The Department of Justice, Government of India celebrated 1,50,000 registrations for advice on Tele-Law, which is an initiative to provide pre-litigation advice to the needy people, here today. The event was organized by CSC Corporation in association with the Department of Justice.
The workshop was attended by a large number of Para Legal Volunteers and Village Level Entrepreneurs of Common Service Centres (CSCs). It was highlighted in the workshop that Tele-Law provided a platform give pre-litigation advice to the needy and unreached sections of the society. A need was felt to strengthen this programme to combine digital technology with persons having knowledge of law for better functioning.
Speaking on the training programme, the Secretary, Justice, Ministry of Law & Justice, Dr. Alok Srivastava said that the Tele-Law Team has trained 930 Master Trainers who will in turn train about 56 thousand Para Legal Volunteers (PLVs) and Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) all over the country. A better and regular training is needed for PLVs and VLEs for providing a better advice to the people, he added.
The participants were also addressed on the subject of Citizen Duties. It was stressed that one must always remember that we have rights along with duties and we have to perform our duties with highest degree of sincerity.
The Tele-Law initiative was launched on April 20, 2017 with an aim to provide legal advices in the villages through CSCs. A Pilot project started in 1800 CSCs in 11 States in UP, Bihar, North Eastern States and UT of Jammu and Kashmir. This scheme has been expanded to 115 Aspirational Districts in 100 days programme of the Government of India.
A dedicated website on Tele-Law is maintained by the Department of Justice which has been designed with support from CSC eGovernance and has translated in to 22 languages. A Tele-Law mobile application is available for the PLVs to pre-register Tele-Law cases. A Tele-Law Dashboard is also developed with decentralized features for login and registration of cases and view the status of cases added for Panel Lawyers, Para Legal Volunteers etc.
Top 3 transacting VLEs under Tele Law were awarded on this occasion. A Memorandum of Understanding between CSC Academy and Capgemini was exchanged on the occasion. A Quiz programme was organized on the Constitution Day.
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi chaired the first PRAGATI meeting of the year 2020, today. It marked Prime Minister’s thirty-second interaction through PRAGATI - the ICT based multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation, involving Central and State governments.
In today’s PRAGATI meeting, PM discussed a total of eleven items, out of which nine are delayed projects. These nine projects, worth over Rs. 24,000 crores, are spread over nine states viz. Odisha, Telangana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh and three Union ministries. These include three from the Ministry of Railways, five from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and one from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Progress under insurance schemes- PMJJBY and PMSBY schemes reviewed Prime Minister in the meeting, reviewed the performance with regard to in grievances related to insurance schemes under Department of Financial Services viz. ‘Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana’ (PMJJBY) and ‘Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana’(PMSBY).
Prime Minister also reviewed the progress under Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) project- a comprehensive and integrated system for effective policing through e-Governance.
India has successfully achieved the complete phase out of Hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC)-141 b, which is a chemical used by foam manufacturing enterprises and one of the most potent ozone depleting chemical after Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) .(HCFC)-141 b is used mainly as a blowing agent in the production of rigid polyurethane (PU) foams.
India has consciously chosen a path for environment friendly and energy efficient technologies while phasing out Ozone Depleting Substances (ODSs). Importantly, India is one among the few countries globally and a pioneer in some cases in the use of technologies, which are non-Ozone Depleting and have a low Global Warming Potential (GWP).
India had proactively and successfully taken the challenge of complete phase out of Hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC)-141 b, which is a chemical used by foam manufacturing enterprises by 1.1.2020. On 31 December, 2019, as part of the Government’s commitment for moving towards environment friendly technologies, in a significant first, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) brought out a notification in the Gazette of India through which the issuance of import license for HCFC-141b is prohibited from 1st January, 2020 under Ozone Depleting Substances (Regulation and Control) Amendment Rules, 2019 issued under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
HCFC-141b is not produced in the country and all the domestic requirements are met through imports. With this notification, prohibiting the import of HCFC-141 b, the country has completely phased out the important ozone depleting chemical. Simultaneously, the use of HCFC-141 b by foam manufacturing industry has also been closed as on 1st January, 2020 under the Ozone Depleting Substances (Regulation and Control) Amendment Rules, 2014.
Nearly, 50 % of the consumption of ozone depleting chemicals in the country was attributable to HCFC-141 b in the foam sector. The Ministry adopted a structured approach to engage with foam manufacturing enterprises for providing technical and financial assistance in order to transition to non-ODS and low GWP technologies under HCFC Phase out Management Plan (HPMP). Around 175 foam manufacturing enterprises have been covered under HPMP out of which, 163 enterprises are covered under stage II of HPMP. The complete phase out of HCFC 141 b from the country in foam sector is among the first at this scale in Article 5 parties (developing countries) under the Montreal Protocol. The implementation of HPMP through regulatory and policy actions, implementation of technology conversion projects has removed around 7800 Metric Tonnes of HCFC 141-b from the baseline level of 2009 and 2010 of the country.
The phase out of HCFC-141b from the country has twin environmental benefits viz. (i) assisting the healing of the stratospheric ozone layer,and (ii) towards the climate change mitigation due to transitioning of foam manufacturing enterprises at this scale under HPMP to low global warming potential alternative technologies.
The polyurethane foam sector has links with important economic sectors related to buildings, cold storages and cold chain infrastructure, automobiles, commercial refrigeration, domestic appliances such as refrigerators, water geysers, thermo ware, office and domestic furniture applications, specific high value niche applications etc. In India, the foam manufacturing sector is mix of large, medium and small enterprises having varying capacities, with preponderance of MSMEs. Many of the MSMEs operate largely in the informal sector.
To ensure minimal dislocation in the sector and for enhancing the capacities of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in converting to low-GWP non-ODS technologies, training and awareness programmes on non ODS and low GWP alternatives to HCFCs including adoption of such alternatives have been organized in close collaboration with Industry and MSMEs will also be facilitated for adequate tie-ups with system houses, laboratories for getting their material tested, etc, in addition to organizing study tours, field visits, etc.
Noting the challenges, the Ozone Cell, MoEF&CC entered into a MOA with the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology, Department of Chemicals &Petrochemicals to facilitate and hand-holding foam manufacturing enterprises. Transitioning to non HCFC and low GWP alternatives. As part of assistance made available to the enterprises technology workshops, field trials, on-site demonstration and support, practical hands on training and product validation are being provided. Already enterprises assisted for stabilizing alternative technologies have been able to move towards adoption of alternatives at commercial scale.
Key findings: The world had 2,153 billionaires in the world in 2019. The number of billionaires has doubled in the last decade, despite their combined wealth having declined in 2018.
World’s richest 1% have more than twice as much wealth as 6.9 billion people. From 2011 to 2017, average wages in G7 countries grew 3%, while dividends to wealthy shareholders increased by 31%.
Globally, extreme poverty rates are 4% higher for women than men and this gap rises to 22% during women’s peak productive and reproductive ages. Women related:
Globally, 42% of working-age women are outside the paid labour force, compared with 6% of men, due to unpaid care responsibilities.
The monetary value of unpaid care work globally for women aged 15 and over is at least $10.8 trillion annually –three times the size of the world’s tech industry. 80% of domestic workers worldwide are women and 90% of domestic workers have no access to social security such as maternity protection and benefits.
Findings related to India: India’s richest 1% hold more than four-times the wealth held by the bottom 70% of the country’s population. The combined total wealth of 63 Indian billionaires is higher than the total Union Budget of India for the fiscal year 2018-19 which was at Rs 24,42,200 crore.
Concerns expressed: Economic inequality is out of control and has created a great divide in the world. This great divide is based on a flawed and sexist economic system which has accumulated vast wealth and power into the hands of a rich few. And they are also exploiting the labour of women and girls, and systematically violating their rights.
Way ahead: An additional 0.5% tax on the wealth of the richest 1% over the next 10 years can create 117 million jobs in education, health and elderly care. Invest in national care systems to address the disproportionate responsibility for care work done by women and girls.
End extreme wealth to end extreme poverty and bring in legislation to protect the rights of all carers and secure living wages for paid care workers.
What has the court suggested? The Court has suggested a permanent tribunal headed by a retired Supreme Court judge or a former High Court Chief Justice as a new mechanism. This would require an amendment to the Constitution.
Background: The suggestion for devising an independent mechanism to deal with disqualification pleas against lawmakers came in a judgment by which the top court asked the Manipur assembly speaker to decide within four weeks the plea of a Congress leader seeking disqualification of BJP lawmaker and Manipur forest minister Th Shyamkumar.
Need for independent mechanism: Currently, disqualification of members of a House/Assembly is referred to the Speaker of the House/Assembly. But, speaker also belongs to a political party. The Court held that only swift and impartial disqualification of defectors would give “real teeth” to the Tenth Schedule.
What has the court said on time frame to decide? The Speakers should decide Tenth Schedule disqualifications within a “reasonable period”. What is ‘reasonable’ would depend on the facts of each case. The Court held that unless there are “exceptional circumstances”, disqualification petitions under the Tenth Schedule should be decided by Speakers within three months.
Disqualification under the Tenth Schedule: The Anti-Defection Law was passed in 1985 through the 52nd amendment to the Constitution. It added the Tenth Schedule to the Indian Constitution.
According to it, a member of a House belonging to any political party becomes disqualified for being a member of the House, if: He voluntarily gives up his membership of such political party; or He votes or abstains from voting in such House contrary to any direction issued by his political party without obtaining prior permission of such party and such act has not been condoned by the party within 15 days.
An independent candidate joins a political party after the election. A nominated member joins a party six months after he becomes a member of the legislature.
Exceptions to the disqualification on the ground of defection: If a member goes out of his party as a result of a merger of the party with another party. A merger takes place when two-thirds of the members of the party have agreed to such merger.
If a member, after being elected as the presiding officer of the House, voluntarily gives up the membership of his party or rejoins it after he ceases to hold that office.
This law paves the way for three capitals for the state.
The three capitals: Amaravati– legislative capital. Visakhapatnam– executive capital. Kurnool– judicial capital. Need for three capitals: The government says it is against building one mega capital while neglecting other parts of the state. Three capitals ensure equal development of different regions of the state.
Decentralisation has been the central theme in recommendations of all major committees that were set up to suggest a suitable location for the capital of Andhra Pradesh. These include Justice B N Srikrishna Committee, K Sivaramakrishnan Committee, G N Rao Committee etc.
Challenges ahead: Coordinating between seats of legislature and executive in separate cities will be easier said than done, and with the government offering no specifics of a plan, officers and common people alike fear a logistics nightmare.
Executive capital Visakhapatnam is 700 km from judicial capital Kurnool, and 400 km from legislative capital Amaravati. The Amaravati-Kurnool distance is 370 km. The time and costs of travel will be significant.
The AP Police are headquartered in Mangalagiri, 14 km from Vijayawada, and senior IPS officers who may be required to visit the Secretariat will have to travel 400 km to Visakhapatnam. Likewise, government officers who may have to appear in the High Court will have to travel 700 km to Kurnool, which does not have an airport.
All officers and Ministerial staff who may have to be at hand to brief Ministers when the Assembly is in session, will probably have to stay put in Amaravati, leaving behind their other responsibilities in Visakhapatnam.
Kurnool What are the other examples of multiple capital cities?
Several countries in the world have implemented the concept. In Sri Lanka, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is the official capital and seat of national legislature, while Colombo is the de facto seat of national executive and judicial bodies. Malaysia has its official and royal capital and seat of national legislature at Kuala Lumpur, and Putrajaya is the administrative centre and seat of national judiciary.
Among Indian states: Maharashtra has two capitals– Mumbai and Nagpur (which holds the winter session of the state assembly). Himachal Pradesh has capitals at Shimla and Dharamshala (winter). The former state of Jammu & Kashmir had Srinagar and Jammu (winter) as capitals.
Composition: The Council will be chaired by Minster for Commerce & Industry.
It will consist of the non-official members, to be nominated by Central Government, from various categories like founders of successful startups, veterans and persons capable of representing interests of incubators and accelerators etc.
The term of the non-official members of the Startup Advisory Council will be for a period of two years.
The nomineesof the concerned Ministries/Departments/Organisations, not below the rank of Joint Secretary to the Government of India, will be ex-officio members of the Council. Joint Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade will be the Convener of the Council.
Roles and functions: Suggest measures to foster a culture of innovation amongst citizens and students in particular, promote innovation in all sectors of economy across the country.
Suggest measures to facilitate public organizations to assimilate innovation with a view to improving public service delivery, promote creation, protection and commercialization of intellectual property rights. Suggest making it easier to start, operate, grow and exit businesses by reducing regulatory compliances and costs, promote ease of access to capital for startups, and incentivize domestic capital for investments into startups. Mobilize global capital for investments in Indian startups, keep control of startups with original promoters and provide access to global markets for Indian startups.
Key findings: India- specific: India was among the top 10 recipients of Foreign Direct Investment in 2019, attracting $49 billion in inflows, a 16 per cent increase from the previous year.
Global scenario: The global foreign direct investment remained flat in 2019 at $1.39 trillion, a one per cent decline from a revised $1.41 trillion in 2018.
Reasons: This is against the backdrop of weaker macroeconomic performance and policy uncertainty for investors, including trade tensions. Developing economies continue to absorb more than half of global FDI flows. South Asia recorded a 10 per cent increase in FDI to $60 billion and this growth was driven by India, with a 16 per cent increase in inflows to an estimated $49 billion.
The FDI flows to developed countries remained at a historically low level, decreasing by a further six per cent to an estimated $643 billion. There was zero-growth of flows to United States, which received $251 billion FDI in 2019, as compared to $254 billion in 2018, the report said. Despite this, the United States remained the largest recipient of FDI, followed by China with flows of $140 billion and Singapore with $110 billion. The FDI in the UK was down six per cent as Brexit unfolded.
Way ahead: GDP growth, gross fixed capital formation and trade are projected to rise, both at the global level and, especially, in several large emerging markets.
Such an improvement in macroeconomic conditions could prompt MNEs to resume investments in productive assets, given also their easy access to cheap money, the fact that corporate profits are expected to remain solid in 2020, and hopes for waning trade tensions between the United States and China.
However, significant risks persist, including high debt accumulation among emerging and developing economies, geopolitical risks and concerns about a further shift towards protectionist policies.
What’s the issue? The arbitration arose out of the cancellation of Letters of Intent for the issuance of telecom licences to provide 2G services in five telecommunications circles by reason of India’s essential security interests.
The verdict was pronounced last year in July 2019 by the International Arbitration Tribunal constituted in accordance with the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Arbitration Rules, 1976. The proceedings were administered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).
About UNCITRAL: The UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is a subsidiary body of the U.N. General Assembly.
It is responsible for helping to facilitate international trade and investment. Established by the UNGA in 1966. Mandate is “to promote the progressive harmonization and unification of international trade law” through conventions, model laws, and other instruments that address key areas of commerce, from dispute resolution to the procurement and sale of goods.
Annual sessions held alternately in New York City and Vienna, where it is headquartered. The Tribunal constituted in accordance with the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules 1976 is seated at the Hague, Netherlands, and proceedings are administered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
About TMT: The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is an astronomical observatory with an extremely large telescope (ELT).
It is an international project being funded by scientific organisations of Canada, China, India, Japan and USA.
Planned location: Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii in the US state of Hawaii. Purpose: The TMT is designed for near-ultraviolet to mid-infrared observations, featuring adaptive optics to assist in correcting image blur.
Significance: TMT will enable scientists to study fainter objects far away from us in the Universe, which gives information about early stages of evolution of the Universe. It will give us finer details of not-so-far-away objects like undiscovered planets and other objects in the Solar System and planets around other stars.
These guidelines include: The issuer will have to disclose objects of the issue, related-party transactions, valuation, financial details, review of credit rating and grievance redressal mechanism in the placement document.
Sebi has allowed listed REIT and InvIT to make a rights issue of units. This is subject to several conditions including these investment vehicles obtaining in-principle approval of the stock exchanges for listing of units proposed to be issued etc.
With regard to pricing, the investment manager on behalf of the REIT and InvIT, in consultation with the lead merchant banker(s), will decide the issue price before determining the record date. With regard to manner of issuance of unit, units shall be allotted in the dematerialised form only and shall be listed on the stock exchange where the units of the REIT and InvIT are listed.
What are Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvIT)? It is like a mutual fund, which enables direct investment of small amounts of money from possible individual/institutional investors in infrastructure to earn a small portion of the income as return.
InvITs can be treated as the modified version of REITs designed to suit the specific circumstances of the infrastructure sector. They are similar to REIT but invest in infrastructure projects such as roads or highways which take some time to generate steady cash flows.
What are Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT)? A REIT is roughly like a mutual fund that invests in real estate although the similarity doesn’t go much further.
The basic deal on REITs is that you own a share of property, and so an appropriate share of the income from it will come to you, after deducting an appropriate share of expenses. Essentially, it’s like a group of people pooling their money together and buying real estate except that it’s on a large scale and is regulated.
Why need InvITs and REITs? Infrastructure and real estate are the two most critical sectors in any developing economy. A well-developed infrastructural set-up propels the overall development of a country.
It also facilitates a steady inflow of private and foreign investments, and thereby augments the capital base available for the growth of key sectors in an economy, as well as its own growth, in a sustained manner. Given the importance of these two sectors in the country, and the paucity of public funds available to stimulate their growth, it is imperative that additional channels of financing are put in place.
How are they ranked? Ranking has been done under the National Hydrology Project that aims to improve drought and flood management, creating a state specific database on availability, plugging leakages in canals and dams and meteorological forecast on water resources information system.
The ranking is part of the mid-term review of the Central and the state government departments dealing with water to achieve the target to provide piped drinking water connection to every household in the next five years. Another aim of the ranking is to have a water resources information system (WRIS) for all states to create a real-time integrated National Water Information Center (NWIC).
Performance of various states: Gujarat has been ranked the best for parameters on efficiency targets. Delhi is among the worst performing states. In the previous year’s ranking, Telangana had got the top slot and this year’s topper, Gujarat, was ranked seventh last time. Among the states that significantly improved its ranking was Tamil Nadu, which stood at 13th position as compared to 33 in 2018.
Performance of government departments: The departments have been ranked on parameters for procurement, finance, real-time data acquisition system, data digitization, analytical work, trainings and updating MIS. The agencies have been given score out of 100, and those scoring between 48 and 100 are called satisfactory; the ones scoring between 40 and 48 are moderately satisfactory; score between 34 and 40 falls under moderately unsatisfactory category and score below 34 is in the unsatisfactory category.
Among the seven Central departments reviewed, the Survey of India has got the top billing followed by the National Institute of Hydrology (NIH) and Central Water Commission. The Central Pollution Control Board, the country’s pollution watchdog, has got the lowest rank.
Way ahead: Ranking project will have impact on ground only if leakages are detected on real time basis and there are personnel to act on the alerts to be issued by the WRIS.
The states need to strengthen its workforce on ground to deliver the benefits of the system to people. The system can also help people in getting real time alerts on water related natural calamities such as drought and floods
The report examines carbon reduction activities of companies. Top 4: United States of America secured the top spot followed by Japan, United Kindom and France.
Key findings: The boards of 98% of the firms directly monitor climate change risks with top management integrating these concerns in performance evaluation. 2/3rd of the 59 firms that were surveyed use climate analysis tools to formulate their business strategies.
Improvement in disclosure rate has primarily been driven by investors who are actively pushing companies to reveal climate risks and take steps to reduce their carbon footprint.
Among the key focus areas of Indian firms is renewable energy. According to the report, 23 companies reported renewable energy targets in 2019, a 44% rise over 2018. Of these, Infosys, Dalmia Cement and Tata Motors have reported 100% RE consumption.
Overall performance of India: India is now among the top five countries globally when it comes to adopting science-based target initiatives (SBT) with as many as 38 Indian companies in 2019 committing to going beyond policy requirements to plan urgent climate action, a significant rise from 25 firms in 2018.
In 2019, up to 57 of the 59 responding companies stated that they have a process for risks assessment; 51 declared that their process of identifying, assessing and managing climate related risks is integrated into the multi-disciplinary, company-wide risk identification, assessment, and management process which is considered a best practice.
About CDP: The CDP is a global disclosure system that enables companies, cities, states and regions to measure and manage their environmental impacts. It collects and collates self-reported environmental data in the world.
It is aimed at measuring the carbon reduction activities undertaken by different companies and firms operating in various countries across the globe.