aditya
16:05
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Friday, October 21, 2022
Thursday, October 20, 2022
Daily Current Affairs, 20th October 2022
aditya
18:11
1) World Osteoporosis Day 2022 observed on 20th October
•World osteoporosis day is a global healthcare event observed every year on 20 October. The day is observed to promote the early diagnosis of osteoporosis, its treatment and preventive tips for strong bones. The campaigns are mainly focused on encouraging people to take preventative measures for their bone health to avoid any risk of osteoporosis and associated complications in the future.
2) World Statistics Day 2022 celebrates on 20 October
•World Statistics Day 2022 is celebrated annually on October 20th to recognize the importance of statistics in our daily lives. The United Nations Statistical Commission has been at the forefront of advocating for the use of statistics to track progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Good data and statistics are essential for effective planning, monitoring and evaluation of progress towards the SDGs.
World Statistics Day 2022: Theme
•The theme of Statistics Day, 2022 is “Data for Sustainable Development”. On this occasion, MoSPI also recognizes the outstanding contribution through high-quality research in the field of applied and theoretical statistics benefiting the official statistical system through awards instituted for this purpose.
3) International Chef’s Day 2022 celebrates on 20th October
•Every year on October 20th, International Chefs Day is observed to honour the culinary masters who have protected the value of food and are passing on the same message to future generations. This day celebrates the culinary arts and recognizes the hard work and dedication that chefs put into their craft. If you know a chef, be sure to thank them for their delicious creations. And if you’re a chef yourself, take pride in knowing that your skills are appreciated by people all over the world!
International Chef’s Day 2022: Theme
•The theme for this year is “Growing A Healthy Future.” The idea behind this theme is to ensure a healthy and sustainable planet for future generations. This can happen when we teach them the value of food and its impact on the environment.
4) PM Modi launched Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Urvarak Pariyojana
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Urvarak Pariyojana-One Nation One Fertiliser. Under the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Urvarak Pariyojana, companies must market all subsidized fertilizers under a single brand, ‘Bharat’.
5) UIDAI topped Grievance Redressal Index for second consecutive month
•The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which oversees Aadhaar, has once again topped the September rankings report published by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), for resolving most public grievances among all government ministries and government departments. This is the second consecutive month UIDAI has topped the rankings.
6) Mallikarjun Kharge Elected As The New Congress President
•Veteran Karnataka leader Mallikarjun Kharge defeated his rival Shashi Tharoor to become the first non-Gandhi Congress president in 24 years, and the first Scheduled Caste chief of the grand old organization in four decades. Kharge polled 7897 of the 9385 votes cast while Tharoor garnered a meagre 1072. Sources said 416 votes were invalid.
7) United Nations Secretary General on India’s Visit
•United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Mumbai, India on October 19 on a three-day official visit. This is his first visit to India, since he assumed his second term in office in January this year.
8) Hardeep Puri inaugurated Asia’s largest Compressed Bio Gas plant
•Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri has inaugurated Asia’s largest Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) plant in Lehragaga, in Sangrur, Punjab. The plant in Sangrur is just the beginning of India’s master plan for a CBG-based rural economy and the government is taking all steps to promote the ecosystem around it.
•The plant has been commissioned with a foreign direct investment of approximately Rs. 220 crores by Verbio AG, one of Germany’s leading bio-energy companies. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and senior management from Verbio India Private Limited were also present at the inaugural ceremony.
The HINDU Notes – 20th October 2022
aditya
17:53
📰 Centre to promote destinations in 15 States as part of Swadesh Darshan 2
•Prayagraj, Chitrakoot, and Gwalior are among the cities identified in 15 States across the country to be promoted as part of India’s new domestic tourism policy which moves away from theme-based tourist circuits and focuses on revving up destination tourism.
•The initiative is being taken as part of the first phase of the ‘Swadesh Darshan 2’ which will be kicked off in January.
•Fifteen States are part of the first phase which include Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra. Two destinations from each State have been identified, sources in the Ministry of Tourism told The Hindu.
•Some of the prominent places identified are Jhansi and Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, Gwalior, Chitrakoot and Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh and Ajanta and Ellora in Maharashtra.
•The sources said the destinations had been zeroed in on after consultations with the State Tourism Departments, and the Centre was now waiting for approval from Tourism Minister G. Kishan Reddy. The Swadesh Darshan scheme is 100% centrally funded. The scheme has been revamped with the mantra of “vocal for local”, a top official of the Tourism Ministry told The Hindu adding that it was essentially aimed at targeting domestic tourists.
•The Swadesh Darshan Scheme was launched by the Centre in 2014-15 for the integrated development of theme-based tourist circuits. Under the scheme, the Ministry of Tourism provides financial assistance to State governments, Union Territory Administrations or Central Agencies for development of tourism infrastructure in the country.
•From December, the revamped scheme would be launched which seeks to enhance the contribution of tourism.
•“To create jobs including self-employment for local communities, to enhance the skills of local youth in tourism and hospitality, to increase private sector investment in tourism and hospitality and to preserve and enhance local cultural and natural resources,” the vision document said.
•According to the third Tourism Satellite Account for 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20, the contribution of tourism to the employment is 14.78%, 14.87% and 15.34%, respectively.
📰 The politics of the madrasa survey
•The Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to undertake a survey of madrasas has raised serious concerns not just over the fate of these institutions but also on the future of Muslim identity. Other BJP-ruled States have also expressed concerns about madrasas. In May, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the word ‘madrasa’ should cease to exist. In September, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhammi said his State would also conduct a survey of madrasas, like Uttar Pradesh. The stated reason is to check the availability of basic facilities for the students. Responding to this, Maulana Arshad Madani, head of the Darul Uloom Deoband, appealed to Ulemas in charge of various madrasas to cooperate in the survey, taking the stated logic of governance at face value.
•In politics, the logic of governance has always been a handy tool to achieve ideological objectives. This was the case in the 1905 Bengal Partition and, as some may argue, during the 2014 general election campaign. The ideological aspect of this survey will become clear only after the survey is completed and various political parties respond to its outcomes. What strands of majoritarianism inspired the survey? Is the survey motivated by prejudice towards Muslims? Whatever the answer, madrasas have become a new battlefront between the Hindu Right and Indian Muslims, and the survey has the potential to offer material that could shape Muslim identity.
Views about madrasas
•In India, two arguments are often made about madrasas. The first is that Muslims are economically backward because most of them are educated in madrasas. The second argument is that madrasas are nurseries of radical Islam. This view gained momentum globally after the 9/11 attack. The response of the Western states, or the War on Terror, was formulated based on this argument. Despite the fact that the al-Qaeda failed to attract Indian Muslims, the Indian political class was swayed by this view of madrasas. The most surprising endorsement of this view came from former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in 2002.
•The Sachar Committee Report (2006) demolished both these arguments with robust empirical evidence. It found that only 3% of Muslim children of school-going age go to madrasas at the national level. It also drew a distinction between madrasas and maktabs. Maktabs are neighbourhood schools, often attached to mosques. They offer religious education to children who attend other schools to get mainstream education. The share of Muslims who attend madrasas and maktabs is not more than 6.3%, the report said. The report’s most crucial observation was that Muslims are aspirational. Muslim parents are eager to see their children enrolled in modern education institutions, but often fail to do so owing to their poor financial condition. The report therefore recommended that scholarships be given to Muslim students so that they don’t drop out of school. This was even implemented by some BJP-ruled States such as Madhya Pradesh, but not by the then Gujarat government. Such scholarships have made a difference, say some researchers, though scholars have expressed concerns over the lack of commitment of various national governments, including the United Progressive Alliance governments that helped formulate the report, in implementing the committee’s recommendations.
A policy for Muslims
•It is clear that the governments of Uttar Pradesh, Assam or Uttarakhand have little appreciation for these findings. One BJP leader dismissed the Sachar report as an act of appeasement. Curiously, the authors of the Sachar Committee report deliberately chose to stay away from discussions over party politics or issues of secularism or communalism and the implications of these for the welfare of Muslims. They pretended as if no causal relationship exists between ideology and development. The politics that is expected to follow the madrasa survey will highlight how crucial this relationship is, and how utopian the authors of the Sachar report were in hoping that they could frame a policy for Muslims outside the framework of secularism and communalism.
•Madrasas have a long and complex history. In the post-mutiny period, they emerged mainly to help save Muslim identity in the face of growing colonial interventions, which they suspected might impose Christian values on fellow Muslims. Madrasas, particularly Deoband, chose not to seek state support because they suspected that the colonial state, among others, would eventually expect them to produce “loyal subjects for the British Crown” as became the case with Aligarh Muslim University. So, they sought autonomy. Deoband took a political stand and fiercely resisted Partition. While there are issues concerning madrasas and modernity, particularly with regard to issues such as patriarchy and child rights, some of which were raised by the Sachar Committee, to have any state intervention inspired by Islamophobic views will only help deepen majoritarianism.
📰 Held up by the Chinese
Why does China keep blocking the names India suggests for listing under the United Nations Security Council’s list of terrorists who are affiliated to the Al Qaeda and ISIS? Which was the most recent event? What is the mandate of the 1267 Committee that was set up in 1999 by the United Nations?
•China placed a “hold” on a joint India-U.S. proposal, to designate Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Shahid Mehmood under the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) 1267 list of terrorists affiliated to Al Qaeda and ISIS.
•When asked by The Hindu in August this year for a reason for the persistent “holds” on India’s requests for various terror listings, Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong said they needed “some time to study these specific cases, but that doesn’t mean China has changed its position on counter-terrorism cooperation efforts.”
•Since the Mumbai attacks in 2008, India has tried a number of different ways to build international consensus on cross-border terrorism, and the UNSC terror listings have been one such route.
The story so far:
•On Wednesday, China placed a “hold” on a joint India-U.S. proposal, to designate Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Shahid Mehmood under the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) 1267 list of terrorists affiliated to Al Qaeda and ISIS. The hold marked the fourth time China had attempted to block a listing move by India and the U.S. in the past four months.
What does “placing a hold” mean?
•The 1267 committee that was set up in 1999 (updated in 2011 and 2015) allows any UN member state to propose adding the name of a terrorist or terror group to a consolidated list, maintained by the Committee, that has affiliations to Al Qaeda and ISIS. India has successfully proposed the listing of several terror entities in the past two decades, including Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba. According to the rules, once a listing is proposed, it will be adopted into the list according to a “no-objections” procedure: which means, if any member of the Committee, which comprises all members of the UN Security Council, places a hold on the listing or objects outright to it, the listing cannot be adopted. As a permanent member of the UNSC, China can do this any number of times as its term doesn’t run out, and it carries a veto vote.
•The Committee is bound to resolve all such pending issues within six months, but can allow extensions, meaning that technically at the end of the six-month period, the “holding” country has to decide whether to accept the listing or place a permanent objection to it. However, in practice, many of the listing proposals have had prolonged waits.
What are the reasons China has given for holding the listings?
•Since 2001, China has placed holds on a number of listing proposals relating mainly to Pakistan-based groups and their leaders, given the close bilateral ties between the two countries. Most notable was China’s objections to the listing of JeM founder Masood Azhar. Azhar was released from prison by India in 1999 and handed over to terrorists in return for hostages onboard Indian Airlines flight IC-814, which should have left little doubt about Azhar’s own status as a terrorist. While the JeM was listed at the UNSC in 2001, and Azhar was mentioned as the group’s founder, he wasn’t designated for several years. Even after the Parliament attack and the Mumbai 26/11 attacks, China kept placing a hold on the UNSC terror listing proposals for him: in 2009, 2010, 2016-18, claiming it had “inadequate information” on Masood Azhar’s terror activities. In May 2019, three months after the Pulwama attacks that were traced to the JeM, China finally withdrew its hold.
•When asked by The Hindu in August this year for a reason for the persistent “holds” on India’s requests for various terror listings, Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong said they needed “some time to study these specific cases, but that doesn’t mean China has changed its position on counter-terrorism cooperation efforts.” In addition, it is possible that China objects to the listing proposals being brought by a group of countries, especially the joint proposals by India and the U.S. rather than by India alone, but has never given any comprehensive reason for the holds. At the UNSC meet in August, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ruchira Khamboj had called for an end to the practice of placing holds and blocks on listing requests “without giving any justification”. “It is most regrettable that genuine and evidence-based listing proposals pertaining to some of the most notorious terrorists in the world are being placed on hold. Double standards and continuing politicisation have rendered the credibility of the sanctions regime at an all-time low.”
Does India have options?
•Since the Mumbai attacks in 2008, India has tried a number of different ways to build international consensus on cross-border terrorism, and the UNSC terror listings have been one such route. While China has blocked many of the listings, there are hundreds of names of terrorists and entities in Pakistan that pose a threat to India. As a UN member state, Pakistan has an obligation under the sanctions to block access for all designated entities to funds, arms and travel outside its jurisdiction.
•This is something India has also pursued with the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, where Pakistan was placed on a “grey list” due to its inability to curb terror financing and money laundering from 2012-2015 and 2018-2022. While Pakistan is likely to be taken off that list this week, it has had to carry out several actions against terror entities on its soil, and will continue to be under scrutiny.
•Finally, India and the U.S. have built their own separate list of “most wanted” terrorists that document the cases against them, with a view to eventually receiving global cooperation on banning them.
📰 A new lease of LIFE for climate action
Wednesday, October 19, 2022
Daily Current Affairs, 19th October 2022
aditya
17:40
1) PM Kisan Samman Sammelan 2022 Launched by PM Modi
•PM Kisan Samman Sammelan 2022 Launched: The PM Kisan Samman Sammelan 2022 will be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi. More than 13,500 farmers from all around the country and about 1,500 agri entrepreneurs are expected to attend the two-day event.
2) Union Cabinet Approves MSP Hike for All Mandated Rabi Crops
•The Union Cabinet approved an increase in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all Rabi Crops for the Marketing Season 2023-24. The highest increase has been cleared for lentils with a hike of 500 rupees per quintal. The MSP on wheat has been hiked by 110 rupees and barley by 100 rupees.
3) ‘SARANG – The Festival of India in Republic of Korea’
•The 8th edition of annual flagship cultural program of Embassy of India, Seoul ‘SARANG– The Festival of India in Republic of Korea’ will be held from Sept. 30 through Oct. 14, 2022 in offline mode at various locations across the country after a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19 pandemic.
4) Pakistan May Take Out off FATF Grey List
•Pakistan is likely to exit the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) after it was placed in the infamous category since 2018 for failing to check money laundering and terrorist financing, a media report said.
5) 22nd World Blockchain Summit Begins in Dubai
•World Blockchain Summit in Dubai is taking place on Oct. 17 and 18, 2022 at Atlantis, The Palm. It is one of the most elite gatherings of the global crypto and blockchain ecosystem. The 22nd global edition of the World Blockchain Summit will bring together some of the world’s leading crypto influencers, policymakers, key government delegates, media, family offices, HNIs and other curated investors, among others, to foster the crypto and blockchain community across the globe.
6) Dr Prashant Garg elected as member of Academia Ophthalmological Internationalis
•Dr Prashant Garg, executive chair, L V Prasad Eye Institute, has been elected as a ‘Member’ of the prestigious Academia Ophthalmological Internationalis (AOI). Dr Garg becomes the fifth from India to ever receive this honour. His tenure as a Member of Academia Ophthalmological Internationalis will formally commence next year during AOI’s next General Assembly meeting.
7) Kaustubh Kulkarni elevated as JP Morgan India head
•JP Morgan has announced the appointment of its new Country Head of India, Kaustubh Kulkarni. Madhav Kalyan the current country head of India will be serving in the Asia Pacific Payments Division from 1st November 2022. Kaustubh Kulkarni is currently serving as the head of investment banking in JP Morgan India and also as the Vice-chair of Asia Pacific for the bank and also as the co-head of investment banking for Southeast Asia.
8) ICAS Bharati Das named as the new Controller General of Accounts
•The governement of India has appointed Bharati Das, an officer of the Indian Civil Accounts Service of the 1988 batch, as the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance. She is the 27th Controller General of Accounts, Ministry of Finance.
9) Former Infosys President Ravi Kumar joins Cognizant
•Former Infosys president Ravi Kumar S, who resigned from the Bengaluru-based IT company last week, is joining as president of Cognizant Americas. Kumar will take on the position from January 16, 2023, and will be reporting directly to Brian Humphries, chief executive officer (CEO) of Cognizant. Kumar succeeds Dharmendra Kumar Sinha who retired from Cognizant last year. At present, Sinha is the president of the public cloud business unit in Rackspace Technology. Surya Gummadi will continue to hold the post of interim president for Cognizant Americas till Kumar joins, after which he will move to lead Cognizant’s $5-billion health sciences business.
•In 2015, Kumar was one of the two presidents appointed by Infosys, and served in that position for almost seven years. He had been with Infosys for 20 years. Cognizant has also announced the appointment of former Bain executive Prasad Sankaran as head of the software and platform engineering (SPE) service line.
10) IRS officer Sahil Seth launches his book ‘A confused mind story’
•Indian Revenue Service (IRS) Joint Commissioner GST, Custom & Narcotics and youth influencer, Sahil Seth launched his book titled ‘A confused Mind story’. The book was launched and the first look was Unveiled in the presence of Union Health Minister Sh Mansukh L Mandaviya.
•The book was published by Blue Rose publication house, one of the top fiction, nonfiction, and poetry book publishers in India. The book is based on the contrast between the spiritual and material world. The book depicts the answers behind the confusion of the common man in day¬to¬day life and explains the rationale behind the meaning of life and belief system.
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aditya
13:39
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The HINDU Notes – 19th October 2022
aditya
13:33
📰 Giraffes brought to India by British may belong to endangered species
•About 150 years ago, British colonialists brought batches of what they thought were a single species of the northern giraffe to India, from their other colonial possessions in Africa. These now comprise a captive population of 29 northern giraffes across the country.
•A recent genealogical study of the largest captive herd in India at the Alipore Zoological Garden in Kolkata has confirmed that the giraffes in this facility, at least, are most likely “critically endangered” Nubian giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis camelopardalis) or the endangered Rothschild giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi).
•Speaking to The Hindu, R. Sanil, Associate Professor, Molecular Biology Laboratory, Government Arts College, Udhagamandalam, where dung samples of the 10 giraffes from Kolkata were analysed, said that the Nubian giraffes are believed to be among three sub-species of the northern giraffe, according to a whole genome sequencing study conducted in 2021. He pointed out that there were giraffes in captivity in Mysuru, Chennai, Patna, Guwahati, and Hyderabad, and it was imperative to identify their species too.
•A genetic distance analysis of the giraffes in Alipore showed that they were most closely related to Nubian and Rothschild giraffes. “As both the Nubian and Rothschild giraffes are listed as ‘critically endangered’ and ‘endangered’ by the IUCN [respectively], we think it’s imperative that the Central Zoo Authority conducts further studies of giraffes in captivity so that the species are not interbred with each other and the giraffes’ germplasm is preserved,” Mr. Sanil added.
•Sulekha J. Backer, research scholar and one of the lead authors of the paper titled ‘Captive giraffes in Alipore Zoological Garden, Kolkata are Nubian!’, said “stud-books” maintained in zoos across India had little to no information on where the giraffes brought from Africa had been captured; so the only way to identify the species would be through a mitochondrial gene study.
📰 The dire need to talk about 1962
•“Failure is a great teacher” is a truism. Subsequent discussion on this quote leads one through the ‘enlightenment’ that accrues to those who engage in an honest, open and no-holds-barred conversation on what went wrong; they learn from the misadventure and come out stronger. “Events that have brought joy or an accomplishment that has enriched an individual or a group are readily remembered, celebrated and commemorated publicly. But a synonym for commemoration is ‘observe’. Hence, we as a nation commemorated the golden jubilee of the 1965 India-Pakistan war, while the celebration of the golden jubilee of the 1971 war, that saw the birth of Bangladesh, was commemorated with pan-India seminars, symposia, discussions, television debates and exhibitions. Yet, with just a day before the 60th observance of a dark moment in the history of our young nation, the 1962 India-China war (it began on October 20), there is no indication of its observance in which India lost so many of its brave men — (as in one report) 1,383 soldiers killed, 1,047 wounded, 1,696 missing and over 400 prisoners of war with the Chinese.
The main issues
•Let us pause for a moment in tribute to those brave sons; but, thereafter, let us discuss what went so terribly wrong. Did those Indians die in vain? Were there any bright sparks in those 30 days (October 20 – November 20, 1962) which can give us solace? So, let the discourse be about five issues that I can distill from various accounts about the war.
•First, is the international standing of the national leadership in world fora any index to the ‘power’ of a nation? Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the builder of modern India, was a champion too in the eyes of the newly independent countries in Asia and Africa and was feted by the West. But misguided optimism in the ephemeral ‘moral’ superiority and peaceful intentions of the Chinese leadership resulted in an enfeebled Indian Army that was ill-prepared and ill-equipped to face the realities of hard power.
•Second, an underestimation of the strength of the Indian Air Force (IAF) resulted in its offensive fleet not being used; all writings indicate that the use of fighter aircraft would have been a game changer especially since the Chinese air force was severely operationally handicapped due the high altitude of the airfields from which its aircraft would have had to operate.
A lop-sided equation
•Third, the lop-sided power equation between the political, bureaucratic and military top brass was responsible for many ills as there was micro-management of events from the top — why was it that the Army top brass was not strong enough to stand up to the political interference in affairs that were purely military?
•Fourth, what lessons can be drawn from the stellar performance of the Indian jawan on the front? The stories of Major Shaitan Singh and many others are legendary. But what is not talked about is the unheralded, unsung and back-breaking work put in by the transport and helicopter aircrew of the IAF. They flew troops and equipment round the clock, into primitive advanced landing grounds and helipads and brought back casualties with aircraft such as the Mi-4 helicopters and Otter light transporters overloaded beyond one’s wildest imagination. To give the hard-worked pilots some rest, young fighter aircrew flew as co-pilots; they were handed over controls after take-off while the captains got some sleep till just before landing.
•And last, while the frontline war fighter lived up to his credo, why did senior military leadership in the field wilt when asked to deliver what was expected of their rank and position?
Begin the review
•This article has been written in hindsight. This advantage needs to be channelised into knowledge and wisdom that should be imparted to young field grade and mid-level officers, both civil and military. But there is an appeal. Can the politicians join in too, for it is their leadership that modulates events that follow years and decades later? So, it can start with the Government opening up documents that are still classified, which includes the Henderson Brooks-Bhagat report. The war colleges of the three services, the Defence Services Staff College (Wellington, Tamil Nadu) and the National Defence College (Delhi), need to delve into what transpired during that fateful period. The media too should debate this. This is the least we can do to honour those brave Indians and to observe the 60th year of an event that is a black spot on our collective conscience. And, even as the nation rejoices in India’s victories that came after that dark period, the young in this great nation must know the truth about the 1962 war. It is a part of our history. Let us talk about 1962.
📰 Whose pleasure?
The Constitution has no provision for a Governor to sack Ministers
•Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan’s indirect threat that he can independently dismiss Ministers is neither in keeping with the dignity of his office nor in line with the Constitution. His claim that “statements of individual ministers that lower the dignity of the Governor’s office can invite action including withdrawal of pleasure” has no basis in the constitutional system. Article 164 of the Constitution, which says the Chief Minister shall be appointed by the Governor and other Ministers shall be appointed by the Governor on the Chief Minister’s advice, adds that “the Ministers shall hold office during the pleasure of the Governor”. There have been instances of Governors dismissing Chief Ministers, but those were related to constitutional situations in which the legislative majority of the incumbent ministry was in doubt. It is also now judicially determined that the question of majority can be answered only on the floor of the legislature through a confidence vote. Nothing in the Article means that the Governor may independently dismiss a Minister. The pleasure doctrine exists only in a constitutional sense, and is exercised by the Governor only on the advice of the Chief Minister. In other words, the term ‘pleasure of the Governor’ is used as a euphemism to refer to the Chief Minister’s power to drop a Minister from the Council of Ministers.
•The context for this particular confrontation appears to be the Governor’s reluctance to grant assent to the Kerala University Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2022. Higher Education Minister R. Bindu’s remark that the Governor should return the Bill for reconsideration instead of withholding his approval indefinitely was a possible trigger for his comment. While Governors may differ with the contents of a Bill and may exercise the available constitutional options, they should not use their powers to stall legislation unpalatable to them. In the realm of university laws, Governors, being Chancellors of most universities, the scope for friction is quite high. It should be remembered that the office of Chancellor is created by the statute that establishes a university, and the legislature is equally competent to curtail the Chancellor’s powers or even abolish the system of having the Governor as Chancellor. Even the M.M. Punchhi Commission, which reviewed Centre-State relations, recommended that Governors should not be burdened with the role of Chancellors. It is time to implement this principle. Governors seem to have an exaggerated notion of their own roles under the Constitution. They are expected to defend the Constitution and may use their powers to caution elected regimes against violating the Constitution, but this does not mean that they can use the absence of a time-frame for decision-making and the discretionary space given to them to function as a parallel power centre.
📰 Grazing animals key to long-term soil carbon stability: IISc study
Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Vision IAS Weekly Focus Magazine 2022 Tribals in India- Charting a Development Path PDF
aditya
19:59
Vision IAS Weekly Focus Magazine 2022 Tribals in India- Charting a Development Path PDF
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