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📰 Coastal literacy project to be rolled out in 3 more districts

KSLMA programme in Ernakulam, Kozhikode, and Kollam

•Buoyed by its success in the first phase, the Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority (KSLMA) is all set to kick-start the second phase of Akshara Sagaram, an ambitious literacy programme for coastal areas, by rolling it out in three more districts, including Ernakulam.

•The project, being implemented by KSLMA with financial assistance from the Fisheries Department, will also be implemented in Kollam and Kozhikode districts. Initially, it was implemented in Thiruvananthapuram, Malappuram and Kasaragod districts.

•In the second phase, the project will be rolled out in 234 wards with poor levels of literacy, spread across 36 local bodies in three districts.

•The project will be run within 15 local body limits in Ernakulam namely, Pallippuram, Kuzhuppilly, Kumbalanghi, Kumbalam, Chellanam, Kadamakkudy, Elankkunnapuzha, Kochi Corporation, Edavanakkad, Nayarambalam, Njarakkal, Kottuvalli, Varapuzha, Mulavukad, and Udayamperoor.

Intructors chosen

•Selection of instructors, gathering of data about potential beneficiaries, and formation of ward-level organising committees have been completed as a prelude to the implementation of the project.

•The primary objective of the project is to streamline the fourth, seventh and tenth standard equivalent programmes of KSLMA in coastal areas.

•Illiterate people, newly literate, school dropouts, physically and mentally-challenged people, and all fisherfolks who have not cleared fourth standard have been identified as potential beneficiaries.

•Planning Board figures

•KSLMA formulated the project targeting coastal population based on the finding of the State Planning Board that among the 18 lakh illiterate people in the State and 12 lakh newly literate people, literacy levels are the lowest in coastal areas.

Phase - 1

•In the first phase, 65 wards spread over 13 coastal panchayats were covered under the project, and 1,605 candidates wrote the fourth standard equivalent examination.

•The project will be implemented with the support of local bodies, Fisheries Department, and Matsyafed.

•The literacy mission authority hopes that apart from improving literacy levels, the project will give impetus to continuous education programmes in coastal areas.

•Improving the living standards of coastal people and coastal area protection measures, women empowerment, elimination of drug abuse, creating awareness about environment, sanitation, cleanliness, health, and various welfare programmes and services provided by the State government have been identified as the other immediate benefits of the project.

📰 More time to link accounts to Aadhaar

Deadline extended from Dec. 31 to March 31, 2018

•The government on Wednesday extended the December 31 deadline for linking bank accounts to Aadhaar numbers by three months to March 31, 2018.

•A senior government official said that the deadline for linking insurance policies and mutual fund holdings to Aadhaar would also be extended to March 31 next year, from the present December 31 deadline.

•“A notification to this effect will be issued soon by the Department of Financial Services under the Finance Ministry,” the government official added.

PMLA rules amended

•The revenue department in the Ministry amended the relevant rules pertaining to maintenance of records by financial entities under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act of 2002, to drop the December 31 deadline specified for bank account holders to link Aadhaar and PAN (permanent account number).

•As per the notification issued on Tuesday, account holders will need to “submit the Aadhaar number, and Permanent Account Number or Form No. 60, by such date as may be notified by the Central Government.”

•The notification also stated that if Aadhaar was not linked to bank accounts as per the date notified by the government, the account would be blocked till the submission of Aadhaar and PAN numbers.

•The Finance Ministry issued a press release on Wednesday that it has been decided to notify “March 31, 2018 or six months from the date of commencement of account based relationship by the client, whichever is later,” as the new deadline. The decision was taken after various representations as well as inputs received from banks on the matter, the Ministry said.

•Last week, the government submitted before the Supreme Court that it intended to issue a notification, extending the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with services from December 31 to March 31, 2018.

•The deadline for linking Aadhaar to mobile numbers, however, remains February 6, 2018.

•The notification said, “In case the client already having an account-based relationship with reporting entities prior to the date of publication of this notification in the official Gazette fails to submit the Aadhaar number and Permanent Account Number by such date as may be notified by the Central Government, the said account shall cease to be operational till the time the Aadhaar Number and Permanent Account Number is submitted by the client.”

📰 Disqualification moves

Was the Vice-President’s action against two JD(U) MPs a case of speedy justice or a hasty decision?

•The objective of the landmark anti-defection law of 1985 was to enhance the credibility of the country’s polity by addressing rampant party-hopping by elected representatives for personal and political considerations. While this enactment brought about some order in the system, some politicians found ways of circumventing it over the years. On December 4, when Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, M. Venkaiah Naidu, decided to disqualify two dissident Janata Dal (United) leaders without referring it to the committee of privileges, was it a hasty decision or a case of speedy justice?

The rules

•A member of Parliament or the State legislature incurs disqualification if he either voluntarily gives up the membership of the party or votes or abstains from voting in his legislature, contrary to the direction (whip) of the party. In the present cases, that of Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar Ansari, the allegation against the members was that by indulging in anti-party activities they had “voluntarily” given up the membership of their party, namely the JD(U). According to a Supreme Court judgment, “voluntarily giving up the membership of the party” is not synonymous with “resignation”. It could be “implied” in participation of the member in anti-party activities.

•In two orders pronounced simultaneously, Mr. Naidu declared that Mr. Ansari and Mr. Sharad Yadav had ceased to be members of the Rajya Sabha with immediate effect on account of having incurred disqualification in terms of paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution. Mr. Ansari was going to complete his term as a member of the Rajya Sabha on April 2, 2018 while Sharad Yadav’s term is set to expire on July 7, 2022.

•The orders of the Chairman have established a benchmark, both in terms of speedy disposal (about three months) as well as the quality of the decisions. Since the anti-defection law came into place, there have been a large number of cases where proceedings have dragged on for years.

•A reading of the rules prescribed by the Rajya Sabha show that the Chairman is required either to proceed to determine the question himself or refer it to the committee of privileges for a preliminary inquiry. But reference to the committee is contingent upon the Chairman satisfying himself that it is necessary or expedient to do so; it is not mandatory. As a matter of fact, in several cases in the past, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, whenever “the circumstances of the case” so warranted, have “determined the question” themselves, without referring it to the committee.

Facts of the cases

•In the present case, there was little dispute about the facts relating to anti-party activities undertaken by the respondents, including aligning with a rival political party (Rashtriya Janata Dal). The thrust of the arguments in defence was that the members being proceeded against were the ‘real party’ and, as a matter of fact, they filed a counter-petition for disqualification of the member of the JD(U), who had petitioned for their disqualification. However, this argument fell through because the Election Commission of India “recognised” that the JD(U) under the leadership of Mr. Nitish Kumar was “the party”. In any case, in the interests of natural justice, the respondents were given adequate opportunity to present their arguments on the petitions filed against them. Apart from the written statements, the members were given the opportunity of personal hearing, which they availed. The cases were decided in a short period of three months, but not in a hurry.

•While delivering the order, Mr. Naidu made it clear that while dissent is a political right, it should be articulated appropriately without striking at the roots of the functioning of the party-based democratic system. The order of Mr. Naidu concludes with a reference to the malady of delays in deciding cases of disqualification. “I am of the considered opinion that, such petitions which go to the root of the democratic functioning and which raise the question, whether a particular legislator (lawmaker) is entitled to sit in the Legislature or not, should not be kept pending and dragged on by the Presiding Officers, with a view to save the membership of the persons, who have otherwise incurred disqualification or even to save the Government, which enjoys majority only because of such type of persons. I am of the view that, all such petitions should be decided by the Presiding Officers within a period of around three months, of course, by giving an opportunity, as per law, to the concerned Members against whom there are allegations, which lead to their disqualification under the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution of India, so as to effectively thwart the evil of political defections, which if left uncurbed are likely to undermine the very foundations of our democracy and the principles which sustain it.”

•It is pertinent here to mention that the Chairman recalled that the then Law Minister, A.K. Sen, while piloting the bill in 1985 in the Lok Sabha had clearly stated that if defection was to be outlawed effectively “then we must choose a forum which will decide the matter fearlessly and expeditiously”.

•Elaborating on the intention behind the anti-defection bill, the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had this to say in the Rajya Sabha in 1985: “What we have tried to do in this bill is to make it as black and white as possible so that there are no grey areas where somebody has to take a decision. The decision should be automatic, backed by a sequence of events, which are on record, so that there is no debate about it…”

•Further, Rule 7(3) of the Members of Rajya Sabha (Disqualification on Grounds of Defection) Rules clearly stipulates that a member against whom the petition has been made, has to forward his comments to the chairman within seven days of the receipt of copy of the petition. The seven-day time clearly indicates the need for expeditious disposal of the petition.

•Mr. Naidu’s orders assume significance in the context of instances where members have switched sides and became ministers in the governments, which are formed by parties against whom they contested and won. Yet, no action was taken in such instances defeating the very objective of the anti-defection law. It is hoped that presiding officers of State legislatures will take the advice of the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha in the right spirit.

📰 The outsider: On adultery law

The real issue about our adultery law is whether it should be treated as a crime

•There is no doubt at all that a reconsideration of the law on adultery is long overdue. By agreeing to have another look at the constitutional validity of Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code, under which men can be prosecuted for adultery, the Supreme Court has re-opened a question that has been decided thrice in the past. This time the court will have to do more than pronounce on whether the provision discriminates against men on the basis of gender and gives an unconstitutional exemption to women. While agreeing to issue notice to the government, the Bench has observed that the provision is archaic. It has further noted that in a case of adultery, one person is liable for the offence but the other is absolved, and that the concept of gender neutrality, on which criminal law normally proceeds, is absent. The court has also noted that once the consent or connivance of the husband is established, there is no offence of adultery at all. It rightly describes this as subordination of a woman and something that “creates a dent on the independent identity of a woman”. In the past, the Supreme Court has emphasised that a married woman is a “victim” and the man is “the author of the crime”. It has treated the exemption given to women as a special provision that has the protection of Article 15(3). It has rejected the argument that it is discriminatory by pointing out that neither a man nor a woman can prosecute their disloyal spouses. It is only the ‘outsider’ to the matrimonial relationship who can be prosecuted, and that too by the aggrieved husband alone. This is made clear in Section 198(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, a provision also under challenge.

•The matter now before the court goes beyond the limited question of the culpability of women involved in a relationship outside their marriage. It raises the related question whether there is an implicit subordination of the will of a woman. However, merely positing the issue as one of discrimination in the way the law treats two parties in a consensual relationship because of their gender is misleading. The real problem is the very fact that adultery remains a crime in the form of an archaic colonial era provision. Many countries across the world do not treat it as an offence any longer. In 2012, a United Nations Working Group on laws that discriminate against women wanted countries that treat adultery as a crime, to repeal such laws. It is one thing for adultery to be a ground for divorce, a civil proceeding, and quite another for it to be a basis for incarceration. It will be a travesty if in the name of empowering women the ambit of the criminal law is extended to cover both genders. The correct course will be to dispense with this archaic provision altogether; it serves no real purpose in the criminal statute.

📰 Pakistan files counter in ICJ

Rejects India’s stance that it violated norms by rejecting consular access to Jadhav

•Pakistan on Wednesday filed a counter-memorial before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against India’s plea to prevent execution of alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, who has been sentenced to death by a military court in April.

•India had won a stay from the ICJ on Jadhav’s execution on May 18 following Pakistan’s refusal to allow consular access to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad despite repeated requests.

•No date has been fixed for the case to resume in the ICJ. Pakistani officials associated with the case said it would take at least weeks, if not months, before the ICJ takes up the Kulbhushan case.

Access granted to kin

•Last week, Islamabad said it would allow Mr. Jadhav’s wife and mother to meet him on December 25. The Pakistani authorities also allowed the presence of an Indian High Commission official at the meeting as requested by New Delhi during the meeting.

•Pakistani officials believe that by allowing a meeting with the family and an Indian High Commission official, India will lose its main claim for approaching the ICJ. In its counter-memorial Pakistan rejected India’s stance that it had violated international norms by rejecting consular access to the Indian High Commission.

Allegations denied

•The counter-memorial stated that Jadhav, 46, is a RAW operative involved in espionage and subversive activities and supporting terrorists to conduct attacks in the restive Balochistan province. India has denied the allegations.

•Pakistan has referred to the bilateral consular access agreement of 2008, which says that in case of arrest, detention, or sentence made on political or security grounds, each side may examine the case on the merits. The agreement was signed in Islamabad by former High Commissioner of Pakistan to India Shahid Malik and his Indian counterpart, Satyabrata Pal, on May 21, 2008.

•Jadhav, who India claimed was a former naval official, was apprehended by Pakistani law enforcement agencies on March 3, 2016 after he allegedly crossed over into Pakistan from Iran.

•His video confession was released by Pakistan in which he stated that he was tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage, terrorist and sabotage activities aimed at destabilising and waging war against Pakistan.

Remaining options

•Jadhav was sentenced to death by a military court while the Army Chief upheld his conviction. His clemency appeal has been pending before the Army Chief for four months. Pakistani officials said that there were still two forums of appeal left for Jadhav even if the Army Chief refuses his mercy appeal.

•The officials added that Jadhav had three appeals left before his sentence is executed and his execution is not apparent any time soon.

📰 Prepare plan mapping air pollution sources: SC

•All efforts will be made to complete the Polavaram project in 2018 itself, Union Minister for Water Resources Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday.

•Speaking to mediapersons after a two-hour long meeting with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in New Delhi, the Union Minister said that a target had been originally set to complete the project by 2019, but efforts were being made to provide water by gravity by 2018.

•Mr. Gadkari said he had spoken to different contractors of the project when the Chief Minister was away in South Korea and had told them clearly that work should continue without a break and that the project should be completed as planned.

•The Union Minister said all obstacles for Land Acquisition and R&R would addressed to ensure that work was not hindered in anyway. The issues with the DPR of the project would also be taken care of, he added.

•Mr. Gadkari said the Centre would give the contractors one month’s time to improve their performance. In case they fail to do so, the new contractors for which the State government has already called tenders would be asked to take over.

•Mr. Naidu held discussions with Mr. Gadkari over ticklish issues related to the Polavaram project.

•The most important one was the tenders called by the State government for Spillway and Spill Channel concrete works that are currently being executed by Transstroy. He was accompanied by State Water Resources Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao.

📰 Prepare plan mapping air pollution sources: SC

•The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to notify a comprehensive action plan mapping the sources of air pollution in Delhi and the National Capital Region within two weeks.

•The Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta gave the Ministry of Environment two weeks to finalise the timeline for each action point in the plan with the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA).

•Sunita Narain, director general of Centre for Science and Environment and EPCA member, said: “This is the first ever comprehensive action plan that has been adopted officially to mandate a time-bound short-, medium- and long-term measures to clean up the air of Delhi and NCR with a compliance strategy. This also helps create a template of action for all other cities of India.”

•This is the first ever mandatory plan that earmarks short-, medium- and long-term measures for all key sources of pollution with deadlines, and makes agencies responsible for implementation.

•If implemented with urgency and stringency and in a time-bound manner, this can help this region make sustained improvement in air quality, Ms. Narain said. Delhi-NCR may require to reduce particulate pollution by at least 74% to meet clean air standards, CSE said.

📰 Efforts will be made to complete Polavaram by 2018: Gadkari

•All efforts will be made to complete the Polavaram project in 2018 itself, Union Minister for Water Resources Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday.

•Speaking to mediapersons after a two-hour long meeting with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in New Delhi, the Union Minister said that a target had been originally set to complete the project by 2019, but efforts were being made to provide water by gravity by 2018.

•Mr. Gadkari said he had spoken to different contractors of the project when the Chief Minister was away in South Korea and had told them clearly that work should continue without a break and that the project should be completed as planned.

•The Union Minister said all obstacles for Land Acquisition and R&R would addressed to ensure that work was not hindered in anyway. The issues with the DPR of the project would also be taken care of, he added.

•Mr. Gadkari said the Centre would give the contractors one month’s time to improve their performance. In case they fail to do so, the new contractors for which the State government has already called tenders would be asked to take over.

•Mr. Naidu held discussions with Mr. Gadkari over ticklish issues related to the Polavaram project.

•The most important one was the tenders called by the State government for Spillway and Spill Channel concrete works that are currently being executed by Transstroy. He was accompanied by State Water Resources Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao.

📰 WTO: India resolute on food security

Demands amendments in rules to prevent member countries from challenging current programmes

•In the final stages of the ongoing summit-level negotiations of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), India upped the ante to protect its food security right, even as the U.S. refused to agree to the demands of developing nations on the issue.

•Initially, India was bargaining hard for improving an already available mechanism that safeguards government purchase of staple foodgrain from low-income and resource-poor farmers at subsidised prices for stockpiling, and then distributing them to the country’s economically weak.

Moves to ‘foolproof’

•However, in the crunch phase of the talks, India sought to foolproof such a mechanism through an amendment of WTO rules on dispute settlement, to entirely prevent countries from legally challenging its food security programmes, according to sources privy to the negotiations.

•The mechanism, called the ‘Peace Clause’, shields developing countries like India from being dragged by other countries to the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism for breaching the ceiling on product-specific domestic support (10% of the concerned crop’s value of production). The ‘Peace Clause’ is available to developing nations, including India, till a ‘permanent solution’ is found by the WTO members to the issue of public stockholding for food security purposes.

•Members had agreed during the Ministerial Conference (or MC — the WTO´s highest decision-making body) in 2013 to find a ‘permanent solution’ by the 2017 meet. The decision to expedite work on the ‘permanent solution’ was noted in the 2015 Nairobi MC decision. Thanks to ‘Peace Clause’, which is available in perpetuity (as reaffirmed in the Nairobi MC), even without a ‘permanent solution’, India would not have much trouble in implementing its food security programmes.

•However, the Peace Clause’s onerous conditions (on notification etc.) make it tough for developing countries to use. Therefore, at Buenos Aires, India, along with other developing nations, wanted the ‘Peace Clause’ provisions to be improved upon and converted into a permanent solution — a demand the U.S. showed little interest in accepting.

•“A major country stated categorically that they cannot agree to any permanent solution ... at the 2017 MC,” India said in a statement. “This has the potential to irreversibly damage the credibility of the WTO as a Ministerial Decision of all countries present in Nairobi MC has not been honoured.”

•Owing to the U.S. not respecting the Nairobi MC decision, India had decided not to take any chances by just agreeing to a Ministerial Text/Declaration on a ‘permanent solution’, the sources added.

📰 Narendra Modi inducts Scorpene-class submarine Kalvari into Indian Navy

Kalvari is the first of the six Scorpene-class submarines handed over by shipbuilder Mazagon Dock Limited

•Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned India's first modern conventional submarine, INS Kalvari, into Navy's fleet in Mumbai on Thursday, a first in almost two decades.

•Lauding the efforts of the Navy from disaster management to combating piracy, Mr. Modi said "be it terrorism via sea, piracy, drug smuggling or illegal fishing, India is playing an important role in combating them."

•"I call it SAGAR — security and growth for all in the region," he added.

•Kalvari is an excellent example of ‘Make in India’, said Mr. Modi and assured that every defence vehicle from helicopter to submarines will be made in India.

•"Peace in Indian Ocean, which is the lifeline of global trade is better off with INS Kalvari and her follow on submarines," Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

•Kalvari is the first of the six Scorpene-class submarines handed over by shipbuilder Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL). The submarines, designed by French naval defence and energy company DCNS, are being built by MDL in Mumbai as part of Project-75 of the Indian Navy.

•“Kalvari is a potent Man o’ War capable of undertaking offensive operations spanning across the entire spectrum of Maritime Warfare. She embodies cutting-edge technology and compares favourably with the best in the world,” the Navy said in a statement on Wednesday.

•The Navy last inducted a conventional diesel-electric submarine, INS Sindhushastra, procured from Russia in July 2000.

•Kalvari, named after a deep sea tiger shark, weighs about 1,600 tonnes and carries the sea skimming SM 39 Exocet missiles and the heavy weight wire guided Surface and Underwater Target (SUT) torpedoes. For self-defence it has mobile anti-torpedo decoys.

•Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba, Vice Admiral Girish Luthra, Flag Officer Commanding of the Western Naval Command, and top defence officials attended the ceremony.

📰 Microsoft new Bing update aims to tackle fake news with artificial intelligence

Bing may not answer if you ask ‘is there a God?’ but will give both perspectives from reputable sources.

•Microsoft on Wednesday rolled out new features on its Bing search engine powered by artificial intelligence, including one that summarizes the two opposing sides of contentious questions, and another that measures how many reputable sources are behind a given answer.

•Tired of delivering misleading information when their algorithms are gamed by trolls and purveyors of fake news, Microsoft and its tech-company rivals have been going out of their way to show they can be purveyors of good information either by using better algorithms or hiring more human moderators.

•Microsoft is also trying to distinguish its second-place search engine from long-dominant Google and position itself as an innovator in finding real-world applications for the latest advances in artificial intelligence.

•“As a search engine we have a responsibility to provide answers that are comprehensive and objective,” said Mr. Jordi Ribas, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for AI products.

•Bing’s new capabilities are designed to give users more confidence that an answer is correct and save them time so they don’t have to click through multiple links to validate it themselves.

•“You could be asking, ‘Is coffee good for you?’ We know that there are no good answers for that,” Mr. Ribas said. But the new search features side-by-side opposing perspectives. One source emphasizes coffee’s ability to increase metabolism and another shows it can raise blood pressure. Similar questions can also be asked on more sensitive topics, such as whether the death penalty is a good idea.

•On more complicated questions is there a god? Bing doesn’t have enough confidence to provide a pro-con perspective. But on questions that involve numbers, it boils information down into digestible doses. Iraq, for instance, is described as “about equal to the size of California.”

•As machines get better at reading and summarizing paragraphs, users expect not just a list of links but a quick and authoritative answer, said Harry Shum, who leads Microsoft’s 8,000-person research and AI division. To test its technology, the company has compared its machine-reading skills to the verbal score on the SAT.

•The demand for more sophisticated searches has also grown as people have moved from typing questions to voicing them on the road or in their kitchen.

•“If you use Bing or Google nowadays you recognize that more and more often you’ll see direct answers on the top of search result pages,” Mr. Shum said. “We’re getting to the point that for probably about 10 percent of those queries we’ll see answers.”

•Mr. Shum is hesitant to over-promise Bing’s new features as an antidote to the misinformation flooding the internet.

•“At the end of the day, people have their own judgments,” he said.

•The search engine features were announced along with updates to Microsoft’s voice assistant Cortana and a new search partnership with the popular online forum Reddit.