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Four months after its license for receiving foreign donations was revoked, the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), one of the country’s leading public policy think tanks that works with several state governments and Central ministries, has lost the tax exemption status it had for almost five decades.
This “debilitating blow,” as CPR’s President Yamini Aiyar called it, comes after the think tank received a show-cause notice from Income Tax (IT) authorities last December alleging it was carrying out activities “not in accordance with the objects and conditions” under which it was registered.
These activities listed by the IT authorities — mentioned in the notice and reiterated in the cancellation order — include its “involvement” in the Hasdeo movement against coal mining in the Chhattisgarh forests and receipts to the tune of Rs 10.19 crore (since 2016) for its Namati-Environmental Justice Program, which were allegedly mostly used to file “litigation and complaints” rather than do research.
The crux of the IT Department’s argument is that supporting litigation is not a charitable activity and, thus, CPR stands to lose its tax exemption.
Denying these allegations, CPR is likely to file an appeal against the June 30 order in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT).
Cabinet green light for data protection bill, goes to house (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Union Cabinet approved the draft data protection Bill, paving the way for its introduction in the Monsoon session of Parliament. If passed, the law will become India’s core data governance framework, six years after the Supreme Court declared privacy as a fundamental right.
The Bill is one of the four proposed legislations in the IT and telecom sectors to provide the framework for the rapidly growing digital ecosystem.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, approved by the Cabinet, is learnt to have retained the contents of the original version of the legislation proposed last November, including those that were red flagged by privacy experts.
Wide-ranging exemptions for the Central government and its agencies, remain unchanged. The Central government will have the right to exempt “any instrumentality of the state” from adverse consequences citing national security, relations with foreign governments, and maintenance of public order among other things.
The control of the Central government in appointing members of the Data Protection Board – an adjudicatory body that will deal with privacy-related grievances and disputes between two parties – is learnt to have been retained as well.
The Chief Executive of the board will be appointed by the Central government, which will also determine the terms and conditions of their service.
The fresh draft was released following the withdrawal of an earlier version from Parliament last August after nearly four years in the works, where it went through multiple iterations, a review by a Joint Committee of Parliament (JCP), and pushback from a range of stakeholders including tech companies and privacy activists.
Chandrayaan – 3 Spacecraft is integrated with rocket body (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on announced that it had successfully integrated the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft with the launch vehicle, Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM3), at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota.
In a tweet, ISRO said, “LVM3-M4/Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Today, at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, the encapsulated assembly containing Chandrayaan-3 is mated with LVM3.”
The Chandrayaan-3 mission, slated to be launched between July 12 and 19, will be India’s second attempt to make a spacecraft land on the Moon.
The Chandrayaan-2 mission, launched on July 22, 2019, had partially failed after its lander and rover crashed on the Moon during the early hours of September 6.
The Chandrayaan-3, which consists of a lander, rover and propulsion module, can’t travel to space on its own. It needs to be attached — like any satellite — to launch vehicles or rockets, like the LVM3 in this case.
Rockets have powerful propulsion systems that generate the huge amount of energy required to lift heavy objects like satellites into space, overcoming the gravitational pull of the Earth.
The City
Situation far from satisfactory: NGT on Delhi govt report on Yamuna restoration (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
“The situation continues to be far from satisfactory as far as water quality is concerned,” the National Green Tribunal (NGT) observed in an order issued Wednesday on the rejuvenation of the Yamuna River in Delhi.
The tribunal referred to a status report on the rejuvenation of the river submitted by the Delhi government Wednesday to note that the dissolved oxygen level “is nil at most locations”.
It also noted, “Fecal coliform is very high. Parameters of pH, COD (chemical oxygen demand) and BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) are also exceeding except at Palla and Wazirabad upstream.
Noting the overall situation is “extremely disappointing till large-scale pollution remains unchecked”, the tribunal said “discharge of pollution in river and failure to implement repeated directions for coercive (action) against violators, including officers responsible for failure to prevent pollution, is practically lack of governance with no remedy to the suffering citizens.
The government’s report was submitted nearly six months after the tribunal had constituted a High-Level Committee (HLC) chaired by the L-G to look into the river’s rejuvenation.
Asking for another progress report to be filed by September 30, the tribunal has directed that Delhi Pollution Control Committee may place the report submitted before the HLC, which may take further action against violators and errant officers.
The government’s report pointed to a reduction in pollution levels in terms of BOD at two points in the river compared to 2022, and the extension of sewerage network to a few more unauthorised colonies and JJ clusters, while a total of 245 MGD (million gallons per day) of sewage is still left untreated in the city.
Editorial
The power to block (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
About 18 months ago, thousands of farmers congregated at the borders of Delhi to protest against three central enactments, colloquially termed as the “farm laws”.
This assembly utilised modern tools of democratic participation by heavily relying on social media platforms to advocate for change and their call to action for a repeal.
Constrained, but with spirit, farmer organisations and activists such as the Samyukt Kisan Morcha used Twitter to publish statements, call for peace and organise and advocate for their cause.
Their resolve was tested but they persevered, resulting in the withdrawal of the farm laws — although not before various attempts at censorship, including directions to block their tweets and handles were made by the Union government.
This background is important for if the judgment of the Karnataka High Court is read in isolation it may provide a narrow framing of a, “speculative litigation”, between a giant Silicon Valley corporation and the Union government.
This is far from reality, for on June 30, the High Court decided not only against X Corp., the owner of the social media platform Twitter which had filed the petition, but against the democratic rights of assembly, speech and protest.
Ideas Page
Hearing the universe hum (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The first detection of gravitational waves was announced on February 11, 2016. These had been predicted, almost exactly a century ago by Albert Einstein as a natural consequence of his theory of gravity — the Theory of General Relativity.
General Relativity implies that under certain circumstances, space itself would be stretched and compressed resulting in the production of gravitational waves — much like throwing a stone in a placid pool of water.
Detection and study of gravitational waves has since opened a new window into our universe at the largest scales. Now astronomers — part of different collaborative initiatives — have announced the detection of ultra-low frequency gravitational waves which could expand this window to explore hitherto unexplored regions of the universe.
Since gravitational waves were first detected by LIGO (Laser Interferometry Gravitational-wave Observatory), its detectors have observed dozens of short high-frequency gravitational wave bursts. So have detectors in Italy and Japan.
These high-frequency waves are thought to be a result of collisions of black holes — about as massive as our Sun — as well as of neutron stars. Black holes and neutron stars are stellar remnants of stars which have exhausted their nuclear fuel.
Explained
Data privacy framework (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Nearly six years after the Supreme Court held privacy to be a fundamental right, the Centre has made a second attempt at framing legislation for protection of data.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, a draft of which was floated in November, is expected to be tabled in Parliament’s Monsoon Session that begins on July 20. The Union Cabinet approved the draft Bill.
While the contents of the Bill will remain confidential until it is brought in Parliament, The Indian Express has learnt that some of the most contentious issues flagged by experts in the November draft have been retained.
These include the wide-ranging exemptions to the Centre and its agencies, and diluting the role of the data protection board.
The Bill, once it becomes law, will play a crucial role in India’s trade negotiations with other nations, and especially regions like the European Union, whose General Data Protection Rules (GDPR) are among the world’s most exhaustive privacy laws.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, is a crucial pillar of the overarching framework of technology regulations the Centre is building, which also includes the Digital India Bill — the proposed successor to the Information Technology Act, 2000, the draft Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022, and a policy for non-personal data governance.
Last August, the government withdrew from Parliament an earlier version of the data protection Bill that had been almost four years in the making, after it had gone through multiple iterations and a review by a Joint Committee of Parliament, and faced pushback from a range of stakeholders including tech companies and privacy activists.
CMV and TOMV: The Two viruses that hit tomato crop this year (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Tomato growers in Maharashtra and Karnataka have blamed two different viruses for the loss of yields earlier this year. Farmers in Maharashtra have said their tomato crop was impacted by attacks of the cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), while growers in Karnataka and other South Indian states have blamed the tomato mosaic virus (ToMV) for crop losses.
Over the last three years, growers of tomato have complained of increased infestation with these two viruses, leading to partial to complete crop losses.
The two plant pathogens have similar names and cause similar damage to crops, but they belong to different viral families, and spread differently. ToMV belongs to the Virgaviridae family and is closely related to the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). ToMV hosts include tomato, tobacco, peppers, and certain ornamental plants.
CMV has a much larger host pool that includes cucumber, melon, eggplant, tomato, carrot, lettuce, celery, cucurbits (members of the gourd family, including squash, pumpkin, zucchini, some gourds, etc.), and some ornamentals. CMV was identified in cucumber in 1934, which gave the virus its name.
ToMV spreads mainly through infected seeds, saplings, agricultural tools and often, through the hands of nursery workers who have failed to sanitise themselves properly before entering the fields. It would require only a few infected saplings for the virus to take over an entire field in a matter of days.
World
IAEA says it has seen no explosives at N-plant, but seeks more access (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Experts from the U.N. nuclear watchdog based at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine have yet to observe any indications of mines or explosives at the plant, but they need more access to be sure.
Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday accused each other of plotting to stage an attack on Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, where the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned of potential catastrophe from nearby military clashes.
The two countries have blamed each other for shelling that has repeatedly downed power lines essential to cooling the plant’s six reactors and avoiding a nuclear meltdown.
IAEA experts “have in recent days and weeks inspected parts of the facility – including some sections of the perimeter of the large cooling pond – and have also conducted regular walkdowns across the site, so far without observing any visible indications of mines or explosives.
The IAEA experts have requested additional access that is necessary to confirm the absence of mines or explosives. In particular, access to the rooftops of reactor units 3 and 4 is essential, as well as access to parts of the turbine halls and some parts of the cooling system at the plant.
Economy
RBI panel suggests measures for internationalisation of rupee; inclusion of INR in IMF’ SDR (Page no. 19)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
A Reserve Bank of India-appointed working group recommended various measures, including inclusion of the rupee in the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket and recalibration of the foreign portfolio investor (FPI) regime to accelerate the pace of internationalisation of the rupee.
The recommendations by an Inter-Departmental Group (IDG), headed by RBI Executive Director Radha Shyam Ratho, were placed on the RBI website.
The group was constituted by RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar to review the position of the rupee as an international currency and to frame a road map for the internationalisation of the domestic currency.
Internationalisation of the rupee is a process that involves increasing use of the local currency in cross-border transactions.
The IDG said that the rupee has the potential to become an internationalised currency as India is one of the fastest growing countries and has shown remarkable resilience even in the face of major headwinds.
It said that higher usage of the rupee in invoicing and settlement of international trade, as well as in capital account transactions, will give the domestic current a progressively international presence.