Current Affair 1:

Committee of Parliament on Official Language

 

Union Home Minister chairs the 38th meeting of the Committee of Parliament on Official Language recently.

Go to Article 344 directly.

Current Affair 2:

E-courts Mission Mode Project (MMP)

 

Read below:

The e-Committee, Supreme Court of India is responsible for the policy planning, strategic direction and guidance for implementation of e-Courts project and works in collaborative partnership with Department of Justice which is responsible for providing necessary funding for the project.

Current Affair 3:

The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2022

 

It was recently passed in Parliament.

Context of Bill:

The Ease of Doing Business rankings, published by the World Bank, cover various aspects of business activity, including contract enforcement and tax compliance. India ranked 132 out of 185 countries in 2013, and improved to 63 in 2020, after which the rankings were discontinued.

Over the years, various expert committees including the Standing Committee on Commerce (2015) and the Company Law Committee (2019, 2021) have recommended reforms to reduce deterrents to business activity. So a change was needed.

Highlights of the Bill

The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2022 amends 42 laws, across multiple sectors, including agriculture, environment, and media and publication.  Acts being amended include the Indian Post Office Act, 1898, the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, the Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991, and the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The Bill converts several fines to penalties, meaning that court prosecution is not necessary to administer punishments.  It also removes imprisonment as a punishment for many offences.  All offences under the Post Office Act, 1898 are being removed.

Fines and penalties for certain offences in specified Acts are being increased.  These fines and penalties will be increased by 10% of the minimum amount every three years.

The Bill amends some Acts to provide for the appointment of Adjudicating Officers to decide penalties.  It also specifies the appellate mechanism.

Key Issues and Analysis

1. The Bill omits all offences under the Indian Post Office Act, 1898. This raises two questions.  First, since several offences under this Act can only be committed by post office officials, it is not clear how deleting those offences is relevant to the stated objective of improving ease of living and doing business.  Second, the omitted offences include the unlawful opening of postal articles.  Removing punishments for this offence may lead to unjustified invasions of privacy.
2. The Bill creates an Environmental Protection Fund for education, awareness, and research for environment protection.  The reasons for creating this fund are unclear given the overlap between its purpose and that of existing funds of the Central and State Pollution Control Boards.
3. The Bill decriminalises offences under the High Denomination Bank Notes (Demonetisation) Act, 1978.  This Act was used to remove high-value banknotes as legal tender on January 16, 1978.  This deadline also applied to regulatory compliances under that Act.  Therefore, amending punishments under this Act after 45 years may not be relevant.

Current Affair 4:

Impact of Climate Change upon the Indian subcontinent

 

News:

Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) in 2020 has published ‘Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region’, which contains a comprehensive assessment of the impact of climate change upon the Indian subcontinent. The highlights of the report follow:

• India’s average temperature has risen by around 0.7 deg. C during 1901-2018.
• Frequency of daily precipitation extremes (rainfall intensities >150 mm per day) increased by about 75% during 1950-2015.
• The frequency and spatial extent of droughts over India has increased significantly during 1951-2015.
• Sea-level rise in the North Indian Ocean occurred at a rate of 3.3 mm per year in the last two and half decades (1993-2017).
• Frequency of Severe Cyclonic Storms over Arabian sea has increased during the post monsoon seasons of 1998-2018.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) routinely monitors Climate over Indian Region and bring out yearly publication viz. “Annual Climate summary”. IMD also issues monthly climate summary. Annual climate summary includes information about the temperature, Rainfall and extreme weather events occurring during the concerned period.

 

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