Action against persons designated by Foreigners’ Tribunals District officials in Assam have begun work to delete the names of “declared foreigners’ whose names had been included in the complete draft of the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) that was published on July 30. In Morigaon district, officials have identified …
Read More »Monthly Archives: August 2018
Social media hub plan dropped
Supreme Court had raised the fear that it may create a surveillance state A proposal to have hubs to monitor social media traffic and trends has been withdrawn, the Union government informed the Supreme Court on Friday. The decision comes after the court had questioned the proposal in a hearing …
Read More »WHO thumbs up for Swachh Bharat’s rural component
Likely to prevent three lakh deaths in five years It is estimated that the Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin (SBM-G) will result in preventing more than three lakh deaths due to diarrhoea and protein-energy malnutrition between 2014-October 2019, notes a World Health Organisation (WHO) report released on Friday. The progress report …
Read More »ICRISAT to study Mission Kakatiya
The State government has decided to ask ICRISAT to conduct an in-depth study to assess the impact of de-siltation of tanks taken up under the prestigious Mission Kakatiya project. The study to be conducted over two years would cover aspects like impact of de-siltation on water availability for irrigation, changes …
Read More »e-way bill made mandatory for inter-State goods movement
Kerala losing over Rs. 400 crore due to tax evasion The State has also had to take a beating because of the recent decision of the GST Council to cut tax rates for a horde of goods, mainly durables, which would affect a consumer State such as Kerala. It is …
Read More »SC firm on choice of two HC judges
Collegium sent their names in 2016 The Supreme Court Collegium has reiterated the names of two advocates — C. Emalias and Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy — for appointment as Judges of the Madras High Court. The proposal for elevation of the two advocates, recommended by the High Court Collegium on December 19, …
Read More »Centre pushes for quota in promotion for SCs/STs
Cites historical deprivation, calls on Supreme Court to revisit 2006 Nagaraj ruling Citing “1000 of years of deprivation” suffered by Dalit communities, the government on Friday began its push for providing “accelerated promotion with consequential seniority” for Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) members in public employment. Courtesy a 2006 M. …
Read More »Reforms for Burma.
to the exclusion of the province from reform proposals and suggests that as the Viceroy and the Secretary of State have recently said Burma is not India, the Local Government might proceed to ascertain the views of the people on the application of reforms to Burma, Simla having asked for …
Read More »Numbing numbers
At upwards of four million, the number of those excluded from the second draft of the National Register of Citizens published on Monday has sparked great anxiety about the legal status of so many individuals. As with the first list published on December 31, 2017, the publication of the final …
Read More »Tender for fighter jets by mid-2019
The final tender (the request for proposal) for the purchase of 110 fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF) can be expected only around mid-2019, a senior defence source said, confirming that the IAF was evaluating responses to its request for information from six global firms. “The bids received …
Read More »War workers after War
Extract: The Government of Bengal has issued [in Calcutta] a resolution containing instructions to the heads of departments for employment in Government service of persons now employed in connection with the war. In filling up vacancies at the end of war, preference will be given to men who have rendered …
Read More »War Graves
Extract: A meeting of the Imperial War Graves Commission held [in London] on July 24th at which Lord Islington, Sir William Garstin, Mr. Rudyard Kipling and others were present adopted the recommendations of the Committee consisting of Lord Islington, W.P. Schreiner, Sahibzada Ahmed Aftabakhan and Sir Pattani which had been …
Read More »Drafting a data protection Bill
Extract: The draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018, recognises privacy as a fundamental right. It has provisions to protect personal data as an essential facet of information privacy. The objective of the Bill is to balance the growth of the digital economy and use of data as a means of …
Read More »Discounting logic
Extract: Among the ideas in the draft policy are a sunset clause on discounts that can be offered by e-commerce firms and restrictions on sellers backed by marketplace operators. The aim may be to prevent large players from pricing out the competition though unfair practices, but taken too far such …
Read More »Managing perceptions
Extract: From the very beginning it was clear that the entire issue had less to do with the correctness of the Supreme Court judgment and more to do with the way it was interpreted, and sometimes deliberately misinterpreted. The judgment had not altered or read down any of the key …
Read More »Data localisation is no solution
Extract: Calls for data localisation are not new. It has been a mainstay of Indian policymakers’ demands from foreign technology companies. The Justice Srikrishna Committee in its report accompanying the draft Personal Data Protection Bill released on July 27 notes that eight of the top 10 most accessed websites in …
Read More »Pope declares death penalty as ‘inadmissible’ in new policy
Extract: The Vatican said Pope Francis had approved a change to the catechism of the Catholic Church — the compilation of official Catholic teaching. Previously, the catechism said the church didn’t exclude recourse to capital punishment “if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the …
Read More »U.S. trade war won’t work, says China
Extract: China’s top envoy called on the U.S. to remain “cool-headed” on Thursday as Washington threatened to raise the tariff rate on the next $200 billion of Chinese imports. “We have been very clear about the specific changes China should undertake. Regrettably, instead of changing its harmful behaviour, China has …
Read More »Bandipur: Lifting ban contrary to NTCA report
Extract: The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) — which has proposed to the State government to lift the ban on night traffic through Bandipur — seems to have overlooked key issues brought to light in reports by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and other agencies, including the …
Read More »17 Opposition parties want ballot papers back in 2019
Extract: Seventeen Opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress, are planning to approach the Election Commission, demanding that ballot papers be used to conduct the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The 17 parties would meet next week to discuss the plan. “This is a matter on which all Opposition parties agreed. We …
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