Current Affair 1:

Fundamental Duties Statutes

 

Basics.

It was by the 42nd amendment in 1976 that the 'Fundamental Duties' part was incorporated in our Constitution. The concept of fundamental duties was taken from the 1936 USSR Constitution, following the recommendations of the Swaran Singh Committee.

The new Part IV-A consisted of a single Article i.e., 51-A and laid down ten fundamental duties for citizens. Later, by the 86th Constitutional amendment of 2002, an eleventh duty was added.

Now,

As already mentioned, the constitution itself does not prescribe a legal sanction against the breach or the non-performance of a Fundamental Duty in Part IV-A of the constitution. It doesn't even ask the state to make laws in conformity of the fundamental duties.

Under the Constitution, neither is there a provision that enforces fundamental duties nor is there any specific prohibition to their enforcement. Nevertheless, the legislature has incorporated some fundamental duties in certain statutes. These statutes lay down frameworks for enforcement of duties and set sanctions in the event of a failure to adhere with the prescription of the law.

A table of some fundamental duties which are backed by statutory frameworks is given here under:

 

 

Current Affair 2:

Adaptation fund under united nations framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC)

 

The Adaptation Fund (AF) was set up under the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It was established in 2001 and officially launched in 2007 at CoP 7 in Marrakech, Morocco.

1. It aims to finance concrete projects and programmes that help vulnerable communities in developing countries that are Parties to the Kyoto Protocol to adapt to climate change.
2. The Fund is financed in part by government and private donors, and also from a two percent share of proceeds of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) issued under the Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects.
3. The Adaptation Fund headquartered in Washington, USA is supervised and managed by the Adaptation Fund Board (AFB).
4. The AFB is composed of 16 members and 16 alternates and holds periodic meetings throughout the year. The World Bank serves as trustee of the Adaptation Fund on an interim basis.
5. Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Govt. of India is the National Designated Authority (NDA) for Adaptation Fund and proposals are submitted with endorsement of NDA.
6. NABARD has been accredited as National Implementing Entity (NIE) for Adaptation Fund in July 2012 and is the only NIE for India.

The NIEs are those national legal entities nominated by Parties (to the Kyoto Protocol) that are recognized by the Board as meeting the fiduciary standards established by the Board. The NIEs bear full responsibility for the overall management of the projects and programmes financed by the Adaptation Fund and have all financial, monitoring, and reporting responsibilities.

Current Affair 3:

Term of the Day:

 

Soft Loan

A soft loan is basically a loan on comparatively lenient terms and conditions as compared to other loans available in the market. These easier conditions might be in the form of lower interest rates, prolonged repayment duration, interest holidays etc.

This process of extending soft loans is also known as soft financing or concessional funding. As the loans extended are at much easier terms, these are generally not provided by private financial institutions and are primarily provided by government agencies.

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