Current Affair 1:

Difference Between 'Parole' and 'Furlough'

 

The Supreme Court has discussed the differences between 'furlough' and 'parole' and the principles relating to grant of them.

A bench comprising Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice BV Nagarathna stated the broad principles as :

1. Furlough and parole envisage a short-term temporary release from custody;
2. While parole is granted for the prisoner to meet a specific exigency, furlough may be granted after a stipulated number of years have been served without any reason;
3. The grant of furlough is to break the monotony of imprisonment and to enable the convict to maintain continuity with family life and integration with society;
4. Although furlough can be claimed without a reason, the prisoner does not have an absolute legal right to claim furlough;
5. The grant of furlough must be balanced against the public interest and can be refused to certain categories of prisoners.

Furlough not a matter of right

Referring to the provisions of the Bombay Furlough and Parole Rules, the bench noted that the Rules do not confer a legal right on a prisoner to be released on furlough. The grant of furlough is regulated by Rule 3 and Rule 4. While Rule 3 provides the eligibility criteria for grant of furlough for prisoners serving different lengths of imprisonment, Rule 4 imposes limitations. The use of the expression "may be released" in Rule 3 indicates the absence of an absolute right. This is further emphasised in Rule 17 which states that said Rules do not confer a legal right on a prisoner to claim release on furlough.

Referring to various precedents, the bench also observed that balance needs to be maintained between two competing interests while granting parole or furlough- that of reforming the convict on one hand and the public purpose and interests of society on the other.

Current Affair 2:

Investing forex reserves in equities can fetch higher returns: RBI report

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The RBI, as the custodian of the country’s foreign exchange reserves, is vested with the responsibility of managing their investment. The legal provisions governing management of foreign exchange reserves are laid down in the RBI Act 1934 which permits the RBI to invest these reserves in the following types of instruments:

1. Deposits with Bank for International Settlement and other central banks
2. Deposits with foreign commercial banks
3. Debt instruments representing sovereign or sovereign guaranteed liability
4. Other instruments as approved by the Central Board of the RBI

The basic parameters of the RBI’s policies for foreign exchange reserves management are safety, liquidity and returns.

Till now RBI has mostly invested in "Debt" instruments. But as the interest rate in most of the advanced countries has come down in the last so many years, so RBI report is proposing that some of the Forex can be invested in equity/shares to increase returns. (its just a suggestion not finally decided). Some Central Banks have already investing in equities.

 

Current Affair 3:

La Nina has formed for second year in a row, says NOAA  

 

A La Nina system has formed for the second year in a row, according to the Climate Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA.

The latest La Nina is expected to last through the early spring of 2022 (February), the NOAA statement said. Previous La Ninas occurred during the winter of 2020-2021 and 2017-2018. An El Nino developed in 2018-2019.

1. La Nina is a natural ocean-atmospheric phenomenon. It is marked by cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures across the central and eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator. It means ‘little girl’ in Spanish.
2. It is the opposite of El Nino (meaning ‘little boy’), that is marked by warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures across the central and eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator.
3. Both, La Nina and El Nino are part of the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle. ENSO is characterised by opposing warm and cool phases of oceanic and atmospheric conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean.
4. El Nino usually causes a decrease in precipitation and has been found to cause drought-like conditions in India. On the other hand, La Nina causes an increase in precipitation. It also causes formation of low-pressure areas.

Current Affair 4:

Extended Producer Responsibility

 

India is the only country in South Asia with a specific e-waste law in place, since 2011. The e-waste rules, formerly the E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, provide guidelines for the transportation, storage and recycling of waste, and also introduced the concept of extended producer responsibility (EPR).

EPR is a known policy tool that requires makers of electronics to take financial and/or physical responsibility for managing the disposal of their products after the end of their lives. In 2016, the rules were broadened to introduce a ‘Producer Responsibility Organisation’ (PRO) to help collect and recycle e-waste, and brought buy-back, deposit refund and exchange schemes under the EPR.

Under the EPR mechanism, either the producer or a delegated third party – the PRO – must collect the waste for recycling or refurbishing. A 2018 amendment to the rules introduced year-on-year collection targets for producers under the EPR. From 2023 onwards, for example, producers/PROs are to collect at least 70% of the waste vis-à-vis their products from 2023.

According to a 2020 report by the Central Pollution Control Board, India generated 1,014,961 tonnes of e-waste in FY 2019-2020 – up 32% from FY 2018-2019. Of this, the report found that only 3.6% and 10% were actually collected in the country in 2018 and 2019, respectively. It also said that the informal sector controls more than 90% of e-waste collection and handling processes in the country. According to ‘Global e-waste monitor 2020’, 53.6 million tonnes of electronic waste was generated worldwide in 2019, of which only 17.4% was recycled. India is the world’s third biggest contributor – with 3.2 million tonnes of e-waste generated a year, after China and the US.

 

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