Polity

  Mizoram gives a mere Rs 100 every month under the state disability pension scheme to the 200 beneficiaries registered with it, the Rajya Sabha was informed by the government on Wednesday. Things are no better in the bigger and populous states like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh where the pension amount is a meagre Rs 300. The number of beneficiaries is over 12.12 lakh in Maharashtra and over 4.79 lakh in MP. Nagaland too gives its 4,872 beneficiaries only Rs 300. In states like Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Meghalaya the state pension amount is a low Rs 200. A large state like West Bengal gives beneficiaries Rs 700 ... Read more

As part of the Centre’s larger goal to promote sustainable eco-tourism through the site-specific plan, the environment ministry has released an indicative list of 90 potential eco-tourism sites in the country with the highest nine sites being identified in Gujarat followed by seven in Himachal Pradesh, five in Karnataka and four each in Assam, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal. Though all these sites in the list of 90 are protected areas including popular national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, the ministry does not rule out the possibility of having eco-tourism sites in the community and private forests outside the protected areas ... Read more

The “Good Governance Index 2020-21” was released by the central government on 25 December. Highlights: The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances compiled the index (DARPG). The top three states are Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Goa. Indicators recorded by these states increased by 12% in Gujarat and around 25% in Goa in comparison to 2019. In comparison to the previous year, Uttar Pradesh saw an increase of around 9%. Uttar Pradesh has taken the lead in the commerce and industry sector. In addition to citizen-centric governance parameters, Uttar Pradesh has improved in the areas of social welfare and development, as ... Read more

The Committee for Evolution of the New Education Policy (NEP) (Chair: Mr. T. S. R Subramanian) submitted its report on May 7, 2016.  The Committee was constituted under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in October,2015.  The report proposes an Education Policy, which seeks to address challenges faced by the current education system.  Key features of the proposed Policy are summarised below. Early Childhood Care and Education(ECCE):  The Committee observed that the implementation of ECCE was inconsistent across states.  It emphasised the need for all government schools to have facilities for pre-primary education.  Hence, it recommended that ECCE for ... Read more

The International Commission to Reignite the Fight Against Smoking report was recently published. The report was prepared using secondary data from sources such as World Bank. Key Findings of the report   India has been ranked second in the number of smokers aged between 16 and 64 years. India is among the nations having lowest quit rates for smoking. Report notes that, China and India are home 500 million tobacco users aged between 16 and 64 years. In India, Tobacco prevalence is three times greater among men than women. India accounts for highest rates of use of smokeless tobacco and ... Read more

Encounter Killings’ is the term used to describe extrajudicial killings by the police or the armed forces when they encounter the alleged criminals or suspected gangsters. In India, the death sentence can be awarded only on the rarest of the rare instances – by the Supreme Court of India – after following the due process of law.  The term extrajudicial killing is used for executions done by the state outside the due process of law. As per the Supreme Court of India, every death at police hands must be recorded and investigated by an independent agency or a police unit ... Read more

The Supreme Court of India will soon hear a petition to remove the stay on the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, or the Haryana Act, that reserves 75% of jobs in the private sector in the State for local residents. The Act applies to jobs that pay up to ₹30,000 per month, and employers have to register all such employees on a designated portal. The Government may also exempt certain industries by notification, and has so far exempted new start-ups and new Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) companies, as well as short-term employment, farm labour, domestic work, and ... Read more

Recently various parties in their manifestos promised various forms of payment to homemakers, thus putting the spotlight on the unpaid domestic work done by women. Women everywhere carry a disproportionately higher burden of unpaid work, namely, unpaid domestic services as well as unpaid care of children. Though this work contributes to overall well-being at the household level and collectively at the national level, it is invisible in the national database and particularly in national policies. Unpaid care work, according to the OECD, refers to all unpaid services provided within a household for its members, including care of persons, housework and ... Read more

Recently, the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs introduced the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 in Lok Sabha with an objective to ensure more efficient and expeditious investigation of crime by the use of modern technology. It would allow the police and prison authorities to collect, store and analyse physical and biological samples, including retina and iris scans. These provisions will further be made applicable to the persons held under any preventive detention law. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) will be the repository of physical and biological samples, signature and handwriting data that can be preserved for at ... Read more

The Supreme Court of India’s recent ruling on an all India quota deserves closer attention for a reason other than its impact on post graduate medical admissions. In a detailed order providing reasons for its ruling which upheld the Constitutional validity of reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the All India Quota for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for undergraduate and postgraduate medical admissions. Underlining that “reservation is not at odds with merit but furthers its distributive consequences”, that “merit cannot be reduced to narrow definitions of performance in an open competitive examination” and “high scores in an ... Read more