Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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Five-judge statute Bench to decide on Aadhaar validity

News:

• The Supreme Court on Monday decided to constitute a five-judge Constitution Bench to hear petitions from November against the validity of the Aadhaar scheme.

Beyond News:

• The decision to set up a five-judge Bench comes despite Justice Rohinton Nariman’s separate judgment in the nine-judge Bench declaring privacy as a fundamental right.
• Justice Nariman’s judgment had directed the Aadhaar petitions to be posted for hearing before the ‘original’ three-judge Bench.
• This ‘original’ Bench led by Justice J. Chelameswar had referred the petitions for hearing before a five-judge Bench, which found it necessary to first decide whether privacy was a fundamental right or not before hearing the Aadhaar petitions.

Historic judgment

• It had referred the legal question to a nine-judge Bench, which came out with the historic judgment in favour of the common man’s fundamental right to privacy against state intrusions.

Centre gets SC to freeze hearing on Article 35A

News:

• The Centre convinced the Supreme Court on Monday to defer hearing on petitions challenging the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir, saying it has appointed an interlocutor to commence talks with stakeholders in the State.

Beyond News:

• Attorney General said the court should adjourn the hearing on the petitions against Article 35A of the Constitution for six months. The court, however, settled for 12 weeks in its order.
• The provision mandates that no act of the State legislature coming under the ambit of Article 35A can be challenged for violating the Indian Constitution or any other law of the land.

Fewer TB deaths in India: WHO

News:

Death from tuberculosis in India saw a 12% decline from last year even as the number of new cases saw a 5% increase, according to a report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday.

Beyond News:

• With 1.7 million new cases in 2016, India continued to be the largest contributor to the global burden with up to a quarter of the 6.3 million new cases of TB (up from 6.1 million in 2015).
• The rise in cases was due to greater surveillance and the dip in mortality from 480,000 to 423,000 in 2016, due to improved drug management.
• The government has committed to achieve a ‘90-90-90 target’ by 2035 (90% reductions in incidence, mortality and catastrophic health expenditures due to TB).

This is premised on improved diagnostics, shorter treatment courses, a better vaccine and comprehensive preventive strategies.

India, Italy vow to fight terror

News:

Reviving bilateral ties, India and Italy on Monday agreed to coordinate efforts at the multilateral level to counter global terrorism.

Beyond News:

• Italy supported India’s quest to bring Pakistan-based terror masterminds Masood Azhar, Dawood Ibrahim and others to justice.
• Both sides expressed a desire to leave difficult issues such as the Italian marines case behind and initiate steps in the interest of the larger relationship.
• Describing India as an “Asian superpower”, visiting Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Italy was in favour of a EU-India free trade agreement.
• Both are keen on deepening cooperation in the strategic sectors and focussed on cybersecurity and anti-terrorism as common areas of cooperation.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Farmers rally to seek fair support price

News:

Thousands of farmers from western Odisha, under the banner of the ‘State Level Coordination Committee of Farmer Organisations’ assembled to demand a fair support price for agricultural produce and respite from loan.

Beyond News: 

• The farmer organisations are demanding implementation of the recommendation of the M.S. Swaminathan committee report, which suggested that fair price of agricultural commodities be fixed at 1.5 times the production cost.
• The farmer organisations have demanded that the Centre immediately accept Rs. 2,930 as the minimum support price for one quintal of paddy and till that happens, the Odisha government should pay a bonus of Rs. 500 per quintal.
• They also urged the government to completely waive farm loans as farmers are in distress. In the case of Odisha, the farmers have demanded that efforts should be made to ensure assured irrigation so that recurring droughts have little impact on fields.

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