The fifth Scorpene class conventional submarine was commissioned into the Indian Navy as INS Vagir in the presence of the Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral R. Hari Kumar, at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai on Monday. The sixth and the last of the French-origin Scorpene-class submarines, Vagsheer, being built in India under technology …
Read More »Daily Archives: January 24, 2023
THE BASIC STRUCTURE OF THE CONSTITUTION
The Chief Justice of India, D. Y. Chandrachud compared the ‘basic structure’ of the Constitution to the North Star, an unfailing guide which shows the way when the path appears convoluted. His observation marks the response of the Supreme Court to a recent statement made by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar …
Read More »THE DARK SKY RESERVE
On December 14, 2022, the district administration of Ladakh designated six hamlets within the Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary as a “dark-sky reserve” — an area whose sky is free of light pollution. The designation meant that the reserve had a responsibility to keep the skies dark, particularly for the astronomical observatories …
Read More »DEMOCRACY AND ITS STRUCTURAL SLIPPAGES
The democracy that is functional around the world today — even as it has a long history of evolution — was essentially a 19th century to 20th century western creation. Every civilisation, of course, claims to have had some form of democratic origin. But the institution of universal adult franchise …
Read More »THE CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS IN INDIA
To begin with, elections divide voters into a dubious majority and a minority. The majority-minority division of 50% plus one and 50% minus one is, in principle, hardly a decisive mandate even as this is treated as one empirically. But the practice of elections belies even this notion of “majority”; …
Read More »DATA PROTECTION FOR MINORS
First, instead of incentivising online platforms to proactively build safer and better services for minors, the Bill relies on parents to grant consent on behalf of the child in all cases. In a country with low digital literacy, where parents in fact often rely on their children (who are digital …
Read More »INDIA CHAPTER FOR FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES
For a long time, proponents of the internationalisation of higher education have cherished the dream of foreign universities operating in India. For nearly two decades, they have emphasised the need to provide conducive conditions and an enabling framework for such institutions. But the idea failed to come to fruition due …
Read More »LAID-OFF INDIAN IT PROFESSIONALS FACE U.S. VISA DEADLINE
Thousands of Indian IT professionals in the U.S. who lost their jobs following a series of lay-offs at companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon are now struggling to find new employment within the period stipulated by their work visas to stay in the country. According to The Washington Post, …
Read More »MARY KOM-LED PANEL TO PROBE WRESTLERS’ CHARGES
Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Monday announced that six-time World champion and Olympic medallist boxer M.C. Mary Kom will head a government-appointed five-member Oversight Committee to investigate the charges levelled by some prominent wrestlers against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Olympic medallist wrestler Yogeshwar …
Read More »PARAM VIR CHAKRA AWARDS
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday named the 21 largest unnamed islands in the Andaman & Nicobar archipelago after 21 Param Vir Chakra awardees. Modi participated in the ceremony through videoconferencing and unveiled a model of the national memorial dedicated to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose that is to be built …
Read More »