Sabarimala Temple Bar Unreasonable: SC

The Supreme Court’s Constitution Bench has observed that prohibition on women with their menstrual cycles from entering the Sabarimala temple is unreasonable.

• The Constitution Bench was hearing the question whether the fundamental right of women to pray at the place of their choice can be discriminated against solely based on a biological factor (menstruation) exclusive to the female gender.
• The Bench has also asked whether the exclusion of women aged between 10 and 50 from entering a temple because they are considered ‘impure’ amounts to the practice of untouchability, a social evil abolished by law (Article 17).

Key Observations

• Right to pray is a constitutional right for women. Article 25 (1) mandates freedom of conscience and right to practise religion. All persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion.
• There is no concept of private mandirs (temples). Once a temple is opened, everybody can go and offer prayers. In a public place of worship, a woman can enter, where a man can go. Right to pray is equal for both men and women.
• The Sabarimala temple draws funds from the Consolidated Fund of India, people from all over the world visit it and hence, is qualified to be called a public place of worship.
• The only grounds on which entry can be prohibited are health, morality and public order.
• The age restriction - whether based on age or menstruation, is arbitrary. Menstruation cannot be a reason for exclusion for employment or worship or anything.

Background

• The hill shrine Sabarimala is located in the forests of the Western Ghats in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district. It is dedicated to Lord Ayyappa and is managed by the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB).
• As per the temple legend, the Lord is a celibate and had himself placed the restrictions on women in the 10-50 age bracket from entering the shrine.
• Preventing women’s entry to the temple with an irrational and obsolete notion of “purity” offends the equality clauses in the Constitution. It takes away the woman’s right against discrimination guaranteed under Article 15(1) of the Constitution.
• Prohibition of women’s entry to the shrine solely on the basis of womanhood and the biological features associated with womanhood is derogatory to women, which Article 51A (e) aims to renounce.

No More Court Visits for Adoption

The Government has approved amendments to the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 to enable speedier adoption of children.

Key Highlights

• Prospective parents who wish to adopt will not be required to make several rounds to the courts to seek an adoption order as District Magistrates or District Collectors will be authorized to do so.
• All child-care institutions (CCIs) will have to get registered and linked to the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).

Lok Sabha Clears Detention Policy

Lok Sabha has passed the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2018 to abolish the ‘no detention policy’ in schools.

• As per the amendment, it would be left to the states to decide whether to continue the no-detention policy.
• Under the current provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, no student can be detained till class VIII and all students are promoted to the next grade.
• The legislation aims to bring accountability into the elementary education system.
• This Bill provides for regular examination in classes V and VIII, and if a child fails, there is a provision to give her or him additional opportunity to take a re-examination within two months.
• If the students still do not pass the exam, the state government may decide to detain them.
• The states will decide at what level and who will conduct the examination.

What is No Detention Policy?

• No Detention Policy states that no child admitted in a school shall be held back in any class or expelled till s/he completes elementary education, which is upto Class VIII.
• It is provided under Section 16 of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 or Right to Education Act (RTE).

Why was No Detention Policy introduced?

• The provision was made in the original Act because examinations were often used to hold back children who obtained poor marks.
• To reduce the higher dropout rate especially among economically marginalized communities -  it was felt that compelling children to repeat a class was demotivating, often forcing them to abandon school.
• The No Detention Policy was supposed to be part of the larger continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) effort which replaced the annual examination system.
• CCE mandates the assessment and evaluation of students’ academic, social and personality development on a continuous basis.

Challenges with No Detention Policy

• In 2016, Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) had advised Human Resource Development Ministry for the scrapping of ‘No Detention policy’ on the ground that it was leading to lower learning outcomes.
• Teachers were ill-equipped to facilitate the implementation of the new methods of evaluation and in most cases the policy was interpreted as one that required no assessment at all. Less than 10% of the schools in the country are fully compliant with the RTE’s requirements on infrastructure and teacher availability.
• The policy focused more on increasing the enrollment in elementary education and compromised on the quality of basic education.
• It led to lackadaisical attitude among students towards their studies, as they did not fear detention.
• According to the 2016 edition of “Annual Status of Education Report”, less than 48% of children in class V can read a class II-level textbook; only 43.2% of class VIII students in rural India can do simple divisions; only one out of every four students in class V could read an English sentence. Several States and Union territories have raised the concern about adverse impact of Section 16 on elementary education.
• TSR Subramanian Committee on Education and the Vasudev Devnani Committee formed under CABE had recommended the revocation of No Detention Policy.

Way Forward

• Bringing back year-end examinations for Classes V and VIII and detaining students who fail will not improve learning outcomes on their own unless supported by other necessary changes in the educational ecosystem.
• The real solution to poor learning outcomes is socio-economic deprivation lies in improving quality of and access to education.
• Making teachers do their job better as well as fixing shortcomings in educational infrastructure and administration is the need of the hour.
• Raising the quality of classroom teaching, continuous monitoring of teacher attendance and introduction of free vocational and industrial skills training for all those with such an aptitude after elementary schooling should be the priority.

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana

The centre has agreed to fund 25% of the Rs. 15,325 crore irrigation projects planned for Maharashtra under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY).

• This decision is significant for two reasons:
  • Only 18% of Maharashtra’s complete cultivable land is irrigated whereas the national average is over 35%.
  • The irrigation projects are being undertaken in 14 suicide-hit and 8 drought-prone areas in Maharashtra and therefore would help reduce the distress among the farmers.

Government Decides to Withdraw FRDI Bill

The Government has decided to withdraw the Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill after concerns were raised over the security of bank deposits.

• The Bill was brought in to create a single agency for resolution of financial firms such as banks, insurance companies, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and stock exchanges in case of insolvency.
• The two controversial clauses in the Bill are cited as the reasons for its withdrawal. They are:
  • Bail-in provision- This provision stipulated that if a bank fails, depositors will have to bear part of the liability.
  • Insurance on deposits- The Bill proposed to delete the legal provision for the present insurance system wherein deposits are insured up to Rs. 1 lakh and empowered a newly created body the Resolution Corporation to decide the deposit insurance amount.
• The Bill, introduced in August 2017, was referred to a Joint Committee of the Parliament which is consulting all stakeholders.

Need for a Resolution Regime

• The current resolution regime is especially inappropriate for private sector financial firms in the light of significant expansion and many of these acquiring systemically important status in India.
• This Bill intended to provide a comprehensive resolution regime that would help ensure that, in the event of failure of a financial service provider, there is quick, orderly and efficient resolution in favour of depositors.
• The provision of a single agency for resolution of financial firms is in line with the recommendations made by the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC), 2011 headed by Justice B N Srikrishna.
• The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 along with the FRDI bill would have streamlined the procedure for the winding up or revival of an ailing financial sector firm.

Maximum Residue Levels - A Reason for Lower Farm Produce Exports

India’s agri trade surplus has narrowed from $ 27.72 billion to $ 13.85 billion in the last four years.

• Compared to 2013-14, India’s exports of agricultural produce were lower in 2017-18; whereas the imports of agricultural produce were higher.

Background

• In August 2014, the European Union (EU) imposed “specific conditions (i.e. every consignment has to be accompanied by a certificate stating that the produce has been sampled and analysed for the presence of individual pesticide residues within their stipulated maximum residue level (MRL) limits.)” on the import of okra and curry leaves from India.

• Saudi Arabia has cited unacceptable pesticide levels (beyond its MRLs) to deny entry of green chillies and, more recently, cardamom shipments from India.
• From January 2018, the EU has further disallowed the import of any rice having levels of tricyclazole, a common fungicide, beyond 0.01 ppm.

Indian Scenario

• India has no comparable systems for checking pesticide residues in agricultural produce being imported by it.
• Our ports have facilities only for plant quarantine inspection — to certify that imported produce or seeds do not carry insect pests, diseases and weeds detrimental to our agriculture.
• None of the importing ports has state-of-the-art GC/MS (gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry) techniques to analyse pesticides and other contaminants at 1 ppm and lower.
• This also has implications for agricultural produce imported by India. India annually uses only a fraction of pesticides as compared to China, the US or many European and Latin American countries. Yet, none of the imported consignments is tested by FSSAI for pesticide residue analysis.
• The reason for this is simply that FSSAI has neither the necessary systems nor trained manpower to analyse pesticide residues (at ppm levels) in imported foods upon their arrival at Indian ports.
• This implies that while India bends over backwards to comply with its importing countries’ pesticide MRLs, it doesn’t make those very countries meet its own standards.

Suggestion

• The FSSAI should be made to have the infrastructure and manpower to test all imported food consignments for pesticide MRLs at every port of entry.
• A proper coordination mechanism must be put in place among the FSSAI, Plant Quarantine and Customs department officials.
• Ensure that India does not become a dumping ground for imported foods -  this will help neutralise the tarnishing of the image of Indian agriculture globally.
• Improve scientific capability or Research & Development capability in the agricultural field.

Way Forward

These steps will ensure a level-playing field for Indian farmers and exporters - by preventing the use of pesticide MRLs as a non-tariff barrier by other countries to restrict India’s agricultural exports, even while allowing free entry to the produce of their farmers.

EU Slaps $5 bn Fine on Google over Android

The European Commission has fined Google with a record €4.34 billion ($5 billion) for breaching EU antitrust rules by using its Android mobile operating system to squeeze out rivals.

Key Highlights 

• The commission has accused Google of cementing its dominance over internet search engines by using its Android mobile operating system. And hence these practices have denied their competitors a chance to innovate and compete on the merits.
• By breaching antitrust rules, they have denied European consumers the benefits of effective competition in the important mobile sphere.
• The penalty is almost double the previous record of €2.4 billion which was fined up on Google over its online shopping search services.
• Google has also been ordered to halt anti-competitive practices (such as promoting Google services to users) in contractual deals with smartphone makers and telecoms providers within 90 days or face additional penalties of up to 5%.

How has Google Responded?

• It has decided to appeal against the fine as the tech company claims its operating system is a vibrant ecosystem that promotes rapid innovation and lower prices which in turn enhances competition.

How Effective are the Fines?

• With its strong market power, regulatory action against tech giants like Google and Facebook may prove to be ineffective. For instance, the penalty represents just over two weeks of revenue for Google and would scarcely dent its cash reserves of $102.9 billion.
• Such rulings may prove harmful for app developers and customers by undercutting Google’s Android software (the software is considered more accessible and affordable for app developers) and revenue.
• Also, the fine could add to the already escalated trade war between EU and the United States.

Important Facts for Prelims (19th July, 2018)

U R Rao Satellite Centre

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has roped in three partners to help URSC produce three small to medium satellites each year, or a total of 27 spacecraft by July 2021.
• The three partners are Alpha Design Technologies P Ltd and its six consortium members; with defence public enterprise Bharat Electronics Ltd, and with Tata Advanced Systems Ltd.
• U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), Bengaluru, is the lead centre for building satellites and developing associated satellite technologies.
• These spacecraft are used for providing applications to various users in the area of Communication, Navigation, Meteorology, Remote Sensing, Space Science and interplanetary explorations.

Global Entry Programme

• Global Entry Programme (GEP) is a program of the United States under its Homeland Security Presidential Directive-6 (HSPD-6) Agreement.
• The GEP exempts prominent citizens from immigration checks while the HSPD-6 pact allows sharing of terror-related information.
• India and the United States are in the process of firming up a list of terror fugitives and have agreed on the names of individuals to be added to GEP and the HSPD-6 Agreement.

90–90–90

• It is an ambitious treatment target by UNAIDS to help end the AIDS epidemic.
• By 2020, 90% of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status.
• By 2020, 90% of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy.
• By 2020, 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.

Udyog Aadhaar Portal

• The Ministry of MSME has set up the Udyog Aadhaar (UA) Portal for online filing of Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum (UAM) by enterprises located anywhere in the country.
• Earlier, as per the recommendations of Kamath Committee, the Ministry of MSME had prepared a one-page registration form known as UAM - constituting a self- declaration format under which the MSME will self-certify its existence, bank account details, promoter/owner’s Aadhaar details and other minimum basic information required.
• Udyog Aadhaar will enable all enterprises to file and register themselves so that simply by using Udyog Aadhaar Number, they can access other services.
• This step is aligned with the government’s flagship programmes like Digital India, Make in India Mission, Ease of Doing Business etc.

No-Confidence Motion

• Lok Sabha Speaker has accepted a notice for a no-confidence motion against the government.
• A notice for a no-confidence motion against a government is accepted only if at least 50 members of the Lower House support it. The Speaker then fixes a date for discussion, followed by a vote.
• When the Lok Sabha passes a no-confidence motion against the council of ministers, all the ministers have to resign including those ministers who are from the Rajya Sabha. Article 75 of the constitution states that the council of ministers is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha.