The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 21 July 2023

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 20 July 2023

• For almost a decade now, women trainee wrestlers — this also includes award-winning sportspersons — have faced and put up with alleged sexual advances and grave indignities during their training.
• The Delhi Police is also under legal obligation, under Section 166A(c) in the amended Penal Code of 2013, as in the amendment to the Penal Code, which makes the ‘non-recording’ of information about sexual offences an offence punishable up to two years imprisonment.
• About the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act:
• The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development led the introduction of the POCSO Act in 2012.
• The Act was designed to protect children from sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography offences, as well as to provide for the establishment of Special Courts for the trial of such offences.

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• The Act was amended in 2019 for enhancing the punishments for specific offences in order to deter abusers and ensure a dignified childhood.
• Salient features:
• A gender-neutral law: The POCSO Act establishes a gender-neutral tone for the legal framework available to child sexual abuse victims by defining a child as “any person” under the age of 18.
• Not reporting abuse is an offence: Any person (except children) in charge of an institution who fails to report the commission of a sexual offence relating to a subordinate is liable to be punished.
• No time limit for reporting abuse: A victim can report an offence at any time, even a number of years after the abuse has been committed.
• Background: The Supreme Court in a landmark judgment in the Vishakha and others v State of Rajasthan 1997 case gave ‘Vishakha guidelines’.
• These guidelines formed the basis for the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
• Prevention and Prohibition: The Act places a legal obligation on employers to prevent and prohibit sexual harassment in the workplace.
• Internal Complaints Committee (ICC): Employers are required to constitute an ICC at each workplace with 10 or more employees to receive and address complaints of sexual harassment.

• India is no Europe, and this seems especially true in the face of a task such as drafting and conceptualising a data protection law for over 1.4 billion Indians. The European Union’s (EU) data protection law, i.e., the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), came into force in the middle of 2018 and achieved widespread popularity as arguably the most comprehensive data privacy law in the world.
• In its scope and definition, the DPDP Bill only protects personal data, that is any data that has the potential to directly or indirectly identify an individual.
• A simple and effective solution — as in the earlier versions — would be to add a penal provision in the Bill that provides for financial penalties on data-processing entities for the re-identification of non-personal data into personal data.
• Another gap is the inability of the proposed data protection board to initiate a proceeding of its own accord. Under the Bill, the board is the authority that is entrusted with enforcing the law. The board can only institute a proceeding for adjudication if someone affected makes a complaint to it, or the government or a court directs it to do so.
• Justice K. S. Puttaswamy (Retd) vs Union of India 2017:
• In August 2017, a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court in Justice K. S. Puttaswamy (Retd) Vs Union of India unanimously held that Indians have a constitutionally protected fundamental right to privacy that is an intrinsic part of life and liberty under Article 21.
• N. Srikrishna Committee 2017:

• Government appointed a committee of experts for Data protection under the chairmanship of Justice B N Srikrishna in August 2017, that submitted its report in July 2018 along with a draft Data Protection Bill.
• The Report has a wide range of recommendations to strengthen privacy law in India including restrictions on processing and collection of data, Data Protection Authority, right to be forgotten, data localisation etc.

• Among the most important pieces of legislation slated to be tabled in the current monsoon session of Parliament is the National Research Foundation (NRF) Bill, 2023. While a draft is not in the public domain, it envisages a new, centralised body to fund research, with a budget of ₹50,000 crore, over the next five years.
• However, the NRF’s plan, going by public statements of administrators, is to draw the bulk of its budget — ₹36,000 crore — from the private sector.
• For many years, India’s spending on research has lagged between 0.6%-0.8% of GDP, or lower than the 1%-2% spent by countries with an economic base reliant on science and technology. In countries such as China, the U.S. and Israel, the private sector contributed nearly 70% of the research expenditure whereas in India, this was only about 36% of India’s total research expenditure — roughly ₹1.2 lakh crore — in 2019-20.
• What are the features of NRF Bill, 2023?
• NRF – The bill will establish National Research Foundation as an apex body.
• SERB – The bill will repeal the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), a statutory body that was established in 2008 to promote basic research in Science and Engineering and to provide financial assistance to persons engaged in R&D.
• SERB will be subsumed into NRF which has an expanded mandate and covers activities over and above the activities of SERB.

• Delimitation is the process of redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha and State Assembly constituencies based on a recent Census to ensure that each seat has an almost equal number of voters.
• The last delimitation exercise took place in 1976.
• While the current boundaries were drawn on the basis of the 2001 Census, the number of Lok Sabha and State Assembly seats remained frozen on the basis of the 1971 Census.
• In 2002, the Constitution was amended to place a freeze on the exercise until the first Census conducted after the year 2026.
• 42nd Amendment Act of 1976 froze the allocation of seats in the Lok Sabha to the states and the division of each state into territorial constituencies till the year 2000 at the 1971 level.
• The 84th Amendment Act of 2001 empowered the government to undertake readjustment and rationalisation of territorial constituencies in the states on the basis of the population figures of 1991 census.
• The 87th Amendment Act of 2003 provided for the delimitation of constituencies on the basis of 2001 census and not 1991 census.
• However, this can be done without altering the number of seats allotted to each state in the Lok Sabha.
• Constitutional Provisions:
• Under Article 82, the Parliament enacts a Delimitation Act after every Census.
• Under Article 170, States also get divided into territorial constituencies as per Delimitation Act after every Census.
• The Delimitation Commission Act was enacted in 1952.
• The Delimitation Commission is appointed by the President of India and works in collaboration with the Election Commission of India (ECI).
• Delimitation Commissions have been set up four times — 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002 under the Acts of 1952, 1962, 1972 and 2002.
• The first delimitation exercise was carried out by the President (with the help of the Election Commission) in 1950-51.

• Parliament of India:
• It is the supreme legislative body of India. The Indian Parliament comprises the President and the two Houses – Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and Lok Sabha (House of the People).
• The President has the power to summon and prorogue either House of Parliament or to dissolve Lok Sabha.
• Convening a session of Parliament:
• The power to convene a session of Parliament rests with the government.
• The decision is taken by the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs.
• The committee currently comprises ministers, including those for Defence, Home, Finance, and Law.
• The decision of the Committee is formalised by the President, in whose name MPs are summoned to meet for a session.
• Three sessions of Parliament:
• India does not have a fixed parliamentary calendar. By convention, Parliament meets for three sessions in a year.

Summoning of Parliament:

• Summoning is the process of calling all members of the Parliament to meet. The President summons each House of the Parliament from time to time. The gap between two sessions of the Parliament cannot exceed 6 months, which means the Parliament meets at least two times in one year.

Adjournment:

• Adjournment terminates the sitting of the House which meets again at the time appointed for the next sitting. The postponement may be for a specified time such as hours, days or weeks. If the meeting is terminated without any definite time/ date fixed for the next meeting, it is called Adjournment sine die.

Prorogation:

• Prorogation is the end of a session. A prorogation puts an end to a session. The time between the Prorogation and reassembly is called Recess. Prorogation is the end of session and not the dissolution of the house (in case of Lok Sabha, as Rajya Sabha does not dissolve).

Quorum:

• Quorum refers to the minimum number of the members required to be present for conducting a meeting of the house. The Constitution has fixed one-tenth strength as quorum for both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Thus, to conduct a sitting of Lok Sabha, there should be at least 55 members present while to conduct a sitting of Rajya Sabha, there should be at least 25 members present.

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