UPSC Key-August 25, 2022: Why you should read ‘Constitutional Bench of Supreme Court’ or ‘Monument of National Importance’ for UPSC CSE – The Indian Express
FRONT PAGE
SC fast-forwards: Note ban among 25 cases to be heard by 5-judge benches
Syllabus:
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Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Indian Constitution—historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure and Separation of powers between various organs dispute redressal mechanisms and institutions.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story– In a move that could effectively fast-forward some crucial cases, including challenges to demonetisation (2016) and reservations to the economically weaker sections (2020), the Supreme Court Wednesday picked 25 cases that will be heard by five-judge Constitution benches starting next week.
• What is Constitutional Bench of Supreme Court?
• What Article 145(3) of the Constitution says about constitutional bench?
• Just for the Information-To have Constitution benches sit all year could be one “institutional response,” CJI-designate Justice U U Lalit had told The Indian Express when asked about delay in several key cases. This comes amid growing concern that crucial cases are not being listed or heard on priority.
• Which are the key cases likely to be taken up by the five-judge Constitution benches starting next week?
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• Do you Know-As of August 1, the Supreme Court’s records show that there are 342 five-judge bench cases, fifteen seven-judge bench cases and 135 nine-judge cases are pending before the Court.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
Nitish wins trust vote, slams BJP: Bid to finish us since 2020 election
Syllabus:
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Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Parliament and State legislatures—structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story– The new Grand Alliance government in Bihar won the trust vote with ease on Wednesday.
• What is going in Bihar politics-have a brief knowledge about this
• What are the Constitutional Provisions Related to Governor?
• What Article 174(2)(b) of the Constitution says?
• Recent verdict by the Supreme Court on floor test-Know in detail
• What is a floor test?
• Is the floor test and trust vote the same?
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• What is the difference between a no-confidence motion and trust vote
• A no-confidence motion is a parliamentary motion which is moved in only in the Lok Sabha and not in the Rajya Sabha, State Assemblies or State Council-True or False?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
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📍Explained: The three pillars of Nitish Kumar’s political-social strategy of survival and success
Forest or not: Centre vs Chhattisgarh on transfer of 300 sq km for industry
Syllabus:
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Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance and General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change
Mains Examination:
• General Studies II: Functions and responsibilities of the Union and the States, issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure, devolution of powers and finances up to local levels and challenges therein.
• General Studies III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story– In March, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel announced in his Budget speech that the state government has transferred over 300 sq km, an area larger than Raipur in the Bastar region from the Forest department to the Revenue department to ensure easy availability of land for setting up industries and building infrastructure. The move has now run into a hurdle as the Chhattisgarh government did not seek forest clearance for transferring the land.
• What is a forest?
• ‘Forest’ is in the Union, state or Concurrent list?
• What is the ‘Godavarman Thirumulpad judgment’ and how it shaped forest related policies in India?
• What is the forest clearance?
• What is the difference between forest clearance and environment clearance?
• What are the main policies governing India’s forests?
• So, what is going on between Chhattisgarh government and Union Government?
• What is undemarcated protected forest?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Explained: Why govt proposes to redefine forests, and the concerns this raises
THE CITY
Anang Tal lake declared monument of national importance
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: History of India
Mains Examination: General Studies I: Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-The Anang Tal lake in South Delhi, believed to have been built a thousand years ago, has been declared a monument of national importance through a gazette notification by the Ministry of Culture earlier this week.
• What exactly notification by the Ministry of Culture said?
• What exactly is an Ancient Monument?
• What defines “Monument of National Importance”?
• For your Information-As per the website of National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities, a government agency, Anang Tal is situated “to the north of Jog Maya temple and approximately 500 metres to the northwest of Qutub Complex”, and dates back to 1,060 AD. “Tradition ascribes this tank to a Tomar King, Anangpal II, the builder of Lal Kot. It is said to have been a place of a general resort but now it is dried up and used for cultivation.
• Do you Know-A ‘monument of national importance’, if designated by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), authorises the central government to “maintain, protect and promote the site”, which may be considered of significant historical importance, as mandated by the Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958. Currently, there are around 3,600 monuments of national importance being protected by the ASI.
• Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)-Powers, Functions, Role and Mandate
• Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)-Significance
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Twenty sites identified for ‘national importance’ tag: Govt
GOVT & POLITICS
Govt to provide health cover to trans persons
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
Main Examination: General Studies II: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story– Transgender persons will get yearly health insurance of Rs 5 lakh each under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, the Union government said Wednesday. The insurance policy will also cover sex reassignment surgeries.
• How Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 defines Transgender person?
• What percentage of Indian population is transgender?
• Do you Know-India’s 2011 Census was the first census in its history to incorporate the number of ‘trans’ population of the country. According to the 2011 Census, the number of persons who do not identify as ‘male’ or ‘female’ but as ‘other’ stands at 4,87,803 (0.04% of the total population). This ‘other’ category applied to persons who did not identify as either male or female, and included transgender persons.
• “Sex is biologically determined but gender is a social construct”-Critically Analyse
• Transgenders in India are still discriminated even after the Supreme Court has held that the right to self-identification of gender is part of the right to dignity and autonomy under Article 21 of the Constitution-Why?
• A National Council for Transgender (NCT) persons-role and objectives
• What are the Yogyakarta Principles?
• Employment rates of transgender in India-Know the data’s and Statistics
• What was the Supreme Court’s verdict in National Legal Services Authority vs Union Of India, 2014?
• Decriminalisation of homosexuality was much needed for transgenders and Section 377-Connect the dots
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Non-binary genders need more visibility in India’s Census 2021
📍Section 377 verdict | Building blocks: Identity, privacy, rather than sex
📍NMC course correction to make future doctors present-ready
Now, Ayushman cards can be used for state schemes
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development
Main Examination: General Studies II: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-The beneficiary card for Ayushman Bharat-–Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) can now be used to avail benefits for any existing state health insurance schemes as well, with the National Health Authority (NHA) allowing co-branding with logos and names of both schemes on the new cards.
• What is the co-branding concept in a Scheme?
• For your Information-The co-branding concept was introduced as the scheme is running in parallel with around 20 state schemes in India. NHA will provide full financial support for issuance of such co-branded cards to not just the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) beneficiaries identified under the scheme by the Centre but state-specific non-SECC beneficiaries as well.
• What Data Says– According to data from the union health ministry, the AB PM-JAY scheme provides Rs 5 lakh annual healthcare coverage to over 10 crore families across the country. So far, over 14 crore individuals have been issued Ayushman cards. And, 3.75 crore hospital admissions amounting to Rs 45,000 crores have been authorised under the scheme.
• What is National Health Authority?
• Is National Health Authority a statutory body?
• Public Health Systems in India-Background
• Current state of India’s health infrastructure- Know in detail
• Steps required to strengthen the existing state of Health infrastructure in India-Brainstorm
• What do you understand by Universal Health Coverage (UHC)?
• PM Atma Nirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana and Ayushman Bharat Scheme-Key Highlights
• Is there any explicit/implicit recognition of the right to health or healthcare under the Constitution? (Hint: Directive Principles of State Policy in Part IV of the India Constitution provide a basis for the right to health)
• What Supreme Court of India says on Right to Health?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Declaring the right to health a fundamental right
THE WORLD
Zelenskyy vows victory as nation celebrates its Independence Day
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story– Ukrainians mark 31 years since they broke free from the Russia-dominated Soviet Union on Wednesday in what is certain to be a day of defiance against the Kremlin’s six-month-old war to subdue the country once again. Ukraine’s Independence Day falls six months after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.
• So, When and how Ukraine become an independent nation?
• What happened between Russia and Ukraine when Ukraine gained independence in 1991?
• Russia and Ukraine-Historic relations
• Know about 1991 Crimean sovereignty referendum
• 2014 protest in Ukraine and removal of Viktor Yanukovych -why?
• Minsk Agreements in 2015-key Highlights
• Ukraine’s Strategic Position-Locate on Map
• Why have there been tensions between Russia and Ukraine more recently?
• ‘Geopolitics is territorial genetics, it can be tamed but never erased’-Elaborate the statement with some recent examples
• Russia’s claim that modern Ukraine was created by Communist Russia and what are the other reasons given by Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine?
• Nationalism, Ultra Nationalism or Jingoism in the name of history-why this trend is increasing across the world?
• Decode the Quote– “War or the threat of war is a continuation of politics by other means”.
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Ukraine: A short history of its creation
📍What Russia means to Ukraine: A long complicated history
EXPLAINED
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development
Mains Examination: General Studies III: Money-laundering and its prevention
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story– The Supreme Court will hear in open court a review of its judgment upholding key provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. A three-judge Bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar (who has since retired), Dinesh Maheshwari, and C T Ravikumar had ruled on a batch of over 240 petitions challenging the special law against money laundering.
• What was the Supreme Court ruling on PMLA in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary & Ors v Union of India?
• How is a judgment reviewed?
• Do You Know-A ruling by the Supreme Court is final and binding. However, Article 137 of the Constitution grants the SC the power to review its judgments or orders. A review petition must be filed within 30 days of pronouncement of the judgment. Except in cases of death penalty, review petitions are heard through “circulation” by judges in their chambers, and not in an open court.
• Why is the PMLA verdict under review?
• What are the key grounds on which review is sought? (Hint: Given in the article itself)
• What is the ‘Burden of proof’?
• What Is Money Laundering?
• What Section 3 of PMLA says?
• How Money Laundering works? What do you understand by placement, layering and integration?
• What is the offence of money-laundering?
• What are the norms for arrest?
• What are the Bail Conditions defined under Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA)?
• What was the key highlight in the amendment of Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002?
• ‘Section 45 is a drastic provision which turns on its head the presumption of innocence which is fundamental to a person accused of any offence’-Decode the quote
• “Section 3 of the 2002 Act has a wider reach and captures every process and activity, direct or indirect, in dealing with the proceeds of crime and is not limited to the happening of the final act of integration of tainted property in the formal economy”-Decode the quote
• How does fighting money laundering help fight crime?
• Steps Taken by Government of India to Prevent Money Laundering
• Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA)-Key Points
• Prevention of Money-Laundering (Amendment) Act, 2012-Key Highlights
• Directorate of Enforcement (ED)-Role and Function
• Directorate of Enforcement (ED) comes under which Ministry or Organisation?
• Money Laundering and its impact? What influence does money laundering have on economic development?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍SC to hear plea seeking review of PMLA order in open court today
📍Explained: Supreme Court overrides its own 2017 ruling to justify ‘drastic’ PMLA provision for bail
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story-South Korea and the United States began their largest joint military drills since 2017 this week. The drills, called the Ulchi Freedom Shield, are scheduled to run until September 1. They are tri-service drills involving thousands of troops as well as live-fire exercises.
• Why are the drills being held now?
• What is the purpose of these drills?
• Is there an immediate threat of tensions in the region?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍US, South Korea Begin Biggest Military Drills in 5 Years
Roots and meaning of mandala art, now on display in a park in Liverpool
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: History of India
Mains Examination: General Studies I: Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story– A spectacular ‘Mandala’ art installation, bigger than the size of a football field, currently covers a public park in Liverpool in the United Kingdom. Unveiled on August 12, the piece of land art called The Knowsley Mandala is made of natural elements, and is expected to last a month after which it will slowly fade away.
• What is Mandala Art?
• For Your Information-Mandala is rooted in Hinduism and Buddhism. Mandala imagery first appeared in the Vedas (c. 1500-500 BC), and Buddhist missionaries travelling along the Silk Road are believed to have taken it to regions outside India. By the sixth century, mandalas were recorded in China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Tibet. Separately, native American peoples are believed to have used the mandala as representation of a deity or the cosmos, and as a spiritual form.
• What ‘Mandala’ signifies in Hindu and Buddhism philosophical systems?
• Buddhist Thangka paintings and Mandala Art-connect the dots
• How mandala art helps reducing stress?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Tantra on the edges: Aesthetic and esoteric
Tomato flu, and enterovirus behind outbreak
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains Examination: General Studies II: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story– With cases of tomato flu reported from at least four states — Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, and Odisha — the Union Health Ministry issued a set of guidelines on prevention, testing, and treatment of the infection.
• What is tomato flu?
• Why is tomato flu infection spreading now?
• Which pathogen is causing it now? And how is the clinical presentation different?
• Is there a treatment for tomato flu?
• How can tomato flu be prevented?
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Explained: What is tomato flu, and who does it affect?
ECONOMY
Most states ready, staggered rollout of labour codes likely
Syllabus:
Preliminary Examination: Economic and Social Development
Main Examination: General Studies III: Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.
Key Points to Ponder:
• What’s the ongoing story– With the government setting the stage for the four new labour codes, there are indications of a staggered implementation with an initial rollout of two codes, The Code on Wages and The Code on Social Security. These will likely be followed by the other two — The Industrial Relations Code and The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code — at a later stage.
• Labour falls under the Concurrent List of the Constitution-True or False?
• What are the Labour Laws and Reforms in Labour laws in India?
• National Commission on Labour’s recommendations and its implementation-Know in detail
• Unorganised Workers and Gig Workers-Key Differences?
• The four labour codes are set to replace 29 labour laws-Know in details
• What is the current status of the codes?
• Code on Wages, 2019-Key Provisions
• Industrial Relations Code, 2020-Key Features
• Code on Social Security, 2020-Key Features
• Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions, 2020-Key Features
Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:
📍Explained: In the three new labour codes, what changes for workers & hirers?
Articles which can enrich your Answer Writing:
📍By 2035, California to ban sale of new gasoline cars
📍‘Covid pushes back APAC fight against extreme poverty by 2 yrs’
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