Whatsapp 93125-11015 For Details
Eight of the 11 Congress MLAs in the Goa Assembly defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Chief Minister PramodSawant.
The ruling party has succeeded in splitting the Congress twice in three years in the State, this time despite the loyalty pledges that all 37 Congress candidates took ahead of the February Assembly election in the presence of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at a temple, a dargah and a church vowing not to defect to other parties regardless of the poll result.
In a sudden turn of events, the coastal State witnessed another bout of political musical chairs as the eight Congress legislators — two-thirds of the party’s strength in the Assembly — moved to the BJP in a replay of the defections in 2019.
The turncoats include top leaders such as former Chief Minister DigambarKamat, former Leader of the Opposition Michael Lobo and his wife, Delilah Lobo, as well as long-time Congress loyalists like AleixoSequeira, SankalpAmonkar and Rodolfo Fernandes along with Rajesh Faldessai and KedarNaik.
The BJP, which had 20 MLAs in the 40-seat Assembly, has now increased its strength to 28, while the ruling coalition now has the support 33 MLAs, including two legislators of the MaharashtrawadiGomantak Party (MGP) and three Independents.
The Opposition is reduced to just seven MLAs — three of the Congress (Carlos Ferreira, Altoned’Costa and Yuri Alemao), one from the Goa Forward Party, two from the AamAadmi Party (AAP) and one from the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP).
Stating that all eight Congressmen had joined the BJP “unconditionally”, Mr. Sawant said what had started in Goa would be soon seen across the country as Congress leaders will leave their party en masse to join the BJP.
Cabinet approves addition of four tribes to ST list (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Union Cabinet under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the addition of four tribes to the list of Scheduled Tribes, including those from Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh.
Demands for inclusion of the communities have been pending for decades, Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda announced at a Cabinet briefing on September 14.
The Hatti tribe in the Trans-Giri area of Sirmour district in Himachal Pradesh, the Narikoravan and Kurivikkaran hill tribes of Tamil Nadu and the Binjhia in Chhattisgarh, who were listed as ST in Jharkhand and Odisha but not in Chhattisgarh, were the communities newly added to the list.
Further, the Cabinet approved a proposal to bring the Gond community residing in 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh, under the ST list from the Scheduled Caste list. This includes the five subcategories of the Gond community (Dhuria, Nayak, Ojha, Pathari, and Rajgond).
Mr. Munda said the demand for the Binjhia tribe to be added to the ST list in Chhattisgarh had been pending for around 15 years while Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, who also attended the briefing, said the Hatti tribe had been seeking their inclusion for around 50 years.
Like the Binjhia community, the Hatti tribe had been in the ST list in neighbouring Uttarakhand but not in Himachal Pradesh.
Mr. Munda said that the inclusion of the Hatti community will benefit around 1.6 lakh people of this area-specific tribe in Himachal Pradesh, who will be able to avail benefits meant for members of STs after the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Third Amendment) Bill, 2022, becomes an Act.
The Tribal Affairs Minister explained that the process to include tribes in the ST list begins with the recommendation from the respective State governments, which are then sent to the Tribal Affairs Ministry, which reviews and sends them to the Registrar General of India for approval.
BCCI office-bearers can have two terms before cool-off period (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Supreme Court on September 14 held that the three-year cooling-off period for BCCI office-bearers will kick in only after they complete two consecutive terms in the apex cricket body.Similarly, office-bearers of State cricket associations need to cool off only after serving two successive terms.
However, a State association office-bearer need not undergo the three-year hibernation if he or she wants to contest a Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) election.
The cooling-off period will not apply to someone who wants to go up a notch and fight the BCCI election immediately after his or her second term in a State association.
That is, the cooling-off period kicks in only at the particular levels. In short, a person who has completed two consecutive terms in the BCCI should cool off before trying for a third in the Board.
A person who has finished two back-to-back tenures in office at a State association should take a three-year breather before contesting for a third time in that State association.
Earlier, an office-bearer who had completed a term in a State association and another in the BCCI had to comply with the cooling-off period requirement.
A Bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and HimaKohli said the modification did not take away the "rationale" behind the court having imposed the cooling-off period, that is, to prevent an office-bearer from growing vested interests by occupying a position of power in a cricketing body for a long period.
The relaxation in the cooling-off period has paved the way for BCCI president SouravGanguly and secretary Jay Shah to contest elections for a second term in October 2022.
The 'cooling-off period' was a major recommendation made by the Justice R.M. Lodha Committee to reform cricket administration in the country.
In its 2018 judgment, the apex court had seen eye-to-eye with Justice Lodha's conclusion that "the game will be better off without cricketing oligopolies".
Cadets back at J&K Lake after 33 years (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 1, Geography)
Central Kashmir’s Manasbal Lake is once again open for training drills, more than three decades after raging militancy forced the Navy to abandon it.
Amid picturesque hills and pristine waters, over 100 National Cadet Corps (NCC) cadets, both from J&K and outside, on September 14 participated in exercises like sailing and boat pulling.
“It’s a historic day after a gap of 33 years. NCC training activities of the naval wing are being revived at the lake. Training in the area was suspended during the inception of militancy in the 1990s,” said Group Commander, NCC, Brigadier K.S. Kalsi.
The participants expressed excitement about the resumption of naval training in the scenic lake. “The administration and armed forces have managed to improve the situation to the extent that the Navy was able to resume and revive the training area,” added Brigadier Kalsi.
Meanwhile, J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on September 14 visited the forward areas of Poonch and was briefed on the overall security situation prevalent on Line of Control, counter-infiltration grid and operational preparedness.
The Lt. Governor added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given special focus to the development and prosperity of people living along the border, especially the youth.
The young generation should come forward and avail the benefits of various schemes launched under ‘Youth Mission’ to become self-reliant and successful entrepreneurs.
The exercises, which also saw participation of female cadets, may help students from various parts of J&K interact with each other.
The Manasbal Lake, located in central Kashmir's Safapora area in Ganderbal district, is a freshwater lake. The site was abandoned by the Navy in 1989.
The NCC has been working in J&K since 1965 and would train cadets on the shores of Dal lake and Manasbal Lake. The security situation had forced us to shift the training module outside the Valley. However, such exercises here will motivate locals to join the NCC in the future.
Editorial
The future of old times in India (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
Life expectancy in India has more than doubled since Independence — from around 32 years in the late 1940s to 70 years or so today. Many countries have done even better, but this is still a historical achievement.
Over the same period, the fertility rate has crashed from about six children per woman to just two, liberating women from the shackles of repeated child-bearing and child care. All this is good news, but it also creates a new challenge — the ageing of the population.
The share of the elderly (persons aged 60 years and above) in India’s population, close to 9% in 2011, is growing fast and may reach 18% by 2036 according to the National Commission on Population.
If India is to ensure a decent quality of life for the elderly in the near future, planning and providing for it must begin today.
Recent work on mental health among the elderly in India sheds new light on their dire predicament. Evidence on depression from a collaborative survey of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and the Government of Tamil Nadu is particularly telling.
Among persons aged 60 and above, 30% to 50% (depending on gender and age group) had symptoms that make them likely to be depressed. The proportion with depression symptoms is much higher for women than men, and rises sharply with age. In most cases, depression remains undiagnosed and untreated.
As one might expect, depression is strongly correlated with poverty and poor health, but also with loneliness. Among the elderly living alone, in the Tamil Nadu sample, 74% had symptoms that would classify them as likely to be mildly depressed or worse on the short-form Geriatric Depression Scale. A large majority of elderly persons living alone are women, mainly widows.
The hardships of old age are not related to poverty alone, but some cash often helps. Cash can certainly help to cope with many health issues, and sometimes to avoid loneliness as well.
India’s growing water crisis, the seen and the unseen (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Conservation of Resources)
The UNESCO United Nations World Water Development Report of 2022 has encapsulated global concern over the sharp rise in freshwater withdrawal from streams, lakes, aquifers and human-made reservoirs, impending water stress and also water scarcity being experienced in different parts of the world.
In 2007, ‘Coping with water scarcity’ was the theme of World Water Day (observed on March 22). The new Water Report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) sounded a note of caution about this silent crisis of a global dimension, with millions of people being deprived of water to live and to sustain their livelihood.
Further, the Water Scarcity Clock, an interactive webtool, shows that over two billion people live in countries now experiencing high water stress; the numbers will continue to increase.
The Global Drought Risk and Water Stress map (2019) shows that major parts of India, particularly west, central and parts of peninsular India are highly water stressed and experience water scarcity.
A NITI Aayog report, ‘Composite Water Management Index’ (2018) has sounded a note of caution about the worst water crisis in the country, with more than 600 million people facing acute water shortages.
The typical response of the areas where water shortage or scarcity is high includes transfer of water from the hinterlands/upper catchments or drawing it from stored surface water bodies or aquifers. This triggers sectoral and regional competition; rural-urban transfer of water is one such issue of global concern.
Increasing trans-boundary transfer of water between rural and urban areas has been noted in many countries since the early 20th century.
A review paper published in 2019 reported that, globally, urban water infrastructure imports an estimated 500 billion litres of water per day across a combined distance of 27,000km.
At least 12% of large cities in the world rely on inter-basin transfers. A UN report on ‘Transboundary Waters Systems – Status and Trend’ (2016) linked this issue of water transfer with various Sustainable Development Goals proposed to be achieved during 2015 to 2030.
OPED
Imagining an alternative scenario in Ayodhya (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
In its final judgment on the Ayodhya dispute, delivered on November 9, 2019, the Supreme Court accepted the argument of several historians that no temple, much less a Ram temple, had been demolished to construct the Babri Masjid. It held the demolition of the mosque illegal and sought the prosecution of leaders responsible for it.
However, it is also a fact that at least since the 19th century, there has been a popular local tradition associating the site with Lord Ram in different ways, and disputes arising from it have led to incidents of violence as well as compromises.
On the cold night of December 22-23, 1949, small clay idols of Ram Lallawere stealthily placed inside the mosque with the complicity of the District Magistrate, K.K. Nayyar.
These stayed there with the connivance of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, G.B. Pant, a Congress strongman, despite Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s instructions to remove them. The mosque was then locked up for nearly 50 years and there was relative quiet on that front.
Things began heating up in the late 1980s, partly when Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi allowed the opening of the gate of the mosque up to the site in a corner where a Ram chabutra (plinth) lay, in order to balance his disastrous handling of the Shah Bano case.
Later in the decade, the Bharatiya Janata Party took up the challenge thrown to it by Prime Minister V.P. Singh’s sudden announcement of the implementation of Mandal Commission’s recommendation of reservation of 27% seats in Central government services and educational institutions for the Other Backward Classes by raking up the Ram Janmabhoomi issue; it picturesquely came to be known as the ‘Mandal-Kamandal’ contest. The BJP put all its energies into mobilising people for the cause of the Ram temple.
There was no violence on the scene. Several attempts were made to resolve the dispute over the land on which the Babri Masjid stood, without violence.
Explainer
Understanding Ukraine’s counter offensive (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Ukraine has launched a lightning counter-offensive in the country’s northeast that saw surprising territorial gains.
Its forces have pushed back Russian soldiers from most of Kharkiv Oblast, retaking thousands of square kilometres of territory. Russia has confirmed the retreat, saying it withdrew troops for “regrouping”.
Ukraine’s fresh momentum has triggered debates on whether the country, which has lost swathes of territories in the north, east and south since the Russian invasion began on February 24, is finally turning around the war. It has also raised questions on Russia’s battlefield tactics.
Ukraine says it has retaken some 3,500 square miles of territories since its counter-offensive began earlier this year, including Izium and Kupiansk, two strategically important towns in the northeast that served as logistical hubs for the Russian forces.
This is a significant battlefield gain for Ukraine because this is the first time, since the war began, that Ukrainian troops have pushed back the Russians through combat.
In March, Russia had voluntarily announced withdrawal from the Kyiv area and around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, after the Istanbul talks between the two sides.
But this week’s withdrawal was different. It looked like the Russians were caught off guard when Ukraine launched the blitz.
This provides a much needed morale booster for the Ukrainian troops that suffered a series of defeats in recent months — in Mariupol, Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.
Ukraine has now said the fighting would continue till the “liberation” of all lost territories (including Donbas and Crimea), practically ruling out any negotiated settlement. The Russians have also ruled out talks.
Ukraine has been planning for this counter-offensive for months. After capturing Lysychansk in July, which saw the whole of Luhansk province coming under its control, Russia’s battlefield combat came to a halt.
By that time, Russia was controlling almost 25% of Ukraine, Europe’s largest country. Russia, which also took huge losses in the battle for Donbas, seemed to have decided to halt the ground offensive as its troops were regrouping and recovering.
This opened a window opportunity for Ukraine to move ahead with its counter-offensive plans. This was also the time when Ukraine started receiving advanced mid-range rocket systems such as High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) from the U.S.
The lowdown on the essential medicines list (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
On September 13, the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), 2022, was released, with 384 drugs in it across 27 categories. While 34 new drugs are on the list, 26 drugs from NLEM, 2015, including common gastrointestinal medicines Ranitidine and Sucralfate, have been dropped.
In a tweet, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said, “several antibiotics, vaccines, anti-cancer drugs and many other important drugs would become more affordable, and the ‘out-of-pocket’ expenditure on health care would come down.” Prices of essential medicines are regulated by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority.
Four major anti-cancer drugs, hydrochloride, HCI trihydrate, lenalidomide and leuprolide acetate as well as psychotherapeutic drugs, nicotine replacement therapy and anti-parasitic drugs like ivermectin, mupirocin (topical antibiotic), and meropenem (antibiotic) are on the list.
It also includes four drugs that are still under patent — bedaquiline and delamanid, used in the treatment of multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis, dolutegravir used to treat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, and daclatasavir used in treating viral infections such as Hepatitis C. Endocrine medicines and contraceptives like fludrocortisone, ormeloxifene, insulin glargine and teneligliptin (for diabetes control) have also been added to the list. Montelukast, acting on the respiratory tract, the ophthalmological drug latanoprost and cardiovascular medicines dabigatran and tenecteplase are on the list too.
Omissions include commonly used gastrointestinal drugs ranitidine, sucralfate, white petrolatum (for treating skin conditions), atenolol and methyldopa (for high blood pressure).
Vivek Sehgal, director general, Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India, said for the industry to be able to continue to make and supply the medicines from NLEM, the government should ensure that inflation is taken into account while fixing the ceiling price.
This will enable the pharmaceutical industry to continue on its growth trajectory. Further, this NLEM includes four patented medicines for which companies have had robust access mechanism in place for India.
The Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) is concerned with this inclusion of the four patented drugs and the implication it has on value for innovation,” he said.
News
No specific law against hate speech: EC (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Election Commission of India (ECI) in the Supreme Court has said that due to the lack of a specific law against hate speech and rumour mongering during polls.
It has to resort to the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Representation of People (RP) Act to ensure that members of political parties do not make statements which can create disharmony among sections of the society.
"In the absence of any specific law governing hate speech and rumour mongering during elections, the Election Commission of India employs various provisions of the IPC and the RP Act, 1951 to ensure that members of political parties or even other persons do not make statements to the effect of creating disharmony between different sections of society," the poll body said in an affidavit.
The ECI said the Law Commission of India, in its 267th Report, had not made any recommendations with regard to a specific query (from the Supreme Court) on whether the ECI ought to be conferred with the power to derecognise a political party, disqualifying its members for committing the "offence of hate speech".
Neither did the Law Commission make any recommendations to the Parliament to strengthen the Election Commission to curb the "menace of hate speeches, irrespective of whenever made".
The ECI said the Law Commission had rest content by suggesting amendments in the criminal law to "penalise the offence of incitement to hatred and causing fear, alarm or provocation of violence in certain cases".
The poll body said hate speeches were "often interconnected with appeals to religion, caste, community, etc, during election campaigning.
It referred to several apex court judgments, among them the Abhiram Singh case, which had held that "any appeal to vote or refrain from voting for a candidate on the grounds of religion, caste, race, community or language by a candidate or his agent to the electors would amount to corrupt practice under the 1951 Act".
Union govt. push for use of Hindi (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has written to the External Affairs Ministry to promote the use of Hindi for official work in banks, public sector undertakings, embassies and other government offices located in foreign countries.
On August 30, the MHA asked the MEA to provide a list of all the government institutions in foreign countries and constitute an Official Language Implementation Committee that would oversee the progress of Hindi in official work.
This was one of the several steps taken by the BharatiyaJanta Party (BJP) Government since 2014 to promote Hindi in government business.
The National Education Policy 2020 also emphasises multilingualism and proposes a three-language formula in schools, where at least two of the languages are native to India.
It says that the medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, should be the mother tongue or the regional language.
In line with this State Government are publishing bilingual and trilingual textbooks at foundational level and the learning material on Diksha platform relevant to the school curriculum has been made available in 33 Indian languages.
In 2017, MHA accepted most of the recommendations contained in the 2011 report of a parliamentary standing committee on Hindi.
Some of the recommendations were -option to write exams in Hindi, minimum knowledge of Hindi must for government jobs, 50% government advertisements in Hindi, railway tickets should be bilingual- Hindi being one of the languages and announcement at railway stations in “C” category (non-Hindi speaking) such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana and Kerala should be in Hindi.
In 2017, the Ministry said that the websites of all the Union Ministries and the offices under their control should be bilingual and the Hindi pages should also be compulsorily uploaded while updating the website.
Most government websites are bilingual now — Hindi and English. However, the websites of organisations such as the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Border Security Force (BSF) and even the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) open in Hindi by default.
After the Union Home Minister joined office in July 2019, additional staff was engaged to translate the files into Hindi.
In the past two years, most press releases by the Union Ministries were released first in Hindi.
Set up new regulator for medical devices, says panel (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) is falling short in effectively regulating the medical devices industry, observed the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health, headed by Prof. Ram Gopal Yadav, M.P., Rajya Sabha stating that the organisation in its existing structure and expertise is more pharma centric.
He presented 138th Report on the subject “Medical Devices: Regulations and Control” to Rajya Sabha earlier this week.
It has recommended for more certified medical devices testing laboratories, robust IT enabled feedback driven post-market surveillance system and medical device registry, particularly for implants to ensure traceability of patient who has received the implant in order allowing assess the performance of the implant.
The Committee observed that the CDSCO was originally set up to regulate pharma, related segments and medical devices.
It has recommended that the new legislation should set up a new set of regulator at different levels for regulating the medical devices industry.
The Committee observed that the country has only 18 certified Medical Device Testing Laboratories that have been approved by CDSCO and that is grossly insufficient keeping in view the size of the country.
The Committee is of the considered opinion that having adequate common infrastructure including accredited laboratories in various regions of the country for standard testing would significantly encourage local manufacturers to get their products tested for standards and such measures undertaken would also help in reducing the cost of production which ultimately will improve the availability and affordability of medical devices in the domestic market.
The Committee noted that there is a dire need for developing a robust IT enabled feedback driven post market surveillance system for Medical Devices to evaluate the efficiency of specific Medical Devices.
A medical device registry, particularly for implants should also be made to ensure traceability of patient who has received the implant in order to assess the performance of the implant and ascertain upto what extent the implant has made the life of the patient comfortable and also to seek feedback of functional capacity of medical devices. Such measures would ensure that patients get access to good quality and approved medical devices.