Prashant Mavani, is an expert in current affairs analysis and holds a MSc in Management from University of Surrey (U.K.). Above all he is a passionate teacher.

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For cotton growers under pressure to protect their investments

They have to use greater volumes of insecticides in the face of severe pest attacks.

Many farmers are dying from pesticide exposure in Maharashtra’s cotton belt

Unprofessional and unscrupulous advices

System of regulation of insecticides in India is obsolete: Pesticides Management Bill introduced in 2008 (pending).

Updating the outmoded Insecticides Act of 1968.

Centre is focused on growth in both agricultural production and exports.

Agricultural products from India, including fruits and vegetables, have been subjected to import restrictions internationally for failing to comply with safety norms.

We need a Central Pesticides Board

Food safety laws and products used in health care

Maharashtra officials have hinted at the loss of efficacy of some hybrids of genetically modified cotton in warding off pests to explain the growth and intensity of pesticide use.

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Under American law, the administration has to certify every 90 days that Iran is technically in compliance

Refusing to certify the Iran nuclear deal

Deal curbed Iran’s nuclear program in return for lifting global sanctions

All other signatories + UN, insist that Iran is fully complying.

Regional rivals in West Asia

Trump withdrew certification & has not scrap the deal.

Instead, he passed the buck to U.S. lawmakers: 60 days to decide

Damage caused to: Agreement and US Diplomacy

Iran-U.S. rapport development is delayed indefinitely

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The idea of having dedicated personnel for public health management goes back to 1959

Mudaliar Committee: “personnel dealing with problems of health and welfare should have a comprehensive and wide outlook and rich experience of administration at the state level”.

1973: echoed by the Kartar Singh Committee. It said doctors with

no formal training in infectious disease control

surveillance systems

data management

community health related problems

lacking in leadership and communication skills

with no exposure to rural environments and their social dynamics

nor having been trained to manage a facility or draw up budget estimates

were ill-equipped and misfits to work in public facilities

It added that the medical education is designed on western model and fits there better

12th Five Year Plan and the National Health Policy, 2017: Strongly advocates for cadre

The idea is on the lines of the civil service: To address lack of standardization, financial management, appropriate health functionaries and competencies including technical expertise, logistics management, and social determinants of health and leadership

Doctors with clinical qualifications and even with vast experience are unable to address all these challenges

At the Ministry level, the highest post may be held by a person with no formal training in the principles of public health to guide and advise the country on public health issues.

Such an exclusive department of public health at both the levels of the Ministry and the States will help in developing the recruitment, training, implementation and monitoring of public health management cadre.

Lastly, another benefit will be the freeing up of bureaucrats and their utilization in other much needed places.

For the second time in the last decade, the Nobel Committee awarded its annual peace prize to the laudable goal of nuclear disarmament.

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons: The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons they helped birth at the United Nations reflects the ambition of many states to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

But neither the advent of a nuclear prohibition treaty, nor the increase in nuclear dangers seems to have diminished the belief in nuclear deterrence by officials and many experts from the states possessing such weapons.

Many states will join the treaty in the hope that it will stigmatise nuclear weapons and shame nuclear weapon possessors into eventual nuclear disarmament. But many states will reject the treaty and continue to hope that nuclear weapons and alliances backed by them will guarantee their security.

Though it is notionally possible to work both angles, in reality the prohibition and nuclear disarmament camps are so divided that it is difficult to find credible middle ground.

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The existence of a fundamental right to privacy: Supreme Court is appreciated

But recently the court upheld a ban on a book

Section 95 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

This law allows the state to forfeit and suspend publications that it deems to be in violation of certain provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

In this case, the government found that the book’s contents appeared to infringe Section 295A of the IPC, which criminalizes speech that hurts religious sentiments.

In a just and tolerant society, one would imagine the courts would accord to rules of this kind the narrowest possible construal, allowing the greatest possible latitude to free expression.

For an offence to be committed under the provision, not only must the speech or expression in question insult or attempt to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of a class of citizens, but it must also have been made with the deliberate and malicious intention of outraging such religious feelings

Under this law, as interpreted currently by the Supreme Court, the state doesn’t have to present any evidence to show that religious feelings have actually been hurt. It is sufficient if it “appears” to the government that such beliefs might be injured.

Right to freedom of speech is really the animating force of democracy

Pakistan withdraws terror charges against Hafiz Saeed

Pakistani authorities have withdrawn terrorism charges against Hafiz Saeed and the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), paving the way for the possible release of the man designated a terrorist by the UN, the U.S. and India for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Pro bono norm for judges too?

Supreme Court’s guidelines issued last Thursday which stated that a lawyer should have fought a certain number of cases pro bono (free of cost) in order to be designated as a senior lawyer.

The government wants the same principle to be followed in the appointment of judges.

The issue, however, is tricky as judges to higher courts are appointed by the Supreme Courtcollegium and the Law Ministry only has to give its concurrence.

So, the idea has to be first approved by the collegium before it can be implemented.

• On October 12, the Supreme Court fixed guidelines on how to designate a senior advocate and mentioned pro bono work as one of the criteria.

• The Supreme Court has now set up a committee that will also look at various other criteria.

• Integrity, conduct, reputation and the number of reported judgments in which the advocate has appeared would all be factored in by the committee before recommending someone as a senior advocate.

The National Legal Services Authority and State Legal Aid Authorities offer free legal aid to those who can’t afford it.

Sushma grants visa to ailing Pakistani woman

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday announced that a Pakistani woman would be given visa for undergoing a liver transplant surgery in India.

Ms. Swaraj intervened after the ailing woman’s nephew tweeted her for help.

237 feared dead after Somalia blasts

One of the deadliest attacks to hit the capital, Mogadishu, since an Islamist insurgency began in 2007.

Indian economy on very solid track in the medium term

IMF chief Christine Lagarde said the Indian economy was on a “very solid track” in the medium term, days after the International Monetary Fund lowered its growth forecast for the current and the next year.

The IMF last week lowered India’s growth projection to 6.7% in 2017, 0.5 percentage points less than its previous two forecasts in April and July, attributing it to demonetisation and introduction of the GST.

It also lowered the country’s growth for 2018 to 7.4%, 0.3 percentage points less than its previous two projections in July and April. India’s growth rate in 2016 was 7.1%, which saw an upward revision of 0.3 percentage points from its April report.

“Turning to India... we have slightly downgraded India; but we believe that India is, for the medium- and long-term, on a growth track that is much more solid as a result of the structural reforms that have been conducted in the last couple of years,” the IMF managing director said.

GDP may grow at 7% in FY18: NITI Aayog

NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar has said the economic slowdown that began in 2013-14 has bottomed out and the GDP is likely to grow at 6.9-7 % this fiscal and 7.5% in 2018-19.

The economic growth slowed to 7.1% in 2016-17, the year in which 87% of the currency was demonetised, despite a very good show by the agricultural sector.

• “I think, by the time you come to the first quarter of 2018, you will see a stronger recovery, and fiscal 2018-19 will be a much better year than fiscal 2017-18. And that will then continue because it will be on a much more sustained basis,” Mr. Kumar said adding growth will be about 6.9-7% in the current fiscal year.

• “In the next fiscal year, the growth would be about 7.5%,” Mr. Kumar said in an interview to PTI.

Melting ice making Greenland sea less saline

Which may in turn affect marine life as well as the global ocean currents that keep Europe warm

Over the years, the dramatic meltdown of ice in the Arctic Ocean has received great attention and is easy to observe through satellite images.

Also, glaciers have been observed to melt and retreat and the researchers know that today’s meltdown of the Greenland ice sheet has more than doubled compared with the period 1983-2003.

Questions

1. India’s annual per-capita electricity consumption is expected to ____, from 1075 kWh in 2015-16 to over ______ kWh in 2040.

2. Point out recent relief provided by GST Council to small traders and exporters.

3. Considering judiciary, what do you understand by Collegium?

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