Daily Current Affairs: 01-09-2020

1. Common Electoral Roll in India

Recently, the Prime Minister’s Office had held a meeting with representatives of the Election Commission and the Law Ministry to discuss the possibility of having a common electoral roll for elections to the panchayat, municipality, state assembly and the Lok Sabha.

Why Different Types of Electoral Roll in India?

• The voters’ list for the panchayat and municipality elections is different from the one used for Parliament and Assembly elections in many states.

• The different types of electoral rolls stems from the fact that the supervision and conduct of elections in our country are entrusted with two constitutional authorities i.e. the Election Commission (EC) of India and the State Election Commissions (SECs).

• The EC is charged with the responsibility of conducting polls to the offices of the President and Vice-President of India, and to Parliament, the state assemblies and the legislative councils.

  • The State Election Commissions (SECs) are responsible for supervising municipal and panchayat elections.

• The SECs are free to prepare their own electoral rolls for local body elections, and this exercise does not have to be coordinated with the EC.

• There are some state laws which allow the SEC to borrow and use the EC’s voter’s rolls for the local body elections.

• All the states except Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, adopt EC’s rolls for local body polls.

Need for a Common Electoral Roll

• The union government has committed itself to hold elections simultaneously to the Lok Sabha, state assemblies and local bodies.

• The incumbent government has pitched a common electoral roll and simultaneous elections as a way to save an enormous amount of effort and expenditure.

• The government has argued that the preparation of a separate voters list causes duplication of essentially the same task between two different agencies, thereby duplicating the effort and the expenditure.

• The Law Commission recommended it in its 255th report in 2015 and the EC too adopted a similar stance in 1999 and 2004.

Changes to be made for Common Electoral Roll

• It is required to move a constitutional amendment to Articles 243K and 243ZA that give the power of superintendence, direction and control of preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of local body elections to the SECs.

  • The amendment would make it mandatory to have a single electoral roll for all elections in the country.

• It is necessary to persuade the state governments to tweak their respective laws and adopt the Election Commission’s (EC) voters list for municipal and panchayat polls.

Challenges in implementing the Common Electoral Roll

• There is a growing level of mistrust between the Centre and the states.

• The exercise of Common Electoral Roll would also involve technical issues since boundaries of the EC’s polling stations did not always match those drawn by the SECs for the municipal wards.

Source: The Indian Express

2. United Nations Guidelines for People with Disability

Recently, the United Nations has outlined a set of 10 principles for implementation of its first-ever guidelines on access to social justice for people with disabilities.

Key Points of United Nations Guidelines for People with Disability

• Principle 1 - All persons with disabilities have legal capacity and, therefore, no one shall be denied access to justice on the basis of disability.

• Principle 2 - Facilities and services must be universally accessible to ensure equal access to justice without discrimination of persons with disabilities.

• Principle 3 - Persons with disabilities, including children with disabilities, have the right to appropriate procedural accommodations.

• Principle 4 - Persons with disabilities have the right to access legal notices and information in a timely and accessible manner on an equal basis with others.

• Principle 5 - Persons with disabilities are entitled to all substantive and procedural safeguards recognized in international law on an equal basis with others, and States must provide the necessary accommodations to guarantee due process.

• Principle 6 - Persons with disabilities have the right to free or affordable legal assistance.

• Principle 7 - Persons with disabilities have the right to participate in the administration of justice on an equal basis with others.

• Principle 8 - Persons with disabilities have the rights to report complaints and initiate legal proceedings concerning human rights violations and crimes, have their complaints investigated and be afforded effective remedies.

• Principle 9 - Effective and robust monitoring mechanisms play a critical role in supporting access to justice for persons with disabilities.

• Principle 10 - All those working in the justice system must be provided with awareness-raising and training programmes addressing the rights of persons with disabilities, in particular in the context of access to justice.

Definition of Person with Disability (PwD)

• The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was adopted in 2007 as the first major instrument of human rights in the 21st century, defines persons with disabilities.

• It defines PwD as those “who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others”.

• The discrimination on the basis of disability’ means any distinction, exclusion or restriction on the basis of disability which has the purpose or effect of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal basis with others, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Statistics on Persons with Disability (PwD) in India

• India is a signatory of the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and ratified in 2007.

• In India, there are 2.4 per cent of males who are disabled and two per cent of females from all age groups are disabled.

• The disabilities include psychological impairment, intellectual impairment, speaking, multiple impairments, hearing, seeing among others.

• In comparison, the disability prevalence in the US is 12.9 per cent among females and 12.7 per cent among males.

Source: The Indian Express

3. Mission Alpha

Recently, the space agencies of India and France are in an advanced stage of discussions for providing necessary equipment to ‘Gaganyaan’ astronauts.

• The equipments will be the one to be used by French astronaut Thomas Pesquet for Mission Alpha in 2021.

About Mission Alpha

• Under the Mission Alpha, the French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, as part of the European Space Agency (ESA), will be returning to the International Space Station (ISS) while flying on Crew Dragon spacecraft.

• ‘Alpha’ was chosen as the name for Pesquet’s new mission after a competition organised by the European Space Agency in partnership with National Centre for Space Studies (CNES).

Gaganyaan Mission

• It is an Indian crewed orbital spacecraft that is intended to send astronauts to space for a minimum of seven days by 2022.
• It is a part of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme.
• The spacecraft is being developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) which consists of a service module and a crew module, collectively known as the Orbital Module.
• ISRO's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle GSLV Mk III, the three-stage heavy-lift launch vehicle, will be used to launch Gaganyaan.
• GSLV Mk III is designed to carry 4 ton class of satellites into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) or about 10 tons to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

Source: All India Radio

4. World's Highest Rail Bridge

Recently, the Indian government has said that the world's highest rail bridge in Jammu & Kashmir will be completed by 2021.

About World's Highest Rail Bridge in Jammu & Kashmir

• It is a 1.3 km-long bridge that is being built across the Chenab River.

• It is being constructed at a height of 359 metres from the riverbed.

• It will be at a height 35 meters more than the Eiffel Tower in Paris and at five times the height of the Qutab Minar in Delhi.

• It is being built on the Katra-Banihal railway line at village Kauri in the Reasi district.

  • The bridge forms the crucial link in the 111-km stretch between Katra and Banihal which is part of the Udhampur- Srinagar-Baramulla section of the Kashmir Railway project.

• It is the seventh-largest arch-shaped bridge in the world as there is no support except on both sides of the river banks.

Chenab River

• It is the river of the Indian subcontinent in northwestern India and northeastern and eastern Pakistan.
• It is formed by the confluence of two streams i.e. Chandra and Bhaga, in the western (Punjab) Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh.
• It flows west through Jammu & Kashmir between the steep cliffs of the Siwalik Range (south) and the Lesser Himalayas (north).

Source: All India Radio

5. Military Exercise Kavkaz

Recently, India has decided to withdraw its participation from the Military Exercise Kavkaz 2020 citing logistics difficulties due to COVID-19 pandemic.

About Military Exercise Kavkaz

• Kavkaz is part of a four-year exercise cycle of the Russian army, and the name is based on the region where these exercises are held.

  • It is a strategic command-post exercise, which can be called war games.

• The word Kavkaz is derived as a modern variant of Caucasus or Caucasia, a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

  • The region is mainly occupied by Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and southwestern Russia.

• The invitees to Kavkaz 2020 strategic command-post exercise are also referred to as Caucasus-2020.

• The 2020 Military Exercise Kavkaz is going to be held in Astrakhan in Southern Russia which will include participants from China, Pakistan and Turkey apart from other member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

  • The other participants of Military Exercise Kavkaz are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Syria, Iran, Egypt, Belarus, Armenia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

Black Sea

• It is a large inland sea situated at the southeastern extremity of Europe.
• It is bordered by Ukraine to the north, Russia to the northeast, Georgia to the east, Turkey to the south, and Bulgaria and Romania to the west.
• It is connected to the distant waters of the Atlantic Ocean by the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara, the Dardanelles, the Aegean Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.

Caspian Sea

• It is the world’s largest inland body of water.
• It lies to the east of the Caucasus Mountains and to the west of the vast steppe of Central Asia.
• The sea is bordered in the northeast by Kazakhstan, in the southeast by Turkmenistan, in the south by Iran, in the southwest by Azerbaijan and in the northwest by Russia.

Source: All India Radio

6. Etikoppaka Toys

Recently, the famous art of 'Etikoppaka' dolls had found a place in the "Mann ki Baat" programme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

About Etikoppaka Toys

• Etikoppaka is a small village located on the banks of the River Varaha in Vishakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh.

  • The toys in the village are made with lacquer color and are traditionally known as Etikoppaka toys or Etikoppaka Bommalu.

  • The practice of lacquering comes from a period of antiquity ranging back to 300 BCE.

• The toys are also called as lacquer toys because of application of lacquer coating.

• The toys are made out of wood and are coloured with natural dyes derived from seeds, lacquer, bark, roots and leaves.

• In 2017, the Etikoppaka Toys were accorded the GI tag of Andhra Pradesh by the Geographical Indication Registry.

Source: All India Radio

7. Roll On-Roll Off (RORO) Service

Recently, the state government of Karnataka flagged off first ever RORO service of South Western Railway from Nelamangla (near Bengaluru) to Bale (near Solapur).

About RORO Service

• Roll On-Roll Off (RORO) is a concept of carrying road vehicles loaded with various commodities, on open flat railway wagons.

• RORO services are combination of best features of road and rail transports and they offer door to door service with minimal handling transported by fat and direct rail link.

• Roll-on-Roll-off is a multimodal delivery model with following advantages:

  • Faster movement of goods and essentials, reducing Time taken by trucks to reach destinations due to traffic congestion in between cities

  • Reduces congestion on the roads

  • Saves precious fuel

  • Reduces carbon footprint

  • Relief to crew of truck as it avoids long distance driving

  • No hassles of check posts/toll gates etc.

  • Seamless Inter-operability between roadways & railways-Inter-modal transport on existing track

  • Ensuring uninterrupted supply of essential commodities

  • Free time for loading/unloading is 3 hours

  • Boost our local MSME units by encouraging piecemeal /decentralized loading through trucks.

  • RO-RO will help government initiatives like "operation green" to stabalize prices of  TOP (tomato, potato and Onion)

  • Provides link between agriculture producing regions and agro consumption centres

  • Ensures farmers get the right market and right price for their produce

  • Connects and Balances the commodity deficient and surplus markets

• The RO-RO train services were first introduced in Indian Railways on Konkan Railways in 1999.
• India's first Roll On-Roll Off (Ro-Ro) ferry service between Ghogha in Bhavnagar district and Dahej in Bharuch district, which will facilitate vehicular and passenger ferry services across the Gulf of Cambay in Gujarat.

Source: All India Radio

8. 7th ASEAN-India Economic Ministers’ Consultations.

Recently, the Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways and the Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam co-chaired the 17th ASEAN-India Economic Ministers’ Consultations.

Key Highlights of ASEAN-India Economic Ministers’ Consultations

• The meeting was attended by the Trade Ministers of all the 10 ASEAN countries i.e. Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

• It reaffirmed the commitment to take collective actions in mitigating the economic impact of the pandemic.

• It aimed to ensure macroeconomic and financial stability and resilient supply chain connectivity, the unimpeded flow of essential goods and medicines in the region, in compliance with the WTO rules.

• The ASEAN-India Economic Ministers’ Consultations was centered on the review of the ASEAN India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA).

  • The ASEAN India Business Council (AIBC) Report has recommended that the AITIGA be reviewed for mutual benefit.

• It highlighted the need to strengthen the Rules of Origin provisions, work towards removal of non-tariff barriers and provide better market access.

About ASEAN India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA)

• India and Asean signed a Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation to establish an ASEAN-India Regional Trade and Investment Area in 2003.
• It aims to provide a basis for subsequent Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) covering goods, services and investment.
• The Asean-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) was signed in 2009 and came into force in 2010.

Source: All India Radio

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