Current Affair 1:

Person’s right to know the reasons for their arrest is a constitutional right

News:
 
In a landmark judgment in the case Pankaj Bansal v. Union of India, the Supreme Court has held that the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) must furnish the reasons of arrest to the accused in writing.
A three-judge bench led by Justice A.S. Bopanna said a person’s right to know the reasons for their arrest is a constitutional right under Article 22 (1) that enables them to take legal counsel.
 

What is Article 19 of PMLA?
According to Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the authorized officer has to record in writing the reasons for forming the belief that the person proposed to be arrested is guilty of an offence punishable under the Act of 2002. 
Section 19(2) requires the authorized officer to forward a copy of the arrest order along with the material in his possession, referred to in Section 19(1), to the Adjudicating Authority in a sealed envelope.
In the light of these provisions, the Court said:
"Though it is not necessary for the arrested person to be supplied with all the material that is forwarded to the Adjudicating Authority under Section 19(2), he/she has a constitutional and statutory right to be ‘informed’ of the grounds of arrest, which are compulsorily recorded in writing by the authorized officer in keeping with the mandate of Section 19(1) of the Act of 2002".

Current Affair 2:

Project Udbhav and United Service Institution of India

 

News:

The Indian Army has started an initiative, named Project Udbhav, to rediscover the “profound Indic heritage of statecraft and strategic thoughts” derived from ancient Indian texts of “statecraft, warcraft, diplomacy and grand strategy” in collaboration with the United Service Institution of India, a defence think-tank.

The study of Indian classics is at the core of ‘Project Udbhav’, with a particular emphasis on three ancient texts—Kautilya’s Arthashastra, Kamandaka’s Nitisara, and Thiruvalluvar’s Kural. It is believed that these texts, each following a chronological evolutionary order, contain knowledge to tackle India’s security issues and problems, at least as far as an army is concerned.

About United Service Institution of India:

The United Service Institution of India was founded in 1870 by a soldier scholar, Colonel (later Major General) Sir Charles MacGregor. It was founded for ‘furtherance of interest and knowledge in the art, science and literature of the Defence Services.’

United Service Institution of India (USI) is a national security and defence services think tank based in New Delhi, India.

USI operates centres for research in various areas of national security. The USI Journal, published quarterly since 1872, is the oldest defence journal in Asia.

Current Affair 3:

SPG and different protection levels

 

News:

The government grants security cover at several different levels: Z+, Z, Y+, Y, and X. There’s also the Special Protection Group (SPG), an exclusive privilege reserved for the prime minister. Former prime ministers’ families can get cover for five years after the end of the PM’s tenure.

Special Protection Group (SPG):

• SPG are set up under Special Protection Group Act, 1988.
• SPG members receive training in line with the guidelines of the US Secret Service, which protects the American president.
• As per the new rules, central government is empowered to frame standard operating procedures (SOP) to be followed by State governments or Central government departments, Army, diplomatic missions, and local or any civic authority to aid the SPG in performing its duties.
• Director of SPG shall be appointed by the Central Government “at a level of not less than the Additional Director General of Police [ADG] from the Indian Police Service”.
• The general superintendence, direction, command and control, supervision, training, discipline, and administration of the SPG will be vested in the Director.

What are different protection levels?

Under Z+ security, individuals such as the Union home minister receive a 55-strong security detail, including personnel from different forces, and 10 commandos from the National Security Guard (NSG), along with local police.

Z security provides 30 armed personnel, split between residential and mobile security, and both include an escort vehicle.

Y+ security involves five personnel stationed at the protectee’s residence and six personal security officers (PSOs) deployed in three shifts.

Y-category security, a notch lower, has eight personnel, with five at the residence and three armed PSOs on rotation.

The X security cover is the most basic, with three PSOs accompanying the protectee one at a time in three shifts, without residential security. While X security cover uses state police, personnel for the other four categories come from the central armed police forces.

Current Affair 4:

What are Abraham Accords ?

 

The name Abraham Accords is rooted in the common belief in Abraham as the patriarch of all Abrahamic religions — particularly Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

It was the United Nations’ proposal to split Palestine in 1947 into separate Jewish and Arab states that first sparked a direct confrontation between Jews and the Arab world. Arab nations collectively rejected the proposition.

In 1948, after Britain withdrew its mandate and left Palestine, the state of Israel was created, causing four Arab states — Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, and Syria — to invade it.

Over the years, Arab states and Israel have faced off several times — most notably during the Suez Crisis in 1956, the Six-Day War in 1967, the Yom Kippur War in 1973, and the 1982 Lebanon War, when Israel invaded the country.

The wars were primarily fought over the two-state solution — that is, the establishment of a Jewish and an Arab state in the areas of the former British Mandate of Palestine. As a result of these conflicts, a large majority of Arab nations refused to recognise Israel as a state.

In 1967, just after the Six-Day War fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states, the Arab League passed a resolution against Israel at a summit held at Sudan’s Khartoum. In the resolution, which eventually came to be known as the ‘The Three No’s’, the League resolved to have “no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, and no negotiations with Israel”.

As a result of this, ties between Israel and the Arab world were simply non-existent for decades.

 

This first changed in 1978 with the Camp David Accords — a treaty between Egypt and Israel to normalise ties. In 1994, Jordan signed a peace agreement with Israel.

Despite this, it wasn’t until 2020 and the Abraham Accords that more Arab countries began to publicly resume diplomatic ties with Israel. The Abraham Accords are bilateral agreements on Arab–Israeli normalization signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on September 15, 2020.

The accords have two parts to it — a declaration that calls for peace and coexistence in the Middle East and the bilateral agreements built upon the declaration.

The Abraham Accords is a platform built upon two pillars —

1. the acceptance of Israel as a legitimate state and
2. the eventual resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

 

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