The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 18 July 2023

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 17 July 2023

• Solicitor-General asks court to wait for legislative decision; CJI says the cardinal issue will be whether the Delhi Ordinance amounted to an amendment to the Constitution by another route.
• The ordinance seeks to establish for the first time the National Capital Civil Service Authority (NCCSA).
• NCCSA Composition: It will be headed by the Chief Minister of Delhi, with the Chief Secretary and Principal Home Secretary of Delhi being the other two members.

 The Hindu Editorial Today

• Functions of NCCSA:
• It will make recommendations to the Lieutenant Governor (LG) regarding transfer, posting, vigilance and other incidental matters of all Group ‘A’ officers and officers of DANICS serving in the Government of NCTD.
• All matters required to be decided by the NCCSA shall be decided by majority of votes of the members present and voting.
• This means, that in effect, the decision of the elected chief minister of Delhi can be overruled by the two senior bureaucrats.
• Role of LG:
• The ordinance stated that the LG will pass orders to give effect to the recommendations passed by the NCCSA.

Ordinance

• An ordinance is any law promulgated by the President when the Indian parliament is not in session.
• These ordinances have the same legal force and effect as an Act of Parliament, but they are only temporary in nature.
• Ordinance Making Power of President
• Article 123 grants the President certain law-making powers, including the authority to issue ordinances during Parliament’s recess and hence it is not possible to enact laws in the Parliament.
• Ordinance Making Power of Governor
• Article 213 states that the Governor of the state may issue ordinances when the state legislative assembly (or either of the two Houses in states with bicameral legislatures) is not in session.
• An ordinance passed while Parliament is in session is deemed null and void.
• To stay a law, the Ordinance must be approved by Parliament within six weeks of its reassembly. Its existence is terminated if the parliament does not act within six weeks of its reassembly.

• India has registered a significant decline of 9.89 percentage points in the number of multidimensionally poor, from 24.85% in 2015-16 to 14.96% in 2019-2021, says the “National multidimensional poverty index: a progress review, 2023”, released by NITI Aayog here on Monday.
• The study says nearly 13.5 crore people came out of multidimensional poverty during the period, assessed by identifying “acute deprivations in health, education and standard of living” using United Nations-approved parameters.
• The report said rural areas witnessed the fastest decline in poverty from 32.59% to 19.28%, mainly due to a decrease in number of multidimensionally poor in States such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Rajasthan. Delhi, Kerala, Goa, and Tamil Nadu have the least number of people facing multidimensional poverty, along with the Union Territories. Bihar, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh top the chart where the percentage of population which is multidimensionally poor is high.
• Multidimensional poverty in urban areas, during the same period, saw a decrease from 8.65% to 5.27%. “Uttar Pradesh registered the largest decline in number of poor with 3.43 crore people escaping multidimensional poverty,” the NITI Aayog said in a statement. The report was released by its Vice-Chairman, Suman Bery.
• The report has been prepared based on the latest National Family Heath Survey of 2019-21 and is the second edition of the National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). “The broad methodology followed is in consonance with the global methodology,” the statement said.
• It said 12 parameters of health, education, and standard of living are examined in the report.

• But the debate itself is much needed as Indians have never been consulted on the personal laws they are governed by. These laws were instituted by the British colonial government by giving a cursory hearing to the clergy, or religious scholars in the case of religions without one. The result was a religion-based set of personal laws for Hindus, Muslims and Christians.
• Personal laws in India are boxed according to the religion or social origins of the citizen.
• only a man can be the ‘karta’ or head of a Hindu Undivided Family, a divorced Muslim woman is not entitled to maintenance beyond a certain period, among some tribes of India, the custom is that women do not inherit ancestral property, and a Parsi woman who marries outside the community is excommunicated. So, from the point of view of women’s empowerment, India’s civil code is uniform already.
• The matter of diversity
• To be credible, the current debate on personal law must include the LGBT, for the questions of civil partnership, inheritance and adoption are as relevant to them as to other Indians.
• Uniform Civil Code refers to the proposition of having a uniform set of civil laws for all citizens of a country, irrespective of their religious or cultural affiliations.
• Directive Principles of State Policy: Article 44 of the Indian constitution states that the state shall endeavour to secure for its citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.

• The news that the Union Cabinet has approved the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill and will table it in the monsoon session of Parliament (July 20-August 11) raises certain issues.
• The proposed Digital Personal Data Protection Bill has two provisions which would greatly weaken the Indian citizen’s right to information. The Indian Right to Information (RTI) Act, effective since October 12, 2005, is one of the best transparency laws in the world, empowering citizens and is a practical recognition of their role as the rulers and owners of India.

• Ten categories of information have been exempted from disclosure to prevent harm to certain interests and to ensure smooth working of the government. These are outlined in Section 8(1), with the 10 subsections from a to j.
• The most widely misused exemption is Section 8(1)(j) which exempts personal information which is not a part of public activity, or which is an invasion on the privacy of an individual.
• The Central Information Commission was constituted in 2005 under the Right to Information Act, 2005. It is not a constitutional body.
• The jurisdiction of the Commission extends over all Central Public Authorities.
• The Central Information Commission shall consist of the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and several Central Information Commissioners not exceeding 10 as may be deemed necessary.

The commissioners are appointed by the President on the recommendation of a committee consisting of:

• The Prime Minister, who shall be the Chairperson of the committee;
• The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha; and
• A Union Cabinet Minister to be nominated by the Prime Minister.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Central Bank of the UAE agreed on July 15 to establish a framework for enabling the use of the two countries’ local currencies for cross-border transactions.
• The move towards permitting payments in the Indian rupee and the UAE dirham is aimed at promoting their use bilaterally, thus reducing the dependence on a third country’s currency such as the U.S. dollar as an intermediary for settling transactions.
• While the idea is laudable, its actual success will hinge on the extent of adoption by businesses in both nations. With the UAE’s trade surplus with India widening in the months since the bilateral Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement came into effect in May 2022, Emirati businesses need to see remunerative avenues to deploy the potential rupee flows should they opt to receive payments in the Indian currency.

• here needs to be more discussion on the fiscal position of small States (i.e. States with a population of less than 1 crore). Most of these small States have distinctive characteristics that limit revenue mobilisation.
• Recognising these disabilities, the Constitution has provided mechanisms to address them. But these States continue to rely heavily on the Union government for revenue. This dependence creates vulnerabilities for the States as well as the Union.
• irst, the States rely on the Union governments’ political goodwill.
• Second, high dependence on the Union might imply less fiscal freedom for the States.
• Third, the lack of their own revenues can lead to weakened State capacity, affecting the delivery of social, economic, and general services. This situation becomes even more critical as many small States share international borders.

• About Black Sea Grain Initiative:
• It was set up to resume vital food and fertilizer exports from Ukraine to the rest of the world.
• It was brokered between Russia and Ukraine by the United Nations and Turkey.
• The Initiative allowed exports of grain, other foodstuffs, and fertilizer, including ammonia, to resume through a safe maritime humanitarian corridor from three key Ukrainian ports: Chornomorsk, Odesa, and Yuzhny/Pivdennyi, to the rest of the world.

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