

About Enforcement Directorate

Enforcement Directorate, established in the year 1956, is a law enforcement agency and economic intelligence agency responsible for enforcing economic laws and fighting economic crime in India.

Directorate of Enforcement is a specializedfinancial investigationagencyundertheDepartment of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, which enforces the following laws:

Foreign Exchange Management Act,1999 (FEMA) A civil law having quasi judicial powers, for investigating suspected contraventions of the Exchange Control laws and regulations with powers to impose penalties on those adjudged guilty.

Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) A Criminal Law, with the officers empowered to conduct investigations to trace assets derived out of the proceeds of crime, and to provisionally attach/ confiscate the same, to arrest and prosecute the offenders found to be involved in Money Laundering.

The other functions include:

To collect, develop and disseminate intelligence relating to violations of FEMA, 1999, the intelligence inputs are received from various sources such as Central and State Intelligence agencies, complaints etc.

To investigate suspected violations of the provisions of the FEMA, 1999 relating to activities such as hawala foreign exchange racketeering, non-realization of export proceeds, non-repatriation of foreign exchange and other forms of violations under FEMA, 1999.

To adjudicate cases of violations of the erstwhile FERA, 1973 and FEMA, 1999.

To realize penalties imposed on conclusion of adjudication proceedings.

To handle adjudication, appeals and prosecution cases under the erstwhile FERA, 1973

To process and recommend cases for preventive detention under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act (COFEPOSA)

To undertake survey, search, seizure, arrest, prosecution action etc. against offender of PMLA offence.

To provide and seek mutual legal assistance to/from contracting states in respect of attachment/confiscation of proceeds of crime as well as in respect of transfer of accused persons under PMLA.

Sources: The Hindu, Wiki,http://www.enforcementdirectorate.gov.in/.

Vigilance Commissioner Rajiv to act as CVC

President Pranab Mukherjee has authorised Vigilance Commissioner Rajiv to act as Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) until a regular appointment is made.

About CVC:

Established in 1964, it is the Main agency to address governmental corruption.

The CVC is not an investigating agency, and works through either the CBI or through the Departmental Chief Vigilance Officers.

It was created by a resolution of the central government on the recommendation of the Santhanam commission.

The CVC is headed by a Central Vigilance Commissioner who is assisted by two Vigilance Commissioners. They are appointed by the President of India by warrant under his hand and seal on the recommendation of a 3 member committee consisting of Prime Minister, central Home Minister and the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha.

The term of office of the Central Vigilance Commissioner and the Vigilance Commissioners would be four years from the date on which they enter their office or till they attain the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier and they are not eligible for further reappointment.

The Central Vigilance Commissioner or any Vigilance Commissioner can be removed from his office only by order of the President on the ground of proved misbehavior or incapacity after the Supreme Court, on a reference made to it by the President, has, on inquiry, reported that the Central Vigilance Commissioner or any Vigilance Commissioner, as the case may be, ought to be removed.

CVC is only an advisory body. Central Government Departments are free to either accept or reject CVCs advice in corruption cases.

The Ordinance of 1998 conferred statutory status to the CVC and the powers to exercise superintendence over functioning of the Delhi Special Police Establishment, and also to review the progress of the investigations pertaining to alleged offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 conducted by them.

Sources: The Hindu, Wiki,cvc.nic.in.

Rift between Hong Kong and China

China has failed to keep up the political commitments it made before taking control of Hong Kong from Britain in 1997. And hence protests are going on in Hong Kong demanding Democratic elections.

About Hong Kong and its relationship with China:

Hong Kong is officially known as Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China and is an autonomous region on the southern coast of China geographically enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea.

It is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. It is also known for its deep natural harbour.

Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (183942). Hong Kong Island was first ceded to the UK in perpetuity, followed by Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories was put under lease in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War (194145), after which the British resumed control until 1997.

As a result of the negotiations and the 1984 agreement between China and Britain, Hong Kong was handed over to the Peoples Republic of China and became its first Special Administrative Region on 1 July 1997, under the principle of one country, two systems.

As the last Crown Colony of the United Kingdom, loss of Hong Kong also represented the end of the British Empire.

It has a different political system from mainland China. Hong Kongs independent judiciary functions under the common law framework. The Hong Kong Basic Law, the constitutional document drafted by the Chinese side before the handover based on the terms enshrined in the Joint Declaration, governs its political system, and stipulates that Hong Kong shall have a high degree of autonomy in all matters except foreign relations and military defence.

Points of tension between the Mainland and the Special Administrative Region (SAR), handed back to Beijing in 1997 after British rule ended, have been demonstrated in terms of marked differences in public behaviour to business ethics, as well as language and colloquialism barriers.

Recent protests:

The agreement signed by Britain and China allowed Hong Kong to retain its free-market economy, a legal system with an independent judiciary and other rights, including greater civil liberties than residents of the mainland. China also promised free elections for Hong Kongs chief executive in 2017, but, in august 2014, Chinas legislature called for limiting the candidates who would be allowed to run, among other restrictions. With the government insisting on controlling the nomination process, the protesters demand for fully democratic elections looked to be slipping away, so they took to the streets.

China blocked moves by Hong Kong to move to full democracy, by ruling that only three candidates could run for elections as leader in 2017, and they would not be chosen by any process in Hong Kong, but by a nomination committee established by China.

Hong Kongers will be able to vote for their next chief executive in 2017 elections but only two or three candidates vetted by a pro-Beijing committee will be allowed to stand something demonstrators have labelled a fake democracy that shows Hong Kong cannot trust its mainland overseers.

Civil liberties have also been increasingly restricted, while the election of the regions chief executive is largely seen as a farce puppet-stringed by Beijing.

The crisis is also raising concerns in Taiwan, a self-governing island that the Chinese government insists is a province of China that must one day be reunited with the mainland. After whats happened in Hong Kong, the Taiwanese will have no reason ever to trust Chinas promise of one country, two systems.

Sources: The Hindu,www.nytimes.com, wiki.

Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002

The Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), which came into force in July 2005, is aimed at combating money laundering in India withthree main objectives

to prevent and control money laundering.

to confiscate and seize the property obtained from laundered money, and

to deal with any other issue connected with money laundering in India.

The Act provides that whosoever directly or indirectly attempts to indulge or knowingly assists or knowingly is a party or is actually involved in any process or activity connected with the proceeds of crime and projecting it as untainted property, shall be guilty of offences of money-laundering. For the purpose of money-laundering, the PMLA identifies certain offences under the Indian Penal Code, the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, the Arms Act, the Wild Life (Protection) Act, the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act and the Prevention of Corruption Act, the proceeds of which would be covered under this Act.

Special Court under Section 43 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) says that the Central Government, in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court, shall, for trial of offence punishable under Section 4, by notification, designate one or more Courts of Session as Special Court or Special Courts for such area or areas or for such case or class or group of cases as may be specified in the notification.

A person, who is accused of having committed the offence of money laundering, has to prove that alleged proceeds of crime are in fact lawful property.

This act extends to the whole of India including the state of Jammu & Kashmir.

The Directorate of Enforcement in the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance is responsible for investigating the cases of offence of money laundering under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

Financial Intelligence Unit India (FIU-IND) under the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance is the central national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analyzing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions to enforcement agencies and foreign FIUs.

For further reference:http://www.enforcementdirectorate.gov.in/faqs_on_pmla.pdf.

Sources: The Hindu, Wiki,www.enforcementdirectorate.gov.in, fiuindia.gov.in.

Reserve Bank keeps policy rates unchanged

Repo rate unchanged : 8 per cent.

Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) : 4 per cent.

(The repo rate is the rate at which the central bank lends money to banks. The CRR is the portion of total deposits of customers, which commercial banks have to hold as reserves either in cash or as deposits with the central bank).

Medium-term objective:inflation target of 6 per cent by January 2016.INSIGHTS CURRENT EVENTS: 02 OCTOBER 2014

BYINSIGHTS OCTOBER 2, 2014

PrintPDFNew NATO head takes over

Former two-term Norwegian Prime MinisterJens Stoltenbergstarted to work as NATOs Secretary-General, the13thin the trans-Atlantic organisations 65-year existence.

About NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is analliance of 28 countriesfrom North America and Europe committed to fulfilling the goals of the North Atlantic Treaty signed on 4 April 1949. In accordance with the Treaty, the fundamental role of NATO is to safeguard the freedom and security of its member countries by political and military means. NATO is playing an increasingly important role in crisis management and peacekeeping.

NATOs essential purpose is to safeguard the freedom and security of its members through political and military means.

POLITICAL NATO promotes democratic values and encourages consultation and cooperation on defence and security issues to build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.

MILITARY NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military capacity needed to undertake crisis-management operations. These are carried out under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty NATOs founding treaty or under a UN mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organizations.

NATO provides a unique opportunity for member countries to consult and take decisions on security issues at all levels and in a variety of fields.

A NATO decision is the expression of the collective will of all28 membercountries since all decisions are taken by consensus.

All member countries that participate in the military aspect of the Alliance contribute forces and equipment, which together constitute the integrated military structure of the Alliance. These forces and assets remain under national command and control until a time when they are required by NATO for a specific purpose (i.e. conflict or crisis, peacekeeping). NATO, however, does possess some common capabilities owned and operated by the Alliance, such as the AWACS early warning radar aircraft.

NATO against Terrorism:

NATOs work on counter-terrorism focuses on improved threat awareness and preparedness, developing adequate capabilities and enhancing engagement with partner countries and other international actors.

On 12 September 2001, less than 24 hours after the terrorist attacks against the United States, NATO declared the attacks to be an attack against all the 28 NATO member countries within the terms of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

This landmark decision was followed by practical measures aimed at assisting the United States in different fields, in relation to its campaign against terrorism.

NATO and CYBER DEFENCE:

Against the background of increasing dependence on technology and on the Internet, the Alliance is advancing its efforts to confront the wide range of cyber threats targeting NATOs networks on a daily basis. The growing sophistication of cyber attacks makes the protection of the Alliances communications and information systems (CIS) an urgent task. This objective has been recognised as a priority in NATOs Strategic Concept.

Sources: The Hindu, wiki,www.nato.int.

National Green Tribunal (NGT)

The National Green Tribunal has been established under theNational Green Tribunal Act2010for effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources including enforcement of any legal right relating to environment and giving relief and compensation for damages to persons and property and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

It is a specialized body equipped with the necessary expertise to handle environmental disputes involving multi-disciplinary issues. The Tribunal shall not be bound by the procedure laid down under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, butshall be guided by principles of natural justice.

The Tribunals dedicated jurisdiction in environmental matters shall provide speedy environmental justice and help reduce the burden of litigation in the higher courts.

The Tribunal is mandated to make and endeavour for disposal of applications or appeals finallywithin 6 monthsof filing of the same.

Members:

The sanctioned strength of the tribunal is currently 10 expert members and 10 judicial members although the act allows for up to 20 of each.

The Chairman of the tribunal who is the administrative head of the tribunal also serves as a judicial member.

Every bench of the tribunal must consist of at least one expert member and one judicial member. The Chairman of the tribunal is required to be a serving or retired Chief Justice of a High Court or a judge of the Supreme Court of India.

Members are chosen by a selection committee (headed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court of India) that reviews their applications and conducts interviews.

The Judicial members are chosen from applicants who are serving or retired judges of High Courts. Expert members are chosen from applicants who are either serving or retired bureaucrats not below the rank of an Additional Secretary to the Government of India (not below the rank of Principal Secretary if serving under a state government) with a minimum administrative experience of five years in dealing with environmental matters. Or, the expert members must have a doctorate in a related field.

Jurisdiction:

The Tribunal has Original Jurisdiction on matters of substantial question relating to environment (i.e. a community at large is affected, damage to public health at broader level) & damage to environment due to specific activity (such as pollution). However there is no specific method is defined in Law for determining substantial damage to environment, property or public health.

The powers of tribunal related to an award are equivalent to Civil court and tribunal may transmit any order/award to civil court have local jurisdiction. The Act specifies that an application for dispute related to environment can be filled within six months only when first time dispute arose (provided tribunal can accept application after 60 days if it is satisfied that appellant was prevented by sufficient cause from filling the application).

Also Tribunal is competent to hear cases for several acts such as Forest (Conservation) Act, Biological Diversity Act, Environment (Protection) Act, Water & Air (Prevention & control of Pollution) Acts etc. and also have appellate jurisdiction related to above acts after establishment of Tribunal within a period of 30 days of award or order received by aggrieved party.

The Act says that decision taken by majority of members shall be binding and every order of Tribunal shall be final. Any person aggrieved by an award, decision, or order of the Tribunal may appeal to the Supreme Court within 90 days of commencement of award but Supreme Court can entertain appeal even after 90 days if appellant satisfied SC by giving sufficient reasons.

Sources: The Hindu, wiki,http://www.greentribunal.gov.in/.

Punarjagaran- Mass Awakening Campaign for youth

It will be launched by The Ministry of Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, Youth Affairs and Sports.

Punarjagaran aims at creating awareness among youth and empower them to become active partners in nation building activities.

The yearlong Campaign also aims to make aware and educate youth on key issues in thematic areas, provide information on the avenues for skill development, encourage and empower them with the spirit of nationalism and volunteerism. The thematic areas of the campaign are encouraging Nationalism, promoting Swachh Bharat, Shramadaan and popularizing the recently launched Jan Dhan Yojana.

Sources: PIB.

PIO Card valid for Life Time

In pursuance of the announcement made by the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi at Madison Square Garden in New York on September 28, 2014, now, Person of Indian Origin (PIO) Card shall be valid for life time and the PIO Card holder shall be exempt from police reporting / registration.

It has been further clarified that all PIO Cards issued till September 30, 2014 are automatically deemed to have life time validity.

About PIO card:

A PIO card allows visa free travel and several other benefits to the card holder.

All persons of Indian origin who are in possession of the passport of any other country except Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Sri Lanka or any other country specified by the government, are eligible for PIO Card if:

He/She had any time held an Indian passport.

He/She or either of his/her parents or grand parents or great grand parents was born in India or permanent resident in India provided neither was at any time a citizen of any other specific country.

He/She is a spouse of a citizen of India or a person of Indian origin covered under 1 & 2 above.

Iranian nationals of Indian Origin can be granted PIO card after MHA approval.

Sources: PIB,http://boi.gov.in/.

ECI Launches Video Game to Educate Voters

In a first of its kind effort, the Election Commission of India has developed a video game titled Get! Set! Vote!

The game has been created to broadly engage citizens of all age groups to learn on democracy and electoral process.

In a fun-filled and interactive manner, the video game gives out pieces of information and interesting details in10 levels of mazes. With every successive level, the information becomes more specific to subjects such as Indian democracy, registering to vote, ethical voting, help from ECI and so on. The mazes also get more challenging with the player clearing each level.

Under the Commissions SVEEP (Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation) programme, the video game has been developed in collaboration with UNDP India.

A series of edutainment materials including picture book Proud to be a Voter and Garv se bane Matdata; Cartoon Strips Wah Election Wah; board game Ready! Steady! Vote! and Vote kiBaazi; and radio programme Loktantra Express has been developed for imparting voter education through entertainment.

Sources: PIB.INSIGHTS CURRENT EVENTS: 03 OCTOBER 2014

BYINSIGHTS OCTOBER 3, 2014

PrintPDFFood Security Act: Odisha to digitise ration cards

Moving ahead in the implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), the Odisha government plans to take up digitisation for new ration cards.

About National Food Security Act, 2013:

It is also called as Right to Food act.

This is an act of the Parliament of India which aims to provide subsidized food grains to approximately two thirds of Indias 1.2 billion people.

It extends to the whole of India.

Under the provisions of this act, beneficiaries are able to purchase 5 kilograms per eligible person per month of cereals at the following prices:

rice at 3 Rupees per kg

wheat at 2 Rupees per kg

coarse grains (millet) at 1 rupee per kg.

Pregnant women, lactating mothers, and certain categories of children are eligible for daily free meals.

Salient features:

75% rural and 50% of the urban population are entitled for three years from enactment to five kg food grains per month at 3 Rupees , 2 Rupees, 1 Rupee per kg for rice, wheat and coarse grains (millet), respectively.

The states are responsible for determining eligibility.

Pregnant women and lactating mothers are entitled to a nutritious take home ration of 600 Calories and a maternity benefit of at least Rs 6,000 for six months.

Children 6 months to 14 years of age are to receive free hot meals or take home rations.

The central government will provide funds to states in case of short supplies of food grains.

The state government will provide a food security allowance to the beneficiaries in case of non-supply of food grains.

The Public Distribution System is to be reformed.

The eldest woman in the household, 18 years or above, is the head of the household for the issuance of the ration card.

There will be state- and district-level redress mechanisms; and

State Food Commissions will be formed for implementation and monitoring of the provisions of the Act.

The cost of the implementation is estimated to be $22 billion(1.25 lac crore), approximately 1.5% of GDP.

The poorest who are covered under the Antodaya yojana will remain entitled to the 35 kg of grains allotted to them under the mentioned scheme.

Sources:http://www.business-standard.com/, Wiki.

United Nations Convention against Corruption

The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), which entered into force in December 2005, is the ever-first binding global anti-corruption instrument. It obliges the States to prevent and criminalize different corrupt practices, promote international cooperation, cooperate for the recovery of stolen assets and enhance technical assistance and information exchange.

The Convention addresses both the public and private spheres and provides a set of comprehensive agreed-upon obligations and provisions to criminalize corruption and enhance transparency and accountability. In order to monitor the progress in the implementation of the Convention, Member States have agreed to conduct peer-review mechanisms among themselves, for which UNODC acts as a Secretariat.

It is the first global legally binding international anti-corruption instrument. And is a multilateral convention negotiated by members of the United Nations.

UNCAC requires that States Parties implement several anti-corruption measures which may affect their laws, institutions and practices. These measures aim at preventing corruption, criminalizing certain conducts, strengthening international law enforcement and judicial cooperation, providing effective legal mechanisms for asset recovery, technical assistance and information exchange, and mechanisms for implementation of the Convention, including the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (CoSP).

UNCAC was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 31 October 2003 by Resolution.

Currently, there are 172 parties, including the European Union.

UNCAC covers five main areas: preventive measures, criminalization and law enforcement, international cooperation, asset recovery, and technical assistance and information exchange. It includes both mandatory and non-mandatory provisions.

In May 2011, the Indian Government ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) convention.

Sources: Wiki,http://www.unodcINSIGHTS CURRENT EVENTS: 04 OCTOBER 2014

BYINSIGHTS OCTOBER 4, 2014

PrintPDFMove to Deny Foreign Nationals Access to Surrogacy Draws Flak

The view among experts looking into the new Assisted Reproductive Technologies (Regulation) Bill 2014 that single parents and foreign nationals should not be allowed to have children through surrogates in India has come in for criticism.

Some experts opine that single men or women cant be deprived of the right to have children through surrogacy. Any restriction on foreign parent, single or couple, may be questioned as foreigners, irrespective of marital status, are allowed inter-country adoptions under Indian law. Even, the Supreme Court allows religion and gender-free secular adoptions. Even transgenders will have rights. A right to reproductive autonomy as part of Right to Life under Article 21 is available even to foreigners as persons and cannot be unreasonably curtailed.

The view to disallow foreign nationals stems from the concern over citizenship rights of children born to Indian surrogate mothers as several countries have banned surrogacy and do not recognise the children born through assisted means as their citizens.

The Supreme Court had asked the government to clarify its stand on the citizenship of children born via an Indian surrogate mother in India, but whose biological mother is a foreign national. A Supreme Court Bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked: Under the Constitution, a child born in India from an Indian surrogate mother is entitled to Indian citizenship, but what happens if the biological mother is a foreign citizen and the child applies for citizenship of that country. The Bench is looking into the larger issue of the need for a comprehensive legislation dealing with all the issues and situations, including citizenship of a surrogate child, created by the latest reproductive technology.

There has been an intense debate on the provisions of the ART Bill, with a majority of the stakeholders favouring that only married Indian couples be allowed to hire surrogates. A small section says it could be extended to couples where at least one parent is an Indian national. It is now left to the government to take a decision and present the Bill in Parliament

Indian Council for Medical Research guidelines on Surrogacy:

The Indian Council for Medical Research has given Guidelines in the year 2005 regulating Assisted Reproductive Technology procedures. The following observations have been made by the Law Commission in its report:

Surrogacy arrangement will continue to be governed by contract amongst parties, which will contain all the terms requiring consent of surrogate mother to bear child, agreement of her husband and other family members for the same, medical procedures of artificial insemination, reimbursement of all reasonable expenses for carrying child to full term, willingness to hand over the child born to the commissioning parent(s), etc. But such an arrangementshould notbe forcommercial purposes.

A surrogacy arrangement should provide for financial support for surrogate child in the event of death of the commissioning couple or individual before delivery of the child, or divorce between the intended parents and subsequent willingness of none to take delivery of the child.

A surrogacy contract should necessarily take care of life insurance cover for surrogate mother.

One of the intended parents should be a donor as well, because the bond of love and affection with a child primarily emanates from biological relationship. Also, the chances of various kinds of child-abuse, which have been noticed in cases of adoptions, will be reduced. In case the intended parent is single, he or she should be a donor to be able to have a surrogate child. Otherwise, adoption is the way to have a child which is resorted to if biological (natural) parents and adoptive parents are different.

Legislation itself should recognize a surrogate child to bethe legitimate child of the commissioning parent(s)without there being any need for adoption or even declaration of guardian.

The birth certificate of the surrogate child should contain the name(s) of the commissioning parent(s) only.

Right to privacy of donor as well as surrogate mother should be protected.

Sex-selective surrogacy should be prohibited.

Cases of abortions should be governed by the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971 only.

Sources: The Hindu, wiki.

Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual property (IP) rights are the legally recognized exclusive rights to creations of the mind. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property rights include copyright, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights, trade dress, and in some jurisdictions trade secrets.

IPR plays a key role in almost every sector and has become a crucial factor for investment decisions by many companies.

INDIA and IPR Regime:

In todays globalised scenario of expanding multilateral trade and commerce, it has become inevitable for any country to protect its intellectual property by providing statutory rights to the creators and inventors and thus help them fetch adequate commercial value for their efforts in the world market.

This innovative and creative capacity is protected under the intellectual property system of WTO. Recognising this fact, India as a founder member of WTO has ratified the Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). As per the agreement, all member countries including India are to abide by the mutually negotiated norms and standards within the stipulated timeframe. Accordingly, India has set up an Intellectual Property Right (IPR) regime, which is WTO compatible and is well established at all levels whether statutory, administrative or judicial.

TRIPSis an international agreement administered by the World Trade Organization (WTO), which sets down minimum standards for many forms of intellectual property (IP) regulations as applied to the nationals of other WTO Members.

IPR-related issues in India like patents, trademarks, copyrights, designs and geographical indications are governed by the Patents Act 1970 and Patent Rules 2003, Trademarks Act 1999 and the Trademarks Rules 2002, Indian Copyrights Act, 1957, Design Act 2000 and Rules 2001, and The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act, 1999 and The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Rules 2002, respectively. All these Acts and regulations are at par with international standards.

The very well-balanced IPR regime in India acts as an incentive for foreign players to protect their Intellectual Property in India. This can be established by the very fact that approximately 80% of patent filings in India are from the MNCs.

While the IPR regime in India consists of robust IP laws, it lacks effective enforcement, for which least priority given to adjudication of IP matters is often quoted as a reason.

The key challenge is to sensitize the enforcement officials and the Judiciary to take up IP matters, at par with other economic offences, by bringing them under their policy radar.

The IPR division tries to provide proactive business solutions through research, interactions at the highest political level while facilitating global networking. Further, since the IPR provides exclusive rights over assets, it is a major challenge for the country to balance the interests of the innovators and the interests of the society at large.In todays highly competitive global economy, IPRs are giving companies the cutting edge and increasing their competitiveness.

American companies, particularly from the pharma sector, have alleged that Indian IPR laws discriminate against U.S. companies and violate global norms.In the report titled special 301 report brought out by the U.S., India has been classified as a priority watch list country. On the report, India has said that the Special 301 process is a unilateral measure taken by the U.S. under their Trade Act, 1974, to create pressure on countries to increase IPR protection beyond the TRIPS agreement.

But, India has consistently pointed out that the intellectual property rights (IPR) legal regime in India is fully TRIPS compliant and that any issues to be discussed have to be discussed in bilateral forums such as the Trade Policy Forum (TPF),.

For further reference:http://www.ficci.com/sector/24/Project_docs/IPR-profile.pdf.

Sources: The Hindu,www.ficci.com,http://business.gov.in/.

International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM)

Invasive aquatic species present a major threat to the marine ecosystems, and shipping has been identified as a major pathway for introducing species to new environments. The problem increased as trade and traffic volume expanded over the last few decades, and in particular with the introduction of steel hulls, allowing vessels to use water instead of solid materials as ballast. The effects of the introduction of new species have in many areas of the world been devastating. Quantitative data show the rate of bio-invasions is continuing to increase at an alarming rate.

The Ballast Water Management Convention,adopted in 2004, aims to prevent the spread of harmful aquatic organisms from one region to another, by establishing standards and procedures for the management and control of ships ballast water and sediments.

Under the Convention, all ships in international traffic are required to manage their ballast water and sediments to a certain standard, according to a ship-specific ballast water management plan. All ships will also have to carry a ballast water record book and an international ballast water management certificate.

The Convention will require all ships to implement a Ballast Water and Sediments Management Plan. All ships will have to carry a Ballast Water Record Book and will be required to carry out ballast water management procedures to a given standard. Existing ships will be required to do the same, but after a phase-in period.

Parties to the Convention are given the option to take additional measures which are subject to criteria set out in the Convention and to IMO guidelines.

General Obligations:

Under General Obligations, Parties undertake to give full and complete effect to the provisions of the Convention and the Annex in order to prevent, minimize and ultimately eliminate the transfer of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens through the control and management of ships ballast water and sediments.

Parties are given the right to take, individually or jointly with other Parties, more stringent measures with respect to the prevention, reduction or elimination of the transfer of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens through the control and management of ships ballast water and sediments, consistent with international law. Parties should ensure that ballast water management practices do not cause greater harm than they prevent to their environment, human health, property or resources, or those of other States.

This convention also calls for Parties individually or jointly to promote and facilitate scientific and technical research on ballast water management; and monitor the effects of ballast water management in waters under their jurisdiction.

For further reference:http://www.imo.org/About/Conventions/ListOfConventions/Pages/International-Convention-for-the-Control-and-Management-of-Ships-Ballast-Water-and-Sediments-(BWM).aspx.

Sources: The Hindu,http://www.imo.org/.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

It is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.

The Treaty entered into force in 1970.

More countries have adhered to the NPT than any other arms limitation and disarmament agreement, a testament to the Treatys significance.

A total of 190 states have joined the Treaty. Four UN member states have never joined the NPT: India, Israel, Pakistan and South Sudan. North Korea, which acceded to the NPT in 1985 but never came into compliance, announced its withdrawal in 2003.

The treaty recognizes five states as nuclear-weapon states: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China. Four other states are known or believed to possess nuclear weapons: India, Pakistan and North Korea have openly tested and declared that they possess nuclear weapons, while Israel has had a policy of opacity regarding its nuclear weapons program.

The NPT is interpreted as a three-pillar system, with an implicit balance among them: the three pillars are:

non-proliferation,

disarmament, and

The right to peacefully use nuclear technology.

The NPT non-nuclear-weapon states agree never to acquire nuclear weapons and the NPT nuclear-weapon states in exchange agree to share the benefits of peaceful nuclear technology and to pursue nuclear disarmament aimed at the ultimate elimination of their nuclear arsenals.

The treaty is reviewed every five years in meetings called Review Conferences of the Parties to the Treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Even though the treaty was originally conceived with a limited duration of 25 years, the signing parties decided, by consensus, to extend the treaty indefinitely and without conditions.

Several additional measures have been adopted to strengthen the NPT and the broader nuclear non-proliferation regime and make it difficult for states to acquire the capability to produce nuclear weapons, including the export controls of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the enhanced verification measures of the IAEA Additional Protocol.

Important articles in the Treaty:

Each nuclear-weapons state (NWS) undertakes not to transfer, to any recipient, nuclear weapons, or other nuclear explosive devices, and not to assist any non-nuclear weapon state to manufacture or acquire such weapons or devices.

Each non-NWS party undertakes not to receive, from any source, nuclear weapons, or other nuclear explosive devices; not to manufacture or acquire such weapons or devices; and not to receive any assistance in their manufacture.

Each non-NWS party undertakes to conclude an agreement with the IAEA for the application of its safeguards to all nuclear material in all of the states peaceful nuclear activities and to prevent diversion of such material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.

Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination.

All the Parties to the Treaty undertake to facilitate, and have the right to participate in, the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Parties to the Treaty in a position to do so shall also co-operate in contributing alone or together with other States or international organizations to the further development of the applications of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, especially in the territories of non-nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty, with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of the world.

The states undertake to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and towards a Treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.

INSIGHTS CURRENT EVENTS: 04 OCTOBER 2014

BYINSIGHTS OCTOBER 4, 2014

PrintPDFMove to Deny Foreign Nationals Access to Surrogacy Draws Flak

The view among experts looking into the new Assisted Reproductive Technologies (Regulation) Bill 2014 that single parents and foreign nationals should not be allowed to have children through surrogates in India has come in for criticism.

Some experts opine that single men or women cant be deprived of the right to have children through surrogacy. Any restriction on foreign parent, single or couple, may be questioned as foreigners, irrespective of marital status, are allowed inter-country adoptions under Indian law. Even, the Supreme Court allows religion and gender-free secular adoptions. Even transgenders will have rights. A right to reproductive autonomy as part of Right to Life under Article 21 is available even to foreigners as persons and cannot be unreasonably curtailed.

The view to disallow foreign nationals stems from the concern over citizenship rights of children born to Indian surrogate mothers as several countries have banned surrogacy and do not recognise the children born through assisted means as their citizens.

The Supreme Court had asked the government to clarify its stand on the citizenship of children born via an Indian surrogate mother in India, but whose biological mother is a foreign national. A Supreme Court Bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked: Under the Constitution, a child born in India from an Indian surrogate mother is entitled to Indian citizenship, but what happens if the biological mother is a foreign citizen and the child applies for citizenship of that country. The Bench is looking into the larger issue of the need for a comprehensive legislation dealing with all the issues and situations, including citizenship of a surrogate child, created by the latest reproductive technology.

There has been an intense debate on the provisions of the ART Bill, with a majority of the stakeholders favouring that only married Indian couples be allowed to hire surrogates. A small section says it could be extended to couples where at least one parent is an Indian national. It is now left to the government to take a decision and present the Bill in Parliament

Indian Council for Medical Research guidelines on Surrogacy:

The Indian Council for Medical Research has given Guidelines in the year 2005 regulating Assisted Reproductive Technology procedures. The following observations have been made by the Law Commission in its report:

Surrogacy arrangement will continue to be governed by contract amongst parties, which will contain all the terms requiring consent of surrogate mother to bear child, agreement of her husband and other family members for the same, medical procedures of artificial insemination, reimbursement of all reasonable expenses for carrying child to full term, willingness to hand over the child born to the commissioning parent(s), etc. But such an arrangementshould notbe forcommercial purposes.

A surrogacy arrangement should provide for financial support for surrogate child in the event of death of the commissioning couple or individual before delivery of the child, or divorce between the intended parents and subsequent willingness of none to take delivery of the child.

A surrogacy contract should necessarily take care of life insurance cover for surrogate mother.

One of the intended parents should be a donor as well, because the bond of love and affection with a child primarily emanates from biological relationship. Also, the chances of various kinds of child-abuse, which have been noticed in cases of adoptions, will be reduced. In case the intended parent is single, he or she should be a donor to be able to have a surrogate child. Otherwise, adoption is the way to have a child which is resorted to if biological (natural) parents and adoptive parents are different.

Legislation itself should recognize a surrogate child to bethe legitimate child of the commissioning parent(s)without there being any need for adoption or even declaration of guardian.

The birth certificate of the surrogate child should contain the name(s) of the commissioning parent(s) only.

Right to privacy of donor as well as surrogate mother should be protected.

Sex-selective surrogacy should be prohibited.

Cases of abortions should be governed by the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971 only.

Sources: The Hindu, wiki.

Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual property (IP) rights are the legally recognized exclusive rights to creations of the mind. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property rights include copyright, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights, trade dress, and in some jurisdictions trade secrets.

IPR plays a key role in almost every sector and has become a crucial factor for investment decisions by many companies.

INDIA and IPR Regime:

In todays globalised scenario of expanding multilateral trade and commerce, it has become inevitable for any country to protect its intellectual property by providing statutory rights to the creators and inventors and thus help them fetch adequate commercial value for their efforts in the world market.

This innovative and creative capacity is protected under the intellectual property system of WTO. Recognising this fact, India as a founder member of WTO has ratified the Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). As per the agreement, all member countries including India are to abide by the mutually negotiated norms and standards within the stipulated timeframe. Accordingly, India has set up an Intellectual Property Right (IPR) regime, which is WTO compatible and is well established at all levels whether statutory, administrative or judicial.

TRIPSis an international agreement administered by the World Trade Organization (WTO), which sets down minimum standards for many forms of intellectual property (IP) regulations as applied to the nationals of other WTO Members.

IPR-related issues in India like patents, trademarks, copyrights, designs and geographical indications are governed by the Patents Act 1970 and Patent Rules 2003, Trademarks Act 1999 and the Trademarks Rules 2002, Indian Copyrights Act, 1957, Design Act 2000 and Rules 2001, and The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act, 1999 and The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Rules 2002, respectively. All these Acts and regulations are at par with international standards.

The very well-balanced IPR regime in India acts as an incentive for foreign players to protect their Intellectual Property in India. This can be established by the very fact that approximately 80% of patent filings in India are from the MNCs.

While the IPR regime in India consists of robust IP laws, it lacks effective enforcement, for which least priority given to adjudication of IP matters is often quoted as a reason.

The key challenge is to sensitize the enforcement officials and the Judiciary to take up IP matters, at par with other economic offences, by bringing them under their policy radar.

The IPR division tries to provide proactive business solutions through research, interactions at the highest political level while facilitating global networking. Further, since the IPR provides exclusive rights over assets, it is a major challenge for the country to balance the interests of the innovators and the interests of the society at large.In todays highly competitive global economy, IPRs are giving companies the cutting edge and increasing their competitiveness.

American companies, particularly from the pharma sector, have alleged that Indian IPR laws discriminate against U.S. companies and violate global norms.In the report titled special 301 report brought out by the U.S., India has been classified as a priority watch list country. On the report, India has said that the Special 301 process is a unilateral measure taken by the U.S. under their Trade Act, 1974, to create pressure on countries to increase IPR protection beyond the TRIPS agreement.

But, India has consistently pointed out that the intellectual property rights (IPR) legal regime in India is fully TRIPS compliant and that any issues to be discussed have to be discussed in bilateral forums such as the Trade Policy Forum (TPF),.

For further reference:http://www.ficci.com/sector/24/Project_docs/IPR-profile.pdf.

Sources: The Hindu,www.ficci.com,http://business.gov.in/.

International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM)

Invasive aquatic species present a major threat to the marine ecosystems, and shipping has been identified as a major pathway for introducing species to new environments. The problem increased as trade and traffic volume expanded over the last few decades, and in particular with the introduction of steel hulls, allowing vessels to use water instead of solid materials as ballast. The effects of the introduction of new species have in many areas of the world been devastating. Quantitative data show the rate of bio-invasions is continuing to increase at an alarming rate.

The Ballast Water Management Convention,adopted in 2004, aims to prevent the spread of harmful aquatic organisms from one region to another, by establishing standards and procedures for the management and control of ships ballast water and sediments.

Under the Convention, all ships in international traffic are required to manage their ballast water and sediments to a certain standard, according to a ship-specific ballast water management plan. All ships will also have to carry a ballast water record book and an international ballast water management certificate.

The Convention will require all ships to implement a Ballast Water and Sediments Management Plan. All ships will have to carry a Ballast Water Record Book and will be required to carry out ballast water management procedures to a given standard. Existing ships will be required to do the same, but after a phase-in period.

Parties to the Convention are given the option to take additional measures which are subject to criteria set out in the Convention and to IMO guidelines.

General Obligations:

Under General Obligations, Parties undertake to give full and complete effect to the provisions of the Convention and the Annex in order to prevent, minimize and ultimately eliminate the transfer of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens through the control and management of ships ballast water and sediments.

Parties are given the right to take, individually or jointly with other Parties, more stringent measures with respect to the prevention, reduction or elimination of the transfer of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens through the control and management of ships ballast water and sediments, consistent with international law. Parties should ensure that ballast water management practices do not cause greater harm than they prevent to their environment, human health, property or resources, or those of other States.

This convention also calls for Parties individually or jointly to promote and facilitate scientific and technical research on ballast water management; and monitor the effects of ballast water management in waters under their jurisdiction.

For further reference:http://www.imo.org/About/Conventions/ListOfConventions/Pages/International-Convention-for-the-Control-and-Management-of-Ships-Ballast-Water-and-Sediments-(BWM).aspx.

Sources: The Hindu,http://www.imo.org/.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

It is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.

The Treaty entered into force in 1970.

More countries have adhered to the NPT than any other arms limitation and disarmament agreement, a testament to the Treatys significance.

A total of 190 states have joined the Treaty. Four UN member states have never joined the NPT: India, Israel, Pakistan and South Sudan. North Korea, which acceded to the NPT in 1985 but never came into compliance, announced its withdrawal in 2003.

The treaty recognizes five states as nuclear-weapon states: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China. Four other states are known or believed to possess nuclear weapons: India, Pakistan and North Korea have openly tested and declared that they possess nuclear weapons, while Israel has had a policy of opacity regarding its nuclear weapons program.

The NPT is interpreted as a three-pillar system, with an implicit balance among them: the three pillars are:

non-proliferation,

disarmament, and

The right to peacefully use nuclear technology.

The NPT non-nuclear-weapon states agree never to acquire nuclear weapons and the NPT nuclear-weapon states in exchange agree to share the benefits of peaceful nuclear technology and to pursue nuclear disarmament aimed at the ultimate elimination of their nuclear arsenals.

The treaty is reviewed every five years in meetings called Review Conferences of the Parties to the Treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Even though the treaty was originally conceived with a limited duration of 25 years, the signing parties decided, by consensus, to extend the treaty indefinitely and without conditions.

Several additional measures have been adopted to strengthen the NPT and the broader nuclear non-proliferation regime and make it difficult for states to acquire the capability to produce nuclear weapons, including the export controls of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the enhanced verification measures of the IAEA Additional Protocol.

Important articles in the Treaty:

Each nuclear-weapons state (NWS) undertakes not to transfer, to any recipient, nuclear weapons, or other nuclear explosive devices, and not to assist any non-nuclear weapon state to manufacture or acquire such weapons or devices.

Each non-NWS party undertakes not to receive, from any source, nuclear weapons, or other nuclear explosive devices; not to manufacture or acquire such weapons or devices; and not to receive any assistance in their manufacture.

Each non-NWS party undertakes to conclude an agreement with the IAEA for the application of its safeguards to all nuclear material in all of the states peaceful nuclear activities and to prevent diversion of such material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.

Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination.

All the Parties to the Treaty undertake to facilitate, and have the right to participate in, the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Parties to the Treaty in a position to do so shall also co-operate in contributing alone or together with other States or international organizations to the further development of the applications of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, especially in the territories of non-nuclear-weapon States Party to the Treaty, with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of the world.

The states undertake to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and towards a Treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.INSIGHTS CURRENT EVENTS: 06 OCTOBER 2014

BYINSIGHTS OCTOBER 6, 2014

PrintPDFNational Investigation Agency

National Investigation Agency (NIA)is a federal agency established by the Indian Government to combat terror in India. It acts as the Central Counter Terrorism Law Enforcement Agency. The agency is empowered to deal with terror related crimes across stateswithout special permissionfrom the states.

The Agency came into existence with the enactment of theNational Investigation Agency Act 2008by the Parliament of India on 31 December 2008.

NIA was created after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks as need for a central agency to combat terrorism was realised.

NIA hasconcurrent jurisdictionwhich empowers the Centre to probe terror attacks in any part of the country, covering offences, including challenge to the countrys sovereignty and integrity, bomb blasts, hijacking of aircraft and ships, and attacks on nuclear installations.

Other than offenses of terrorism, it also deals with counterfeit currency, human trafficking, narcotics or drugs, organised crime (extortion mobs and gangs), plane hijacking and violations of atomic energy act and weapons of mass destruction act.

Jurisdiction:

The Agency has been empowered to conduct investigation and prosecution of offenses under the Acts specified in the Schedule of the NIA Act.

A State Government may request the Central Government to hand over the investigation of a case to the NIA, provided the case has been registered for the offenses as contained in the schedule to the NIA Act.

Central Government can also order NIA to take over investigation of any scheduled offense anywhere in the India.

Officers of the NIA who are drawn from the Indian Revenue Service and the Indian Police Service have all powers, privileges and liabilities which the police officers have in connection with investigation of any offense.

Special Courts:

Various Special Courts have been notified by the Central Government of India for trial of the cases registered at various police stations of NIA under the NIA Act 2008. Any question as to the jurisdiction of these courts is decided by the Central Government. These are presided over by a judge appointed by the Central Government on the recommendation of the Chief Justice of the High Court with jurisdiction in that region.

Supreme Court of India has also been empowered to transfer the cases from one special court to any other special court within or outside the state if the same is in the interest of justice in light of the prevailing circumstances in any particular state. They are empowered with all powers of the court of sessions under Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 for trial of any offense.

An appeal from any judgment, sentence or order, not being an interlocutory order, of a Special Court lies to the High Court both on facts and on law. Such an appeal is heard by a bench of two Judges of the High Court.

At present there are 38 Special NIA Courts. State Governments have also been empowered to appoint one or more such special courts in their states.

Sources: The Hindu, Wiki,http://www.nia.gov.in/.

Mautana

Mautana or monetary compensation is a tradition where the victims family receive a settlement when one of their own passes away from the accused family. It is a custom started by a Tribal Community in Rajasthan. It is imposed as a social-penalty, (mostly in accidental death-cases), heavy cash-fine is imposed on the culprit/s in favor of family of victim and his community.

Mautana, for death, started with the noble intention of providing relief to the victims family. The meaning of the word mautana is Money against Death.

This age-old tribal criminal justice system is being misused by unscrupulous elements and this is causing law-and-order problem in the Mewar region of Rajasthan. For moneylenders, it is good business since the compensation is often huge, making the accused borrow from them. The money will be in the range of Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 15 lakh depending on the social status of the dead and the accused.

Though it is a Bhil tribal tradition, Mautana has been adopted by various communities in the region. Among the Bhil tribes, a person or a family used to be pronounced as an accused just because the body of the victim was found in their property be it a house, farm or well even if it is a case of natural death, suicide or accident. If a woman died in her natal house, her in-laws would demand Mautana from her parents.

The family or the community would not cremate the body even for days together until its demand was met. If the family was unable to pay, the victims side would simply destroy its property, forcing it to migrate from the village in what is known asChadhotra.

Unfortunately, what was confined to tribal communities in remote areas, where there is no interface with the government, has been adopted by other communities as well. Most of these cases go unreported, or even if the police take cognisance of them, Mautana and the legal system run parallel.

Sources: The Hindu, Wiki.

Essential Commodities Act

The Essential Commodities Act (ECA) was enacted by the Central Government in 1955 to control and regulate trade and prices of commodities declared essential under the Act.

The Act empowers the Central and state governments concurrently to control production, supply and distribution of certain commodities in view of rising prices. The measures that can be taken under the provision of the Act include, among others, licensing, distribution and imposing stock limits. The governments also have the power to fix price limits, and selling the particular commodities above the limit will attract penalties. Black marketing of essential commodities was a major problem in the past and this has now been controlled to a large extent. The Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) and such other orders have been issued under the powers of the ECA.

Some of the major commodities covered under the act are:

Petroleum and its products, including petrol, diesel, kerosene, Naphtha, solvents etc

Food stuff, including edible oil and seeds, vanaspati, pulses, sugarcane and its products like, khandsari and sugar, rice paddy

Jute and textiles

Drugs- prices of essential drugs are still controlled by the DPCO

Fertilisers- the Fertiliser Control Order prescribes restrictions on transfer and stock of fertilizers apart from prices

The Act empowers the Centre to order states to impose stock limits and bring hoarders to task, in order to smoothen supplies and cool prices. Generally the Centre specifies upper limits in the case of stock holding and states prescribe specific limits. However in case there is a difference between states and the Centre, the act specifies that the latter will prevail.

Food and civil supply authorities execute the provisions of the Act.

Sources:http://www.business-standard.com/,consumeraffairs.nic.in.

Article 370

Under Part XXI of the Indian constitution, which deals with Temporary, Transitional and Special provisions, Article 370 is a temporary provision granting special autonomous status to J&K.

This implies that Concurrence of the state government is required in all matters except for Defence, Foreign Affairs, Communications and ancillary matters (matters specified in the instrument of accession). Thus the states residents live under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to other Indians.

Similar protections for unique status exist in tribal areas of India including those in Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Nagaland.

Article 370(3) says that:

Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this article, the President may, by public notification, declare that this article shall cease to be operative or shall be operative only with such exceptions and modifications and from such date as he may specify:

Provided that the recommendation of theConstituent Assemblyof the State referred to in clause (2) shall be necessary before the President issues such a notification.

Jammu and Kashmir has no Constituent Assembly now. Hence the question arises as to how the article can be amended or removed from the Indian Constitution.

Some argue that the President may, by public notification under article 370(3), declare that Article 370 shall cease to be operative and no recommendation of the Constituent Assembly is needed as it does not exist any longer. Others say it can be amended by an amendment Act under Article 368 of the Constitution and the amendment extended under Article 370(1).

INSIGHTS CURRENT EVENTS: 07 OCTOBER 2014

BYINSIGHTS OCTOBER 7, 2014

PrintPDFNew government advertisement norms

A Supreme Court-appointed panel headed by eminent legal expert N.R. Madhava Menon has released a set of guidelines to prevent Funds misuse.

The panel said the issue of multiple advertisements by different departments and public sector undertakings should be avoided in commemorative advertisement and only one advertisement must be issued. As far as possible during the period prior to elections, only those advertisements required by law such as public health and safety advisories or job and contract advertisements alone should be released by the government. The government should appoint an Ombudsman to receive complaints of violations of guidelines and recommend action in accordance with the guidelines.

The guidelines include:

Government advertisement must not mention the party in government by name.

Government advertisement must not directly attack the views or actions of the Opposition.

It must not include party political symbol or logo or flag.

It must not aim to influence public support for a political party or candidate for election.

It should not refer or link to the websites of political parties or politicians.

The panel also came to the conclusion that the existing Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) guidelines did not govern the issues.

The panels guidelines are intended to prevent misuse of public funds on advertisements to gain political mileage as distinct from legitimate government messaging and would apply to all institutions of government; public sector undertakings; and local bodies and other autonomous bodies or organisations established under a statute.

The report makes it clear that the objects of these guidelines are to prevent arbitrary use of public funds for advertising by public authorities to project particular personalities, parties or governments without any attendant public interest.

Sources: The Hindu.

Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana

In order to attain National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) goal of providing access to electricity to all rural households and electrification of all villages, Government of India, in April, 2005 conceived Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) to electrify all un-electrified villages / habitations and to provide access to electricity to all rural households in un-electrified and electrified villages in the entire country.

The scheme covers electrification of all the villages in the country except the villages under the programme of Ministry of Non-conventional Sources (MNES) for providing electricity from non-conventional energy sources under their remote village electrification programme. With the launch of this scheme the existing Accelerated Electrification of One lakh Villages and One Crore Households and the Minimum Needs Programme for rural electrification got merged with RGGVY.

The scheme has been launched to fulfil the commitment of the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of completing the household electrification in next 5 years and modernizing the rural electricity infrastructure.

The scheme is being implemented through the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) which has been designated as Nodal Agency by Ministry of Power.

The scheme provides for free of cost connection to all rural households living below poverty line. The programme aims at a qualitative transformation of the rural electricity infrastructure. It envisages that there will not be any discrimination between urban and rural areas in respect of hours of supply. 24 hours supply of good quality power would also enable dispersal of small industries, khadi and village industries in the rural areas. It will also facilitate delivery of modern health care, education and application of information technologies. This is aimed at accelerated rural development, employment generation and poverty alleviation.

SALIENT FEATURES

The scheme has the following important features:

Ninety per cent capital subsidy is provided towards overall cost of the projects under the scheme. 10% of the project cost is contributed by States through own resources / loan from financial institutions.

Prior commitment of the States has been obtained before sanction of projects under the scheme for:

Guarantee by State Government for a minimum daily supply of 6- 8 hours.

Free of cost service connection to all families Below Poverty Lines.

Sources: The Hindu,http://rggvy.gov.in/.

Big Data

Big data is an all-encompassing term for any collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using traditional data processing applications. Big data usually includes data sets with sizes beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, curate, manage, and process data within a tolerable elapsed time. Big data size is a constantly moving target.

Advertising and marketing are a major source of revenue for many companies and Big Data is quickly becoming one of the core priorities for advertisers and marketers. Big Data is seen by marketers as a tool for creating targeted and effective advertising.

Big Data can drive an integrated marketing and business strategy like nothing else. According to a recent IBM study, high-performing Chief Marketing Officers are integrating internal and external data to garner deep insights which, in turn, provide them with a much deeper understanding of their customers.

What is considered big data varies depending on the capabilities of the organization managing the set, and on the capabilities of the applications that are traditionally used to process and analyze the data set in its domain. Big data requires exceptional technologies to efficiently process large quantities of data within tolerable elapsed times.

Big Data and analytics technologies help marketers overlay offline transaction data with all of these other online data types including data from various third-party sources to gain insights and improve Returns On Investment. With the right interpretation of data, advertisers can understand their customers as individuals, know each customer in context and co-create authentic brand experiences.

A McKinsey study last year stated that companies using Big Data and data analytics effectively show productivity rates and profitability that are 5-6 per cent higher than competitors.

With Big Data technologies, advertisers can:

Conduct real time analysis of customer behaviour to produce tailored experiences and targeted promotions

Measure the effectiveness of online advertising to fine-tune campaigns while they are in progress

Adopt advanced content analytics solutions to mine social media posts and call centre logs in order to assess customer sentiment and avoid churn

Analyse data continuously streaming in from to increase service uptime, facilitate better planning

Implement predictive analytics solutions to anticipate future customer behaviour.

The Big Data has been changing few (so called) market rules. First, it has brought the customer back into focus, whether in terms of what they think of products or how they react to marketing. Second, it seems to have queered the pitch for big marketers. The spread of marketing automation systems and database applications has taken all the customer data out of the technology departments and into marketing cubicles.

One can also say the arrival of such complex data sets has changed the role of the marketer from being largely creative to being slightly more technical, and that at a macro level, small businesses and their larger counterparts can finally compete on a level playing field.

Sources:http://www.business-standard.com/, Wiki.

The Electricity Act, 2003

It is an Act of the Parliament of India which covers major issues involving generation, distribution, transmission and trading in power.

It is an Act enacted to consolidate the laws relating to generation, transmission, distribution, trading and use of electricity industry, promoting competition therein, protecting interest of consumers and supply of electricity to all areas, rationalization of electricity traffic, ensuring transparent policies regarding subsidies, promotion of efficient and environmentally benign policies constitution central electricity authority, regulatory commissions and establishment of appellate tribunal and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Before Electricity Act, 2003, the Indian electricity sector was guided by The Indian Electricity Act, 1910 and The Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948. The generation, distribution and transmission were carried out mainly by the State Electricity Boards in various States. Due to politico-economic situation, the cross-subsidies reached at an unsustainable level. For the purpose of distancing state governments form tariff determination, The Electricity Regulatory Commissions Act was enacted in 1998. So as to reform electricity sector further by participation of private sector and to bring in competition, Electricity Act was enacted in 2003.

The Act delicenses power generation completely (except for hydro-power projects over a certain size).As per the Act, 10 per cent of the power supplied by suppliers and distributors to the consumers has to be generated using renewable and non-conventional sources of energy so that the energy is reliable.

The Act delicenses distribution in rural areas and brings in a licensing regime for distribution in urban areas. However, as per the Act, only 16 states in India have notified what constitutes as rural areas and therefore the rural distribution is yet to be freed up in nearly one third of the country.

The main features of the Act are as follows:

Generation has been delicensed and captive generation freely permitted, i.e. any generating company may establish, operate and maintain a generating station without obtaining a licence under this Act with the only exception that it should comply with the technical standards relating to connectivity with the grid.

No person shall

1. transmit electricity; or

2. distribute electricity; or

3. undertake trading in electricity,

Unless he is authorised to do so by a licence issued, exceptions are informed by authorised commissions through notifications.

Transmission utility at the central and state level to be a government company with responsibility of planned and coordinated development of transmission network.

Open access in transmission with provision for surcharge for taking care of current level of cross-subsidy, with the surcharge being gradually phased out.

The state governments are required to unbundle State Electricity Boards. However they may continue with them as distribution licensees and state transmission utilities.

Setting up State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) has been made mandatory.

An appellate tribunal to hear appeals against the decision of (CERCs) and SERCs.

Thrust to complete rural electrification and provide for management of rural distribution by panchayat, cooperative societies, NGOs, franchisees etc.

Central government to prepare National Electricity Policy and Tariff Policy.

Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to prepare National Electricity Plan.

INSIGHTS CURRENT EVENTS: 07 OCTOBER 2014

BYINSIGHTS OCTOBER 7, 2014

PrintPDFNew government advertisement norms

A Supreme Court-appointed panel headed by eminent legal expert N.R. Madhava Menon has released a set of guidelines to prevent Funds misuse.

The panel said the issue of multiple advertisements by different departments and public sector undertakings should be avoided in commemorative advertisement and only one advertisement must be issued. As far as possible during the period prior to elections, only those advertisements required by law such as public health and safety advisories or job and contract advertisements alone should be released by the government. The government should appoint an Ombudsman to receive complaints of violations of guidelines and recommend action in accordance with the guidelines.

The guidelines include:

Government advertisement must not mention the party in government by name.

Government advertisement must not directly attack the views or actions of the Opposition.

It must not include party political symbol or logo or flag.

It must not aim to influence public support for a political party or candidate for election.

It should not refer or link to the websites of political parties or politicians.

The panel also came to the conclusion that the existing Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP) guidelines did not govern the issues.

The panels guidelines are intended to prevent misuse of public funds on advertisements to gain political mileage as distinct from legitimate government messaging and would apply to all institutions of government; public sector undertakings; and local bodies and other autonomous bodies or organisations established under a statute.

The report makes it clear that the objects of these guidelines are to prevent arbitrary use of public funds for advertising by public authorities to project particular personalities, parties or governments without any attendant public interest.

Sources: The Hindu.

Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana

In order to attain National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) goal of providing access to electricity to all rural households and electrification of all villages, Government of India, in April, 2005 conceived Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) to electrify all un-electrified villages / habitations and to provide access to electricity to all rural households in un-electrified and electrified villages in the entire country.

The scheme covers electrification of all the villages in the country except the villages under the programme of Ministry of Non-conventional Sources (MNES) for providing electricity from non-conventional energy sources under their remote village electrification programme. With the launch of this scheme the existing Accelerated Electrification of One lakh Villages and One Crore Households and the Minimum Needs Programme for rural electrification got merged with RGGVY.

The scheme has been launched to fulfil the commitment of the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of completing the household electrification in next 5 years and modernizing the rural electricity infrastructure.

The scheme is being implemented through the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) which has been designated as Nodal Agency by Ministry of Power.

The scheme provides for free of cost connection to all rural households living below poverty line. The programme aims at a qualitative transformation of the rural electricity infrastructure. It envisages that there will not be any discrimination between urban and rural areas in respect of hours of supply. 24 hours supply of good quality power would also enable dispersal of small industries, khadi and village industries in the rural areas. It will also facilitate delivery of modern health care, education and application of information technologies. This is aimed at accelerated rural development, employment generation and poverty alleviation.

SALIENT FEATURES

The scheme has the following important features:

Ninety per cent capital subsidy is provided towards overall cost of the projects under the scheme. 10% of the project cost is contributed by States through own resources / loan from financial insti