Daily Current Affairs - 18 April *** imp for UPSC ***

💥LAW COMMISSION FAVOURS SIMULTANEOUS ELECTIONS

The Law Commission of India has proposed holding simultaneous state and general elections and has sought public opinion on its recommendations regarding the same.

Commission has proposed a series of Constitutional and other amendments to the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951, and Rules of Procedure to carve the way for ‘One Nation, One Poll’.

👉Key recommendations

• A definition of simultaneous elections should also be added to Section 2 of the 1951 Act and proposed that the ‘Vote of No Confidence’ be replaced with a “Constructive Vote of no Confidence”. This means that while moving on no confidence motion may also put forward an option for forming an alternative government inured to avoid premature dissolution of the house
• The Law Commission further deliberated that when a hung Parliament or assembly arises leading to a stalemate, the members of the house may sit together and decide on the leader of the house can form a government”.
• And to do this the rigor of anti-defection law laid down under paragraph 2 of Clause 1 of the 10th schedule of the Constitution be removed as an exception
• certain amendments to Section 14 and 15 of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951, so that the statutory limit of six months for the issuance of notification of general elections be appropriately extended to provide the flexibility required to position states either in one group or the other as one-time measure to conduct one election.

👉What is meant by simultaneous elections?

It refers to holding elections to Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies simultaneously, once in a five year.

At present, elections to Lok Sabha and to all State Legislative Assemblies are not being held simultaneously.

The idea of simultaneous elections is not new to India. In 1951-52, the first general election to the Lok Sabha was held simultaneously with all State Assemblies. This practice of simultaneous elections continued till the general election of 1967.This practice got disrupted due to premature dissolution of some State Legislative Assemblies in 1968. Lok Sabha itself dissolved prematurely in 1970.

As a result, the elections to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies are being held separately.

---

💥BHARAT-22 ETF MAY EYE RS. 10,000 CR. 

The Finance Ministry may come out with a Rs 10,000-crore follow-on fund offer of the Bharat-22 exchange traded fund (ETF) as it looks to dilute its stake in Coal India.

👉What is Bharat – 22?

The government had in November last year launched Bharat-22 ETF comprising shares of 22 companies, including public sector undertakings (PSUs), public sector banks, ITC, Axis Bank and L&T.

Bharat 22 is a well-diversified ETF spanning six sectors — basic materials (4.4%), energy (17.5%), finance (20.3%), industrials (22.6%), FMCG (15.2%) and utilities (20%).

The ETF will help the government sell equity stakes in state-run firms and move it further along in its objective to raise Rs 72,500 crore through disinvestment in the current financial year 2017-18. At the same time it is also expected to benefit long term and retail investors by providing an opportunity of participation in equity stocks of Government run companies and earn stable returns.

Bharat 22 is the second Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) that will be launched by the Union Finance Ministry (first was CPSE ETF’s 10)

👉What is ETF?

Exchange Traded Funds are essentially Index Funds that are listed and traded on exchanges like stocks.

These funds mainly track an index, a commodity, or a pool of assets.

The ETF mechanism has proven to be a smart, effective way for the government to help meet its disinvestment targets and to keep fiscal deficit under control.

---

💥MONSOON FORECASTS LIKELY EVERY TWO WEEKS

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is planning to issue fortnightly forecasts of the monsoon’s arrival in States, once it begins its onset over Kerala. This would be an improvement if made possible since IMD only forecasts the monsoon’s arrival over Kerala — around mid-May — and then gives a three or five-day heads-up as it journeys northwards.

Historically, meteorologists have identified mile-markers: the monsoon system reaching Maharasthra within 10 days of landing in Kerala, and the whole of the country being covered by the 15th of July.

However, the system is running out of utility as these schedules are increasingly getting mismatched with arrival of monsoon on ground.

For e.g. Last year the monsoon arrived in Kerala on the 30th of May; precisely when the IMD said it would arrive. After that it stalled and didn’t reach north Karnataka, Telangana and central Andhra Pradesh until 11th June…

IMD uses its Monsoon Mission Climate Forecasting System (MMCFS), or the ‘dynamical’ model that simulates the weather on supercomputers, to forecast each year’s monsoon seasons. This year, IMD plans to tweak one of its models to generate a 15-day lead time and thus predict the vagaries of monsoon better.

👉The changing nature of monsoon.

Monsoon is a less understood geographical phenomenon and it’s well accepted that every monsoon has its own quirks — regarding the onset and pace of its progress. But meteorologists say the last few years the monsoon has been moving along slowly and even stays on until mid-October instead of its traditional September-end exit.

The reason for such changes are attributed to a reduction in depressions (low pressure cyclonic-like winds from the surrounding seas) which slows down the monsoon patterns and climate change does seem to have a role.

---

💥NGT ASKS MINISTRY TO FINALISE NATIONAL POLICY ON FOREST FIRES

The NHT has directed the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) to finalise the National Policy on Forest Fire within two weeks, after noting that forest fires generally occur in the month of April.

An NGT Bench although had given time to formulate the policy, in view of the fact that forest fires normally occur in the month of April every year asked MoEF&CC to get all the requisite approval that are required from the Minister and give finality to the National Policy on Forest Fire and make it implementable.

The green panel had mandated the Environment Ministry to formulate a national policy after coming down heavily on the Centre for remaining a “mute spectator” to the recurring forest fires in the hill States year after year.

👉National Green Tribunal (NGT)

NGT was established in 2010 under National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 for effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources. It specialises in adjudicating on matters relating to environment, forests and harm to people or property due to neglect of environmental obligations of infrastructure projects.

NGT is guided by principles of natural justice and not bound by procedure laid down under Code of Civil Procedure (CrCP), 1908. It is mandated to make and endeavour for disposal of applications or appeals finally within 6 months of filing. New Delhi is Principal Place of Sitting NGT. Bhopal, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai are other regional sitting of Tribunal.

---

💥OPCW TEAM ENTERS SYRIA’S DOUMA 

Chemical weapons inspectors have entered the Syrian town of Douma to probe an alleged poison gas attack.

The suspected gas attack on April 7 reportedly left more than 40 people dead and was blamed by Western powers on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. This reported toxic gas attack has sparked joint missile strikes by the United States, France and Britain on Syrian military installations.

The inspections are being carried out by OPCW an organization established under Chemical Weapons Convention.

👉About chemical warfare.

Chemical weapons are specialised weapons that deliver chemicals that inflict death or injury on humans through chemical actions.

Though they banned globally, but since they are relatively cheap and easy to produce, chemical weapons are referred to as the “poor man’s bomb”.

Among the most commonly used chemical weapons are mustard gas, phosgene, chlorine, and the nerve agents Sarin and V.

To check the use of chemicals as weapons treaties were signed, most importantly the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) of 1993.

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is a multilateral treaty that bans chemical weapons and requires their destruction within a specified period of time. The CWC’s main objective is to get signatories to destroy their stockpiles of chemical weapons, and as of December 2016, an estimated 93% of the world’s declared stockpiles had been destroyed.

Only 4 UN states are not party: Israel, Egypt, North Korea and South Sudan.

The CWC is administered by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013 for its efforts to curb use of chemical weapons internationally.

To Download this editorial in PDF version CLICK HERE