October 2020
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INDEX 1 POLITY 1.1 PUNJAB ASSEMBLY REJECTS CENTRE’S FARM LAWS 3 1.2 MAHARASHTRA DENIES CONSENT TO CBI 5 1.3 ANTI COW SLAUGHTER LAW MISUSED 6 1.4 ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY (REGULATION) BILL, 2020 7 1.5 ELECTION CAMPAIGN BROADCAST TIME 9 1.6 15 YEARS OF RTI 10 1.7 STATEHOOD MOVEMENT: BODOLAND 12 1.8 DATA GOVERNANCE QUALITY INDEX: NITI AAYOG 13 1.9 LOKAYUKTA 14 2 ECONOMY 2.1 FDI INFLOW IN INDIA 17 2.2 UDAN DAY 18 2.3 CPI-IW BASE YEAR REVISED TO 2016 20 2.4 INDIA’S PUBLIC DEBT RATIO 22 2.5 CENTRE TO BORROW ON BEHALF OF STATES: GST COMPENSATION 23 2.6 WORLD BANK FORECAST ON GDP OF INDIA 2020-21 24 2.7 GDP REVIVAL FORECAST: RBI 26 2.8 KASTOORI COTTON 27 2.9 SVAMITVA SCHEME: PROPOERTY CARDS DISTRIBUTION 29 2.10 RTGS FACILITY 30 2.11 BHARATMALA PARIYOJNA: STATUS REPORT 31 2.12 IN TIMES OF COVID, BOOST TO CONSUMPTION DEMAND AND CAPITAL EXPENDITURE 33 2.13 NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMIC SCIENCES 34 2.14 GOA: FIRST “HAR GHAR JAL” STATE 35 2.15 ISSUE OF SUBSIDY: FERTILISERS 36 2.16 PRECISION AGRICULTURE 38 2.17 KAMATH PANEL REPORT 39 3 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 3.1 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 41 3.2 INDIA INVITED TO JOIN THE BLUE DOT NETWORK 41 3.3 FATF GREY LIST 42 1 | P a g e 3.4 BASIC EXCHANGE AND COOPERATION AGREEMENT(BECA) 43 3.5 INDIA - CENTRAL ASIA DIALOGUE 44 3.6 65th ANNIVERSARY OF BANDUNG CONFERENCE: NAM 45 3.7 SLINEX-20: INDIA-SRI LANKA NAVAL MARITIME EXERCISE 47 3.8 MALABAR EXERCISE: AUSTRALIA TO JOIN 49 3.9 INDIA-MYANMAR RELATIONS 51 3.10 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT 53 3.11 INDIA-JAPAN FOREIGN MINISTERS’ STRATEGIC DIALOGUE 54 3.12 INDIA AND QUAD 56 4 ENVIRONMENT 4.1 ENVIRONMENTAL CLEARANCE TO KALESHWARAM PROJECT INVALID 58 4.2 LAW FOR STUBBLE BURNING 59 4.3 GREEN CRACKERS 62 4.4 BIOREMEDIATION MECHANISM FOR OIL SPILLS 62 4.5 SEVEN NEW ERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS 63 5 SOCIAL ISSUES 5.1 GLOBAL WEALTH REPORT 66 5.2 CHILD PORNOGRAPHY ON INTERNET 68 5.3 PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE AND SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES 70 5.4 ASER REPORT 2020 73 5.5 NOBEL PRIZE FOR PEACE 2020 75 5.6 STARS Project 76 5.7 GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX 2020 77 5.8 SEX RATION: INDIA’s STATISTICS 78 5.9 INTERNATIONAL POVERTY ERADICATION DAY, 2020 81 5.10 INTERNATIONAL DAY OF OLDER PERSONS 83 5.11 CRIME IN INDIA 2019: NCRB 84 5.12 WORLD BANK REPORT – POVERTY AND SHARED PROSPERITY REPORT 86 6 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 6.1 OSIRIS-REX MISSION 89 6.2 NAG MISSILE 90 6.3 MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES (mAbs) 90 6.4 ARCTIC AMPLIFICATION 91 6.5 ANTI RADIATION MISSILE: RUDRAM-1 93 2 | P a g e 6.6 SMART SYSTEM: DRDO 94 6.7 SHAURYA MISSILE 95 6.8 NOBEL PRIZE FOR MEDICINE 97 6.9 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS 98 6.10 NOBEL PRIZE FOR CHEMISTRY 99 6.11 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN SOCIETY FORUM 101 7 SECURITY 7.1 INTEGRATED THEATRE COMMAND 103 7.2 DEMAND FOR REPEAL OF UAPA 104 7.3 DEEPFAKES 105 7.4 NUCLEAR SECURITY: URANIUM SUPPLY 107 7.5 BRAHMOS MISSILE: TESTING OF NAVAL VERSION 108 8 MISCELLANEOUS 8.1 THE NAZCA LINES 110 8.2 ATAL TUNNEL 110 8.3 LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI 111 9 TOPIC OF THE MONTH 9.1 MAHATMA GANDHI’S 151ST BIRTH ANNIVERSARY 114 3 | P a g e 1 POLITY 1.1 PUNJAB ASSEMBLY REJECTS CENTRE’S FARM LAWS CONTEXT Recently, Punjab became the first State in the country to formally reject the Central government’s three Farm Acts by passing three Bills to negate the Union laws Note – For detailed understanding of farm Bills please refer Monthly magazine of September 2020 MORE ABOUT NEWS Punjab State Bills: The Punjab assembly introduced three farm Bills Namely the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment Bill, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020. KEY PROVISIONS OF BILLS It seeks to ensure that sale or purchase of wheat or paddy in Punjab is not allowed below the Minimum Support Price (MSP). It also seeks to provide for punishment for harassment of farmers or payment of less price to the farmers. It provides for imprisonment of not less than three years and fines for sale-purchase of wheat or paddy under a farming agreement below the MSP. It prevents hoarding and black-marketing of agricultural produce and seeks to ensure status quo ante with regard to implementation of the Central Act namely, ‘The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020’. While the central law abolished any market fees or licences for private players outside the APMCs, the Punjab bills have reintroduced it. These fees will go towards a fund for the welfare of small and marginal farmers. CONSTITUTIONALITY OF PUNJAB AGRI BILLS The seventh schedule of the Constitution distributes the power between the Centre and states by way of earmarking three lists – the union list, state list and concurrent list. Article 254 in the Constitution deals with inconsistency between laws made by Parliament and those made by state legislatures on subjects on which both the Centre and states are entitled to enact laws. Article 254 (1) lays down that if a state government enacts a law inconsistent or repugnant to the central law which Parliament is competent to enact, or even if an existing law is contrary to a law that Parliament passes at a later stage on matters enumerated in the concurrent list, the central law will prevail. 4 | P a g e Article 254 (2) sates: "Where a law made by the Legislature of a State with respect to one of the matters enumerated in the concurrent List contains any provision repugnant to the provisions of an earlier law made by Parliament or an existing law with respect to that matter, then, the law so made by the Legislature of such State shall, if it has been reserved for the consideration of the President and has received his assent, prevail in that State." Article 254 (2) does not stop here. The proviso to this Article says that even an approval from the President shall not prevent Parliament from enacting a new law on the same subject at any time so as to add, amend, vary or even repeal the law so made by the legislature of the state. ‘Agriculture’, as a subject, has eight entries under the state list, authorising a state to enact laws on subjects such as agricultural indebtedness, taxes on agricultural income markets and fairs, rights in or over land, land tenures, rents, transfer agricultural land and agricultural loans. Therefore, the order of the Constitution is such that matters relating to agriculture, apparently, have been outside Parliament’s jurisdiction. Therefore, the first area of contention shall be the source of power that the central government has used in enacting the three controversial laws. Is ‘agriculture’ a subject on which the central government can legislate at all? Entry 27 of the state list talks about "production, supply and distribution of goods" and subject it to the provisions of entry 33 of the concurrent list. This empowers the central government to control "trade and commerce" with respect to production, supply and distribution of such "industry" in the public interest that may include foodstuff, raw cotton and jute, etc. This leads to another inquiry on whether agriculture can be brought under the ambit of 'trade and commerce' because as has been traditionally understood and used, agriculture is an occupation. If agriculture is an occupation, clearly, the concurrent list does not give an upper hand to Parliament. Besides, if foodstuff or other produce are considered one and the same as agriculture, despite all the entries under the state list on agriculture and its related activities, the central government could frame laws citing foodstuff and public interest. The constitutional court will also be called upon to examine if 'agriculture', ‘taxes on agricultural income’ and ‘markets and fairs’ are under the state list and within the legislative assembly’s competence, can Parliament pass a law directly on these subjects, especially when either the union list or the concurrent list has no entry relatable to agricultural market? 1.2 MAHARASHTRA DENIES CONSENT TO CBI CONTEXT Recently, the Maharashtra government withdrew its general consent to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe cases in the State. The decision means the central agency will have to get consent from the state government for every case it registers in Maharashtra. GENERAL CONSENT MEANING Unlike the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is governed by its own NIA Act and has jurisdiction across the country, the CBI is governed by the Delhi Special Police Establishment 5 | P a g e Act that makes consent of a state government mandatory for conducting investigation in that state. Recently, a Calcutta High Court order expanded its jurisdiction to investigate the central government employees in West Bengal without seeking specific consent of the state government. For other matters, the CBI needs consent of the state government in whose territorial jurisdiction, the CBI has to conduct an investigation. There are two types of consent for a probe by the CBI. These are: general and specific. When a state gives a general consent to the CBI for probing a case, the agency is not required to seek fresh permission every time it enters that state in connection with investigation or for every case.