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Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi has “withheld assent” for certain Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly, and has not “returned” them to the legislature or to the government for “reconsideration”.
Technically, therefore, these Bills cannot be “readopted” by the House, as was done when the Governor “returned” the NEET Exemption Bill last February, and a Bill seeking to ban online gambling in March 2023.
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin is likely to move a resolution on the Bills at Saturday’s Special Session of the House, explaining the government’s reasoning that enacting these Bills is inevitable, sources said. The House resolution, along with the “re-enacted” Bills, could then be sent to the Raj Bhavan.
Most of the Bills for which the Governor had “withheld assent” are related to a proposal to amend the statutes of certain State universities to enable the Chief Minister to take over the role of Chancellor, replacing the Governor.
Under Article 200 of the Constitution, the Governor is empowered to “grant assent”, “withhold assent”, or “reserve” a Bill for consideration by the President. A fourth option is to “return” the Bill, “requesting
HC quashes Haryana’s 75% local quota in private sector (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
The Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the Haryana government’s law guaranteeing 75% reservation in private sector jobs for residents of the State.
The domicile quota was a promise made in the 2019 Assembly election by Jannayak Janta Party leader and Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala.
The court’s decision is seen as a major setback for the Manohar Lal-led BJP-JJP coalition government in the State.
The Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020, which came into force on January 15 last year, makes it mandatory for employers to reserve 75% of jobs paying less than ₹30,000 a month for local residents.
The government originally said the reservation would apply to jobs paying up to ₹50,000, but later revised the upper limit to ₹30,000 following opposition from industrialists.
Editorial
The geopolitical fallout of the Israel-Hamas war (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
One strategic shift and two tactical realignments. These were the driving forces of geopolitics in West Asia in recent years, until October 7. All were interrelated.
The United States, the reigning superpower of the region since the end of the Second World War, had begun shifting its strategic focus to more conventional rivals such as Russia and China.
But, to maintain its hold over and interests in the region, what the U.S. sought to do was to bring two of the pillars of its regional policy, Israel and the Gulf Arabs, closer.
The Abraham Accords were a result of this policy, which was rolled out by the Donald Trump administration and embraced by the U.S. President, Joe Biden.
A common Jewish-Arab front in a relatively peaceful West Asia would allow the U.S. to free up resources from the region which it could use elsewhere.
State of the economy — temper the euphoria (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
In its semi-annual report, World Economic Outlook, ‘Navigating Global Divergences’ October 2023, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised its projected GDP growth rate for India for 2023-24 to 6.3%, up from the earlier 6.1%.
For India’s policymakers, it is a vindication of their short-term economic management. The success is sweeter as the IMF revised downwards world GDP growth projection, including China’s by 0.3 percentage points, to 4.2%. Official spokespersons have sought the IMF’s endorsement to silence its critics.
That the economies that were worst affected during the COVID-19 pandemic were also the ones to record a steep recovery is widely acknowledged. India, which was one of the worst affected, has followed the pattern.
During the second quarter of 2020, India’s GDP contracted by 25.6%, quarter on quarter, the worst among the world’s major economies as reported by the then IMF Chief Economist, in a tweet on September 2, 2020.
The output contraction in 2020-21, at 8.5% over the previous year, was one of the worst among the world’s large economies.
News
‘India has a critical role in Dubai climate conference’ (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Criticism that the UAE’s leadership this year of the annual UN climate talks conflicted with its position as one of the world’s biggest producers of oil is “surprising” and “unfounded”.
The 28th edition of the Conference of Parties (CoP) will be held over two weeks in Dubai next month. Heads of states, business delegations and climate and energy think tanks from over 190 countries converge annually for the conference to negotiate responsibility for keeping global temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius.
This time, it has stirred a unique controversy centred on its president, Sultan Al-Jaber. His position as head of one of the world’s largest oil companies, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, has drawn criticism — primarily from the West — that he would as CoP President be less inclined to push the world away from fossil fuels.
World
UN halts aid to Gaza amid communications blackout (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The UN was forced to stop deliveries of food and other necessities to Gaza on Friday and warned of the growing possibility of widespread starvation after Internet and telephone services collapsed in the besieged enclave because of a lack of fuel.
Israel announced that it will allow for the first time “very minimal” daily shipments of fuel into Gaza for use by the UN and communications system.
It appeared the amount would be far less than what the UN has said is needed to fuel water systems, hospitals and trucks to deliver aid — not counting the communications network.
Israel has barred entry to fuel since the start of the war, saying it would be diverted by Hamas for military means. It has also barred food, water and other supplies except for a trickle of aid from Egypt that aid workers say falls far short of what’s needed.
The communications blackout, now in its second day, largely cuts off Gaza’s 2.3 million people from one another and the outside world — and paralyses the coordination of aid, which humanitarian groups were already struggling to deliver because of the fuel shortage.
Japan PM raises ‘serious concerns’ about military activity in talks with Xi (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Thursday that he told President Xi Jinping he has “serious concerns” about Chinese military activity during their first direct talks in a year and slammed Beijing’s ban on its seafood.
Mr. Kishida said he “expressed our serious concerns over China’s increasing military activity near Japan, including its collaboration with Russia” during their meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
At the same time, I re-emphasised the extreme importance of the Taiwan Strait’s peace and stability to the international community including Japan,” Mr. Kishida told Japanese television channels after the talks in the U.S.
On the East China Sea, I expressed once again our serious concerns and urged the immediate removal of (Chinese) buoys set up in Japan’s EEZ, referring to the country’s exclusive economic zone.
Business
‘India targets $40-bn in technical textiles’ (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India’s market for technical textiles is targeted to touch $40 billion by 2030 from the current $23 billion, said Rajeev Saxena, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Textiles.
Speaking at a conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Department of Textiles, Tamil Nadu, he said the export of technical-textile products was expected to touch $10 billion from the current $2.5 billion in seven years.
The National Technical Textile Mission, unveiled three years ago, has been extended till 2026. We do not have high-performance fibre. We import our needs.
The government allocaed ₹1,000 crore under the Mission for research and development and so far, 126 projects, with a total value of ₹371 crore, have been approved.