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The Supreme Court refused to stay the Bihar government from publishing data collected from its caste-based survey.
A Bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna refused to be bothered by the fact that the State had released the data when petitions challenging the legality of the survey was pending before the Supreme Court.
The Bench posted the case for next hearing in January 2024, while issuing notice to the State to file its response to the petitions.
The main issue here is that the data was collected unlawfully and cannot be acted upon,” advocate Aparajita Singh, who led the petitioners’ side, argued.
You will be in some difficulty on that… we have read the Patna High Court judgment [which upheld the survey] and made a prima facie view. The High Court judgment is fairly detailed.
Nobel Peace Prize 2023 goes to jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi (Page no.1)
(Miscellaneous)
Imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her tireless campaigning for women’s rights and democracy, and against the death penalty.
Ms. Mohammadi, 51, has kept up her activism despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities and spending years behind bars. She has remained a leading light for nationwide, women-led protests, sparked by the death last year of a 22-year-old woman in police custody.
This prize is first and foremost a recognition of the very important work of a whole movement in Iran with its undisputed leader, Narges Mohammadi,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee who announced the prize in Oslo.
She said the committee hopes the prize “is an encouragement to continue the work in whichever form this movement finds to be fitting.” She also urged Iran to release Ms. Mohammadi in time for the prize ceremony on December 10.
In a statement to The New York Times, Ms. Mohammadi said the “global support and recognition of my human rights advocacy makes me more resolved, more responsible, more passionate and more hopeful”.
Editorial
Aligning higher education with the United Nations SDGs (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Education)
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 goals with 169 targets that all 193 UN member states have agreed to try to achieve by 2030. SDGs are a matter of urgency, and actions by all countries, both developed and developing, to end poverty and other socio-economic and environmental problems should align with strategies that improve the standard of life and education, reduce inequality, and harness economic growth.
Though it has been eight years since the inception of these goals, the SDGs Report 2023 flagged slow progress and painted a grim picture due to the prolonged effects of COVID-19, impacts of the climate crisis, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and a weak global economy.
The lack of progress towards the goals is a universal experience, but it has been more pronounced in the Least Developed Countries.
India, despite having managed the crises of the global economy and relatively succeeded in overcoming the challenges posed by the pandemic, has suffered a setback in achieving these goals.
Yet, recent actions and policies indicate that India is committed towards realising SDGs. SDG4 pertains to access to quality education.
It is a prerequisite for the achievement of other goals. India, with a long-standing history of equitable and inclusive education, has accelerated efforts to ensure the achievement of SDGs through various reforms. Among them, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 should be given credit to a great extent.
NEP 2020 has been prepared in tune with most of the SDGs. Though NEP 2020 calls for changes at all levels of education, priority should be accorded to higher education as it accelerates social mobility, empowers people through creativity and critical thinking, and grants them employment skills.
News
Two out of five amphibians are facing extinction threat due to climate change: study (Page no.10)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
A new paper analysing two decades of data from around the world has found that climate change is emerging as one of the biggest threats to frogs, salamanders, and caecilians.
The study titled ‘Ongoing declines for the world’s amphibians in the face of emerging threats’ was published on October 4 in the scientific journal, Nature.
The study is based on the second global amphibian assessment coordinated by the Amphibian Red List Authority, a branch of the Amphibian Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Species Survival Commission and managed by Re:wild, a wildlife conservation group.
The assessment evaluated the extinction risk of more than 8,000 amphibian species from all over the world, including 2,286 species evaluated for the first time.
More than 1,000 experts across the globe, including scientists and researchers from Assam-based biodiversity conservation organisation, Aaranyak, and other Indian institutions, contributed their data and expertise.
The data revealed that two out of every five amphibians are threatened with extinction. These data will be published on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
No HC should deny video conferencing or hybrid hearings: SC (Page no.10)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court gave High Courts two weeks to get their video conferencing and hybrid hearing equipment up and running, stating that if one wanted to be a judge, one had to know how to use technology.
The Supreme Court directed that High Courts would provide adequate Internet and free Wi-Fi to lawyers and litigants in their precincts.
The links to the hearings would be provided in the daily cause lists. All the High Courts would put in place a standard operating procedure (SOP) for video conferencing and hybrid mode of hearings within four weeks.
Delhi High Court judge, Justice Rajiv Shakdher would prepare a model SOP in conjunction with the Supreme Court-appointed amici curiae, advocates Gaurav Agarwal and K. Parameshwar.
The Chief Justice was addressing the “reticence” among High Court judges, including some Chief Justices of State High Courts, to use the hybrid mode.
Some High Courts have dismantled equipment installed during the COVID days. Other High Court insist that lawyers and litigants come physically to court rather than have a choice to appear online.
World
Change in Iran ‘irreversible’: Narges Mohammadi (Page no. 11)
(Personality)
Rights campaigner and 2023 Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi said in a September interview that she retained hope for change in Iran, despite having no prospect of release from prison and enduring the pain of separation from her family.
In the interview, where Ms. Mohammadi gave written answers to AFP from Evin prison in Tehran, she insisted the protest movement that erupted one year ago in Iran against the Islamic republic is still alive.
First arrested 22 years ago, Ms. Mohammadi, 51, has spent much of the past two decades in and out of jail over her unstinting campaigning for human rights in Iran. She has most recently been incarcerated since November 2021 and has not seen her children for eight years.
While she could only witness from behind bars the protests that broke out following the death on September 16, 2022 of Mahsa Amini — who had been arrested for violating Iran’s strict dress rules for women — she said the movement made clear the levels of dissatisfaction in society.
Noting that Iran had even before September 2022 seen repeated protest outbreaks, she added: “We have seen cycles of protests in recent years and this shows the irreversible nature of the situation and the scope for the expansion of the protests.”
Business
RBI flags inflation risk to stability (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Reserve Bank of India views ‘high inflation as a major risk to macroeconomic stability and sustainable growth’, and accordingly monetary policy has been focused on aligning inflation to the 4% target on a durable basis, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said as he announced the Monetary Policy Committee’s decision to keep the policy repo rate unchanged at 6.50%.
Elaborating on the MPC’s rationale for leaving interest rates unchanged for a fourth straight meeting, he said a silver lining of declining core inflation notwithstanding , the overall inflation outlook was clouded by uncertainties that included the fall in kharif sowing for key crops like pulses and oil seeds, low reservoir levels, and volatile global food and energy prices.
Asserting that the MPC remained alert and prepared to undertake timely policy measures to align inflation to the target and anchor inflation expectations, he observed that headwinds from geopolitical tensions and geo-economic fragmentation, volatility in global financial markets, global economic slowdown, and the uneven distribution of monsoon rains posed risks to the outlook.