The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 8 August 2023

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis for UPSC

The Hindu Newspaper Analysis 7 August 2023

Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on Monday announced in open court that the Supreme Court would appoint an all-woman committee of three former High Court judges, headed by Justice Gita Mittal, former Chief Justice of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court, to provide a “healing touch” in violence-torn Manipur.
Justice Shalini Phansalkar Joshi, a retired Bombay High Court judge, and Justice Asha Menon, a former Delhi High Court judge, will be the members of the committee.
“This will be a broad-based committee which will be constituted to supervise, intervene and monitor relief and rehabilitation, restoration of homesteads, religious places of worships, better relief work, etc.,” Chief Justice Chandrachud, heading a three-judge Bench, said.

The Hindu Editorial Today

What is Article 239AA of the Constitution?

Article 239 AA was inserted in the Constitution by The Constitution (69^thAmendment) Act, 1991 to give Special Status to Delhi following the recommendations of the S Balakrishnan Committee that was set up to look into demands for statehood for Delhi.
- It says that the NCT of Delhi will have an Administrator and a Legislative Assembly.
- Subject to the provisions of the Constitution, the Legislative Assembly “shall have power to make laws for the whole or any part of the NCT with respect to any of the matters in the State List or Concurrent List in so far as any such matter is applicable to Union territories” except on the subject of police, public order, and land.
Further, the Article 239AA also notes that L-G has to either act on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers, or he is bound to implement the decision taken by the President on a reference being made by him.
Also, Article 239AA, empowers the L-G to refer a difference of opinion on ‘any matter’ with the Council of Ministers to the President.
Thus, this dual control between L-G and the elected government leads to a power tussle.

Background of the Issue:

The Delhi government and Lieutenant Governor have been in a legal battle since 2015 over control of “services” in Delhi.
The Supreme Court gave a split verdict in 2019, and a five-judge Constitution Bench recently (May 2023) granted more powers to the Delhi government over services. It ordered that the Delhi government will have control over administrative services other than matters related to public order, police, and land.
To counter it, the central government passed the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023. The ordinance excluded “services” from the purview of the Delhi legislature and conferred LG with more powers.
The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, the Centre’s ordinance on the control of services in the capital, was passed in Lok Sabha on Thursday.
The Centre on May 19 had promulgated the ordinance which creates the authority for the transfer and postings of Group A officers in Delhi.
The ordinance was brought in days after the Supreme Court had ruled that Delhi’s elected government has control over services except in matters of law and order, police and land.
The bill establishes the National Capital Civil Services Authority (NCCSA) which will make recommendations to the LG, who is appointed by the Union government.
The NCCSA will include the chief minister who will serve as the chairperson, the principal home secretary of Delhi, who will serve as the member secretary and the chief secretary of Delhi, who will serve as member.
Both the principal home secretary and chief secretary will be appointed by the central government.

More than four months after his disqualification as a member of the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday returned to Parliament after the Lok Sabha Secretariat restored his membership, following the Supreme Court stay on his conviction by a Surat court in a defamation case.
With Mr. Gandhi’s reinstatement coming a day before the Lok Sabha takes up the no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government on Tuesday, he could be initiating the debate.

Q) With reference to anti-defection law in India, consider the following statements:

The law specifies that a nominated legislator cannot join any political party within six months of being appointed to the House.
The law does not provide any time-frame within which the presiding officer has to decide a defection case.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (2022)

1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2

Q.2) Which one of the following Schedules of the Constitution of India contains provisions regarding anti-defection? (2014)

Second Schedule
Fifth Schedule
Eighth Schedule
Tenth Schedule

Q.3) Consider the following statements: (2020)

According to the Constitution of India, a person who is eligible to vote can be made a minister in a State for six months even if he/she is not a member of the Legislature of that State.
According to the Representation of People Act, 1951, a person convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to imprisonment for five years is permanently disqualified from contesting an election even after his release from prison.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2

‘Changes unseen in a Century’ is one of the underlying principles of ‘Xi Jinping Thought’. This presupposes that the struggle for future dominance revolves around not merely military security but also technological, cultural, as also biological aspects, and that given China’s rise, accelerated by technology and shaped by its economic strength and demographic potential, its success is inevitable.
The current crop of Chinese leaders believes that ongoing threats to China, however, remain and that the main threat comes from the United States.
The war in Ukraine, talk of an increasing divide between democracies and autocracies, the forging of new security partnerships such as the AUKUS (Australia, the United Kingdom and the U.S.) and the Quad ( Australia, India, Japan and the U.S.) were all symptoms of this malaise

The right to privacy was reaffirmed by a nine-judge Constitutional bench of the Supreme Court in 2017. It set an international benchmark and illustrated the new challenges to the right to privacy posed by the digital age. The DPDP Bill 2023, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha last week, is an outcome of the debate around the right to privacy.
The right to information provides us access to government documents to ensure transparency and accountability of the government.

Broadly speaking, the right to information seeks to make the government transparent to us, while the right to privacy is meant to protect us from government (and increasingly, private) intrusions into our lives.
In Europe, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) set a high standard for data protection.

Late last month, researchers in South Korea announced — via two preprint papers uploaded to the arXiv repository — that they had found a material they called LK-99 to be a superconductor at room temperature and ambient pressure.
Scientists have been looking for such a material for decades now — a substance that can carry an electric current with zero losses. A not insignificant amount of electric current is lost today during transmission between a power plant and the point of consumption.
A room-temperature superconductor would also bring considerable gains for heavy industrial and research applications, including medical diagnostics, mass spectrometers, nuclear reactor designs, and particle colliders. But has the South Korean group really found such a thing?
What does the Claim on Discovery of LK-99 Suggest?
Exploring Apatite Materials: The South Korean group’s discovery involved a rather unexpected material called apatite.
Apatites are minerals with a phosphate scaffold in a tetrahedral or pyramidal motif(one phosphorus atom is surrounded by four oxygen atoms).
The scientists started with lead apatite and substituted some of the lead atoms with copper, resulting in copper-substituted lead apatite, which they named LK-99.
Evidence of Superconductivity: The group reported that at 10% copper substitution, LK-99 exhibited the characteristics of a superconductor.
The material also maintained superconductivity in the presence of an external magnetic field, up to a certain critical threshold, a behavior consistent with known superconductors.
What are Superconductors?
About:
Superconductors are materials that exhibit zero electrical resistance when cooled to extremely low temperatures. This property allows them to conduct electricity with no loss of energy.
Example: Lanthanum-Barium-Copper Oxide, Yttrium-Barium-Copper Oxide, Niobium-Tin etc.
Discovery:
In 1911 Kamerlingh Onnes discovered that the electrical resistance of mercury completely disappeared at temperatures a few degrees above absolute zero.
The phenomenon became known as superconductivity.

One batch of COLD OUT — paracetamol and chlorpheniramine combination syrups used to treat symptoms of the common cold and allergy — manufactured by Fourrts India for Dabilife Pharma Private Limited has been reported to the World Health Organization (by a third party) as substandard or contaminated.
The sample was found to contain unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol (0.25%) and ethylene glycol (2.1%) as contaminants.
The acceptable safety limit for both ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol is no more than 0.10%,” it said, adding that to date, the stated manufacturer and the marketer have not provided guarantees to WHO on the safety and quality of the product.
Ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol are toxic alcohols with a slightly sweet taste.
Contamination of cough syrups with these glycols can occur, especially in products containing paracetamol.
In addition to its use in antifreeze, ethylene glycol is used as an ingredient in hydraulic fluids, printing inks, and paint solvents and diethylene glycol is used in the commercial preparation of antifreeze, brake fluid, cigarettes, and some dyes.

The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 :

The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules 1945 have entrusted various responsibilities to central and state regulators for regulation of drugs and cosmetics.
It provides the regulatory guidelines for issuing licenses to manufacture Ayurvedic, Siddha, Unani medicines.
It is mandatory for the manufacturers to adhere to the prescribed requirements for licensing of manufacturing units & medicines including proof of safety & effectiveness, compliance with the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP).

Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation(CDSCO):

The CDSCO is the Central Drug Authority for discharging functions assigned to the Central Government under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.
Major Functions:
Regulatory control over the import of drugs, approval of new drugs and clinical trials.
Approval of certain licences as Central Licence Approving Authority.

More than 3,000 U.S. military personnel have arrived in the Red Sea aboard two warships, part of a beefed-up response from Washington after tanker seizures by Iran, the U.S. Navy said on Monday.
The deployment adds to a growing U.S. military buildup in tense Gulf waterways vital to the global oil trade and led Tehran on Monday to accuse the U.S. of inflaming regional instability.
The U.S. military says Iran has either seized or attempted to take control of nearly 20 internationally flagged ships in the region over the past two years.
The U.S. sailors and Marines entered the Red Sea on Sunday after transiting through the Suez Canal in a pre-announced deployment, the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet said in a statement.

he Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2023, passed by India’s Parliament, aims to attract private sector investment in exploring critical and deep-seated minerals in the country.
The Bill puts six minerals, including lithium — used in electric vehicle batteries and other energy storage solutions — into a list of “critical and strategic” minerals. The exploration and mining of these six minerals, previously classified as atomic minerals, were restricted to government-owned entities.
critical minerals such as lithium, which has also been called ‘white gold’, and others including cobalt, graphite, and rare earth elements (REEs).
or instance, China has majority ownership of cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 70% of the world’s cobalt is mined. China also has by far the largest amount of reserves of REEs of any country in the world, followed by Vietnam, Brazil and Russia.
For instance, as per figures quoted by the Ministry, India is 100% import-dependent on countries including China, Russia, Australia, South Africa, and the U.S. for the supply of critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, niobium, beryllium, and tantalum.
For instance, in 2022-23, India imported close to 12 lakh tonnes of copper (and its concentrates) worth over ₹ 27,000 crore as per official figures.
The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act (MMDR Act), 1957, the primary legislation governing mining in the country has been amended several times since its enactment including recently in 2015, 2020, and 2021.