Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Powerful earthquake rocks Indonesian island; tsunami warning lifted

News

• A powerful earthquake rocked central Sulawesi in Indonesia and authorities have issued a tsunami warning. The warning was later lifted.

Beyond News

• The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 7.5 quake was centered at a depth of 6 miles (10 kilometres) about 35 miles (56 kilometres) northeast of the town of Donggala.
• Indonesia’s disaster agency spokesman said a tsunami warning for the island of Sulawesi has been lifted.
• The same area was hit by a magnitude 6.1 earthquake that killed one person, injured 10 and damaged dozens of houses.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

SC opens Sabarimala temple for women of all ages

News

• The Supreme Court,in a majority opinion of 4:1, lifted the centuries-old practice of prohibiting women from the age of menarche to menopause to enter the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in Kerala.

Beyond News

• ”Right to pray” in the temple for women between 10 and 50 years of age won over the ‘right to wait’ campaign as the Supreme Court condemned the prohibition as “hegemonic patriarchy”. Patriarchy cannot trump over freedom to practice religion, it said.
• It said that exclusion on grounds of biological and physiological features like menstruation was unconstitutional. It amounted to discrimination based on a biological factor exclusive to gender. It was violative of the right to equality and dignity of women.
• The majority view declared Rule 3(b) of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Act of 1965, which mandates the prohibition in Sabarimala temple, as ultra vires the Constitution.
• The CJI and Justice Khanwilkar held that the Rule violated the fundamental right of a Hindu woman to offer worship at a place of her choice. Right to worship is equally available to men and women.
• The majority on the Bench agreed that Ayyappa devotees do not form a separate religious denomination.
• Justice Indu Malhotra, the lone woman judge on the Constitution Bench, dissented with the majority opinion. She held that the determination of what constituted an essential practice in a religion should not be decided by judges on the basis of their personal viewpoints. She held that essentiality of a religious practice or custom had to be decided within the religion. It was a matter of personal faith. India was a land of diverse faiths. Constitutional morality in a pluralistic society gave freedom to practice even irrational or illogical customs and usages.
• However, the Kerala government reaffirmed its complete support for lifting the prohibition.
• With the verdict, the Supreme Court has set aside a 27-year-old Kerala High Court judgment that upheld the prohibition. The High Court had pointed out that the ‘Naisthik Brahmachari’ nature of the deity was “a vital reason for imposing this restriction on young women”.

Solution to Korean Peninsula must address India’s concerns: Swaraj to BRICS

News

• Any solution to the Korean Peninsula issue must address India’s concerns about the nuclear proliferation linkages in its neighbourhood, External Affairs Minister has said, in a veiled reference to Pakistan.

Beyond News

• In her address to the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, External Affairs Minister India has been consistently supporting the efforts to bring about peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula.
• Since the 1970s, Pakistan and North Korea have cooperated extensively on the development of ballistic missile and nuclear weapons technologies, according to defence analysts and media reports.
• Conflicts in Syria, Libya, Iraq and Yemen pose security challenges for the region and for global peace, External Affairs Minister aj said while expressing deep concern with continuing tensions on the border between Gaza Strip and Israel.
• External Affairs Minister said India had recently considerably increased to $5 million its contribution to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Election Commission order places Telangana under model code of conduct

News

• The model code of conduct came into force in poll-bound Telangana following an Election Commission directive that henceforth the guidelines would be implemented immediately after early dissolution of a Legislative Assembly.

Beyond News

• Earlier, the restrictions came into force only after the announcement of the election schedule by the Commission. The code will continue in effect till the completion of election for a new Assembly.
• Following the Commission’s order, as communicated to the Cabinet Secretariat and all Chief Secretaries, apart from the caretaker government, the government at the Centre and other States are also bound by the Code.
• The Commission has drawn on legal backing for the directive from the Supreme Court’s observation in the landmark R. Bommai and Others Vs. Union of India and Others (1994) judgment that the caretaker government should merely carry on day-to-day work and desist from taking any major policy decision.
• The provisions of Part-VII of the model code of conduct, which is for the party in power, will “apply on the caretaker State government as well as on the Central government in so far as matters relating to that State are concerned”, according to the order.
• EC sources said the electoral body had received congratulatory messages from several political parties after the order was issued.
• After early dissolution of the Legislative Assembly, neither the caretaker State government nor the Centre can announce any new schemes or projects in respect of the poll-bound State or undertake any of the activities prohibited under the Model Code of Conduct.

In view of the coming elections in Telangana and the other four States of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Madhya Pradesh, the Commission held a meeting with the Union Home Secretary on availability and deployment of security forces.

Peace security in S Asia essential for progress: Swaraj at SAARC meet; Pakistan says India obstructing.

News:

• External Affairs Minister emphasised to SAARC countries that an environment of peace and security in South Asia is essential for cooperation and economic development, but Pakistan accused India of obstructing the region’s progress and prosperity.

Beyond News:

• External Affairs Minister statement came at a meeting of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation on the sidelines of the ongoing United NationsGeneral Assembly session in New York.
• The SAARC grouping includes India, Pakistan and six other regional countries. It was established in December 1985 with an aim to promote the welfare of the peoples of South Asia.
• External Affairs Minister said the number of incidents endangering South Asia are on the rise and terrorism remains the single-largest threat to peace and stability in the geopolitical region, and the world.
• Shortly after her statement, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters that Pakistan wants to see SAARC become result-oriented.
• India cited attacks by Islamabad-backed groups in Jammu and Kashmir and stamps released by Pakistan glorifying Kashmiri terrorists as reasons for cancellation of the proposed talks.
• SAARC member-states have previously said they view the strained relations between India and Pakistan as one of the reasons for the little progress achieved by the geopolitical grouping in recent years.
• Nepal And Sri Lanka have expressed interest in reviving the summit postponed in 2016 after New Delhi pulled out over Islamabad’s unrelenting support to terrorist activities in India and after Pakistan-based terrorists attack an Indian Army base in Uri.
• Bhutan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan had also joined India in boycotting the summit.
• SAARC summits are usually held biennially. The member-state hosting the summit assumes the Chair of the association.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Arunachal mega dam near pilgrimage cleared, environmentalists see red.

News

• Conservationists asked the Standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife (SC-NBWL) to reverse the clearance for the 1750MW Demwe Lower hydroelectric project in Arunachal Pradesh.
• The project’s 124-metre high dam is proposed to be constructed on river Lohit jointly by Athena Energy Ventures and the Arunachal Pradesh government. The project site, greens and local activists say, is extremely close to cultural heritage site Parshuram Kund, a major Hindu pilgrimage.

Beyond News

• Lohit is one of three rivers that meet to form the Brahmaputra in Assam downstream.
• Environmentalists in adjoining Assam also said the project would severely impact the grasslands of Dibru Saikhowa National Park home of the only population of feral horses in India and riverine islands of Lohit river, which Birdlife International identified as Important Bird Area.
• The NGT had sought a peer review of the project, but the ministry commissioned a short study by a WII-led team, which acknowledged downstream concerns while saying upstream submergence would not be much of an ecological issue. The team admitted the site needed to be studied over three seasons.
• Based on the team’s report, the project was cleared at the 50th meeting of SC-NBWL whose minutes were made public. The minutes said that that the wildlife board has accepted the Dehradun-based WII’s report on the rapid ecological assessment of impacts of Lower Demwe project on wildlife.

Railways to roll out smart coaches

News

• The Indian Railways are set to launch their ‘Make in India’ smart coaches with new features like black box and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered CCTVs, matching international standards.

Beyond News

• Named ‘Smart Trains’, the coaches have been equipped with sensors that can detect defects on bearings, wheels, and the railway track, giving constant inputs to those in the control room to avoid accidents, carry out maintenance, and to improve efficiency of operations.
• The maiden smart coach was unveiled at the Modern Coach Factory in Rae Bareli on Tuesday as part of launching 100 such trains in a pilot project to improve the safety and security of commuters, and to boost efficiency.
• The black box, being introduced for the first time by Indian Railways, has a powerful multi-dimensional communication interface to provide information on passengers and coach condition on real-time basis.
• The black box will act as a coach control unit with communication interfaces for passenger announcements, GPS-based announcement triggers, emergency intercom for commuters, digital destination boards, train reservation display modules, and CCTVs with remote monitoring.
• The modern infotainment system has been installed to locate the train in real time.
• For wheel, coach and track monitoring, Railways have come up with Internet of things-based system. The vibrating-energy-based sensors will monitor the wheels, bearing and hard spots on the track, and will provide data through GPS/GPRS to the remote server for diagnosis and remedial measures.
• The Passenger Information and Coach Computing Unit (PICCU), an industrial grade computer, will monitor the coach maintenance and passenger interface.
• An emergency talk-back system will enable communication between passengers and the guard during a crisis. A Wi-Fi hotspot information system is another innovative feature.
• Smart coaches are also laden with water-level indicator technology to know whether the water in the coach is sufficient and when it needs to be filled. An SMS will be sent to the next watering station when the water level falls below half the coach capacity.
• In the version 2.0 of these coaches, the Railways are planning to introduce a host of new features, such as video analytics with face detection feature; unusual occurrence feature; fire-and-smoke detection unit; and an energy-metering module to measure the energy consumption of the coach.

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