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The Supreme Court has laid down the law that a Governor, in case he withholds assent to a Bill, should send it back to the State legislature “as soon as possible” with a message to reconsider the proposed law.
If the Assembly reiterates the Bill “with or without amendments”, the Governor has no choice or discretion, and has to give his assent to it.
The November 10 judgment released was based on a petition filed by the Punjab government against its Governor’s action to hold back crucial Bills.
The verdict would be a significant boost to Tamil Nadu’s case. The Tamil Nadu Assembly had returned 10 crucial Bills to Governor R.N. Ravi, who had withheld assent in the first instance. “The substantive part of Article 200 empowers the Governor to withhold assent to the Bill.
WHO asks China for more info on rise in illnesses, pneumonia clusters (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
The World Health Organization (WHO) says it has made an official request to China for information about a potentially worrying spike in respiratory illnesses and clusters of pneumonia in children.
The WHO cited unspecified media reports and a global infectious disease monitoring service as reporting clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in northern China.
In a statement late, the WHO said it was unclear whether those were linked to a rise in respiratory infections reported by Chinese authorities.
Scientists said the situation warranted close monitoring, but were not convinced that the recent spike in respiratory illnesses in China signalled the start of a new global outbreak.
Editorial
A $5 trillion economy, but for whom? (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Last week, at an election rally in Chhattisgarh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that he is extending the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojna, a scheme providing 5 kg of foodgrains free every month to beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act, by five years because he does not want any citizen to sleep hungry.
This means that 80 crore Indians will still be receiving free foodgrains to stave off hunger in 2028. This is the year the government expects India to become the third largest economy in the world, with a GDP of $5 trillion.
Will large swathes of Indians still be hungry with a GDP of $5 trillion? Who will benefit from the five-year dash to these targets?
For reference, let’s take a look at Japan today, the third largest economy by GDP in the world. In Japan, there is reportedly a death by suicide every 20 minutes.
About 15 lakh Japanese have not left their homes for years, a form of severe social withdrawal known as hikikomori. Old parents rent actresses who come in on Sunday to call them ‘Mom’ and ‘Pop’ because their own daughters don’t visit any more.
Every day, dead people are discovered in tiny apartments days or weeks after they died; these are called kodokushi or lonely deaths. Clearly, Japan’s climb to the third position economy-wise has not lifted all boats equally; it has tossed the weak to the margins where they languish because economic growth on steroids has unpicked the safety catch of family and community ties.
Text & Context
COP 28: India’s equity demand (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
There is an almost linear relationship between global warming and cumulative carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992 noted that per capita emissions in developing countries are still “relatively low” and that their share in the global emissions will grow to meet their social and developmental needs.
The Convention recognises the ‘common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities’ (CBDR-RC) principle. This means different States have different responsibilities and respective capabilities in tackling climate change.
This principle has been reaffirmed in the Paris Agreement, whose main aim is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels”.
Deepfake alarm: challenges as AI’s shadow looms over entertainment industry (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
As has always been the case with any technological development, most common discussions around Artificial Intelligence (AI) centre on the direct, perceivable pros and cons it poses (thanks to sci-fi’s favourite plot of robots taking over all humanity).
It takes an unfortunate scapegoat to force us out of our voluntary or involuntary ignorance, look at everything that lies beyond, and acknowledge the gaping divide between those who are willing and not willing to participate in AI-related discussions.
Earlier this month, a deepfake video (a video featuring a human whose appearance was digitally altered using AI tech) surfaced featuring Rashmika Mandanna’s facial likeness morphed over that of British-Indian social media personality Zara Patel.
While those familiar with deepfakes could spot its eeriness immediately, Rashmika’s pan-Indian popularity, the fact that she was the first Indian actor to voice out against deepfake abuse and that it got even the Prime Minister voicing out his concerns, attracted colossal media attention.
News
MGNREGS audit crosses 50% local bodies in just six States (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
Of the 34 States and Union Territories, only six have completed social audit of works done under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in more than 50% of gram panchayats. And Kerala is the only State to cover 100% gram panchayats.
High rate of corruption is one of the primary complaints against the scheme and social audit is the inbuilt anti-corruption mechanism in the Act.
These numbers are sourced from the Management Information System (MIS) on Social Audit maintained by the Union Ministry of Rural Development as on November 10.
Section 17 of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) says the gram sabha “shall monitor the execution of works”.
Fathima Beevi, first woman Judge in Supreme Court, dead (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
Almost everything in the remarkable career of Justice M. Fathima Beevi, who died here at the age of 96, was a first.
In 1950, she was the first student to complete a degree in law with full marks in all subjects, and eight years later, she emerged first in a competitive exam conducted by the Public Service Commission and joined the judicial services as a munsiff.
Years later, she became the first woman member of the country’s Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, before becoming the first Muslim woman to enter the higher judiciary as a judge in the Kerala High Court in 1983.
Determined to recast the role of women in Indian judiciary, she then went on to become the first woman judge in the Supreme Court of India, six years later.
Fathima Beevi was born to Annaveetil Meeran Sahib and Khadeeja Beevi of Pathanamthitta in 1927. She completed her schooling at the Catholicate High School and did an undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the University College, Thiruvanathapuram.
In line with her father’s aspiration to make her a lawyer, she did a degree in law and enrolled as lawyer in November 1950.
Studying sea ice amid penguins and the Southern Lights (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
It is unlike any workspace in the world. Each day starts off with frigid, record-low temperatures. In the Antarctic, everything depends on the weather.
If the weather is good, we head out. Else, we stay in,” says polar researcher Vishnu Nandan, as he settles down reluctantly to the temperate climate of his hometown Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, after a 40-hour flight from Antarctica.
It is not warm enough here. “Or maybe by now I have been so used to the cold that this isn’t warm enough,” he adds quickly, as an afterthought.
Vishnu has just returned from an eight-month odyssey in the Antarctic. He was one of the two scientists who were part of a 25-member team of the British Antarctic Survey, braving the extreme weather and the polar darkness at the Rothera Research Station on Adelaide Island, West Antarctica as part of a scientific survey.
The research is part of a U.K.-based project called DEFIANT (Drivers and Effects of Fluctuations in sea Ice in the ANTarctic), which set up a ground-based radar system to take
World
Anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders wins Dutch polls (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
The party of anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders won a huge general election victory in the Netherlands, according to a nearly complete vote count early, that showed a stunning lurch to the far right for a nation once famed as a beacon of tolerance.
The result will send shock waves through Europe, where far-right ideology is on the rise, and puts Mr. Wilders in line to lead talks to form the next governing coalition and possibly become the first far-right Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
It is going to happen that the PVV is in the next Cabinet,” Mr. Wilders said, using the Dutch abbreviation for his Party for Freedom (Partij voor de Vrijheid).
With nearly all votes counted, Mr. Wilders’ party was forecast to win 37 seats in the 150-seat Lower House of Parliament, two more than predicted by an exit poll when voting finished on Wednesday night and more than double the 17 the party secured in the last election.
Business
‘Need a regulator like SEBI for AI’ (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India will evolve norms for regulating artificial intelligence, and the AI regulator could function like financial regulator SEBI, Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) member Sanjiv Sanyal said.
Stating that the model of self-regulation and bureaucratic regulation is unlikely to work in the AI space, Mr. Sanyal suggested that India could think of having a regulator that understands the technology and pays attention to how it is evolving.
You need to create the equivalent (of SEBI) for the AI system. You need a regulator who understands the technology and, instead of wasting time predicting where it will go, pays attention to how it is evolving.
For regulating AI, a system has to be put in place, you need manual overrides just like circuit breakers in the financial market.