📰 SC issues notice to EC on plea to verify at least 50% VVPATs
Bench seeks an officer to assist it at the next hearing
•The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Election Commission to respond to a petition filed by 21 Opposition parties demanding the random verification of at least 50% electronic voting machines (EVMs) using Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in every Assembly segment or constituency.
•A Bench, led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, issued notice to the Election Commission and said it should depute a suitable officer to assist the court on March 25, the next day of hearing.
Pre-poll unanimity
•In a show of pre-poll unanimity, the Opposition parties have also sought the court’s intervention to quash an Election Commission guideline restricting the VVPAT process to be conducted “only for VVPAT paper slips of one randomly selected polling station, of an Assembly constituency in case of election to a State Legislative Assembly, and each Assembly segment in case of election to the House of the People.”
•The petition was filed on behalf of the presidents and leaders of 21 national and regional political parties. The petitioners contend that they electorally represented 70-75% of the people of India. The petition, which was mentioned on March 14 for an early hearing, was posted by the CJI for the very next day. The petition has been filed in the names of Telugu Desam Party leader N. Chandrababu Naidu, Sharad Pawar (Nationalist Congress Party), K.C. Venugopal (Congress), Derek O’Brien (Trinamool Congress), Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), M.K. Stalin (DMK), Arvind Kejriwal (AAP), Farooq Abdullah (National Conference), Sharad Yadav (Loktantrik Janata Dal) and Manoj Jha (Rashtriya Janata Dal), among others.
•The petitioners said ‘free and fair elections’ were part of the basic structure of the Constitution.
HC punished her for story on perks for retired judges
•In a fillip to free speech, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed the conviction and punishment of Shillong Times editor and publisher by the Meghalaya High Court in a contempt case.
•Editor Patricia Mukhim and publisher Shobha Chaudhuri were found guilty of contempt of court by a single judge of the High Court for the publication of an article on the perks and facilities for retired judges and their families.
Punishment
•They were made to sit in the corner of the court room as punishment till the judges rose for the day and fined Rs. 2 lakh each. Failure to deposit the amount would result in six-month simple imprisonment and the ban of the paper. The court invoked its powers under Article 215 of the Constitution to sentence the contemnors.
•Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had listed the case urgently before his own Bench on March 15. Ms. Mukhim and Ms. Chaudhuri were represented by advocate Vrinda Grover.
📰 France slaps sanctions on JeM chief Azhar
Action is a prelude to a national ban
•Two days after China blocked a UN Security Council move to designate Masood Azhar, chief of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad, as a global terrorist, France has sanctioned him and taken steps to stop the outfit from accessing French financial resources.
•A French government statement said the JeM claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attack, in which over 40 CRPF jawans were killed. “France has decided to sanction Masood Azhar at the national level by freezing his assets in application of the Monetary and Financial Code.
•A joint decree of the Ministries of the Interior and Economy and Finance was published today in the Official Gazette,” said the statement that was placed on social media by the French Ambassador to India.
•It is understood that the decision was aimed at imposing a national ban on Azhar as this is necessary for barring him from accessing any EU territory.
•External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called it a sign of “worldwide support” for India’s fight against terror. French Foreign Minister Le Drian called up Ms. Swaraj and informed her of the decision.
•The statement reiterated French support to India’s fight against terrorism. France had extended support to India’s international campaign to ban Masood Azhar as a terrorist who threatens global peace and safety.
•“We will raise this issue with our European partners with a view to including Masood Azhar on the European Union list of persons, groups and entities involved in terrorist acts, based on this decree,” the press statement said.
•The Hindu has learnt that Paris took the step to sanction Masood Azhar, as a prelude to raise the case of banning him at EU-level. The official said that the announcement will “impede all kind of access to the French financial sector to Masood Azhar”.
•France’s action is expected to put more pressure on Pakistan to act against the terror groups based in its territory. India has been demanding tough verifiable action against the terror groups and individuals like Masood Azhar.
📰 Two suspended over fatal bridge collapse
BMC ordersre-audit of all Mumbai bridges
•A day after parts of a footbridge collapsed in south Mumbai taking 6 lives and injuring 31, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday suspended two officials, initiated a departmental inquiry and ordered a re-audit of all city bridges. The Mumbai police too opened a parallel probe by registering an FIR.
•As part of the re-audit, the civic body reassigned the bridges that had been audited by the firm responsible for auditing the collapsed Himalaya footbridge at the city’s CSTM railway station to another structural auditor.
Auditor blacklisted
•BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta placed two engineers of the civic bridges department under suspension, while ordering three other senior engineers to face a departmental probe. Mr. Mehta also ordered the filing of an FIR against and the blacklisting of D. D. Desai, the structural auditor. The BMC will also issue a show-cause notice to the contractor who undertook certain repairs to the footbridge in 2013, prior to a blacklisting. The removal of the collapsed bridge’s steel frame began on Friday.
•Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had, during a visit to the site, assured that responsibility for the bridge collapse would be fixed by Friday evening.
•Meanwhile, the Azad Maidan police expanded the probe to include “all individuals and institutions concerned with the maintenance of the bridge.”
•Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone I) Abhishek Trimukhe said, “We have sought all documents concerned with the bridge from the BMC. Our investigation will be independent of the action taken by the civic body. Samples have also been collected by a team from the Forensic Sciences Laboratory (FSL) for testing.”
•Dombivli residents Apoorva Prabhu, Ranjana Tambe and Bhakti Shinde, all nurses of GT Hospital, who died in the incident, were cremated on Friday. The body of Mohan Kaygunde was taken to his native Karad. The last rites of the other two victims, Zahid Khan and Tapendra Singh, were conducted near their respective homes in Ghatkopar and Sewree.
📰 A fresh warning: what GEO-6 means for India
India must recognise the human cost of poorly enforced environment laws
•The sixth edition of the Global Environment Outlook from the UN Environment Programme has come as another stark warning: the world is unsustainably extracting resources and producing unmanageable quantities of waste. The linear model of economic growth depends on the extraction of ever-higher quantities of materials, leading to chemicals flowing into air, water and land. This causes ill-health and premature mortality, and affects the quality of life, particularly for those unable to insulate themselves from these effects. The UN report, GEO-6, on the theme “Healthy Planet, Healthy People,” has some sharp pointers for India. It notes that East and South Asia have the highest number of deaths due to air pollution; by one estimate, it killed about 1.24 million in India in 2017. As India’s population grows, it must worry that agricultural yields are coming under stress due to increase in average temperature and erratic monsoons. The implications of these forecasts for food security and health are all too evident, more so for the 148 million people living in severe weather ‘hotspots’. Evidently, the task before India is to recognise the human cost of poorly enforced environment laws and demonstrate the political will necessary to end business-as-usual policies. That would mean curbing the use of fossil fuels and toxic chemicals across the spectrum of economic activity.
•There are some targeted interventions that only require the resolve to reduce air and water pollution, and which in turn promise early population-level benefits. Aggressive monitoring of air quality in cities through scaled-up facilities would bring about a consensus on cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, and provide the impetus to shift to cleaner sources of energy. It is significant that GEO-6 estimates that the top 10% of populations globally, in terms of wealth, are responsible for 45% of GHG emissions, and the bottom 50% for only 13%. Pollution impacts are, however, borne more by the poorer citizens. Combating air pollution would, therefore, require all older coal-based power plants in India to conform to emission norms at the earliest, or to be shut down in favour of renewable energy sources. Transport emissions are a growing source of urban pollution, and a quick transition to green mobility is needed. In the case of water, the imperative is to stop the contamination of surface supplies by chemicals, sewage and municipal waste. As the leading extractor of groundwater, India needs to make water part of a circular economy in which it is treated as a resource that is recovered, treated and reused. But water protection gets low priority, and State governments show no urgency in augmenting rainwater harvesting. New storage areas act as a supply source when monsoons fail, and help manage floods when there is excess rainfall.
📰 Clean poll a huge challenge: CEC
Expenditure monitoring mechanism stronger now, says Sunil Arora
•The Election Commission on Friday held a meeting of the Multi-Departmental Committee on Election Intelligence, comprising representatives of the heads of tax boards, law enforcement agencies, central paramilitary forces and financial institutions, to review the measures being taken to check abuse of money power for influencing voters.
•Among those who attended the meeting were Central Board of Direct Taxes Chairman and Member (Investigation) P.C. Mody; Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs chief Pranab Kumar Das; Enforcement Directorate chief Sanjay Kumar Mishra; Central Economic Intelligence Bureau Director-General Mitali Madhusmita; and Financial Intelligence Unit head Pankaj Kumar Mishra.
•Addressing the officers, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said: “Conducting clean elections is now one of the biggest challenges in our democracy given the prevalent abuse of money power, particularly when it manifests in inducement of voters.”
•The Commission has already issued detailed guidelines to monitor election expenditure incurred by candidates and political parties.
•“The expenditure monitoring mechanism has got stronger over a period of time and larger seizures have been made by our enforcement teams in successive elections,” Mr. Arora said.
•Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa said effective implementation of the EC’s instructions required coordination among the various expenditure monitoring teams and the agencies tasked with enforcement. “Sharing of intelligence among the agencies should ensure that there is concerted attack on the problems,” Mr. Lavasa said.
Two thrust areas
•Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said the expenditure monitoring mechanism with its two thrust areas of keeping track of the legal expenses incurred by candidates and political parties for campaigns ensuring that there was no illegal use of money and other items for buying of votes, was vital to ensuring clean elections.
📰 Exports rise 2.44%; trade deficit narrows
Merchandise exports grew to $26.67 billion in Feb., imports declined to $36.26 bn
•A marginal 2.44% increase in exports as well as lower imports of gold and petroleum products in February, significantly narrowed the country’s trade deficit to $9.6 billion, according to data released by the Commerce Ministry on Friday.
•India’s merchandise exports rose to $26.67 billion in February from $26.03 in the year-ago month mainly on account of higher shipments in sectors such as pharmaceutical, engineering and electronics.
•Imports declined by 5.4% to $36.26 billion in the last month, narrowing the trade deficit to $9.6 billion. The gap between imports and exports was $12.3 billion in February 2018, and $14.73 billion in January 2019.
•As per the data, the drop in imports was mainly on account of sharp decline in inward shipments of gold and petroleum products.
Gold import falls
•While the import of gold fell by about 11% to $2.58 billion in February, as against $2.89 billion in the corresponding month last fiscal, inward shipments of petroleum products were down by nearly 8% to $9.37 billion. During the April-February period of the current fiscal year, exports grew 8.85% to $298.47 billion, while imports rose by 9.75% to $464 billion. The trade deficit has widened to $165.52 billion during the 11 months of the current fiscal from $148.55 billion compared to the year-ago period, the data said.
•Non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery exports in February 2019 stood at $19.87 billion, as compared to $18.90 billion in the year-ago month. Non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery exports in April-February 2018-19 were $217.43 billion, as against $201.95 billion in the comparative period last fiscal.
•President of exporters’ body FIEO Ganesh Kumar Gupta said 18 out of 30 major product groups were in positive territory, with most of them with marginal growth during the month. “However, with this trend, we will be able to achieve merchandise exports of about $330 billion, the highest ever exports for a fiscal,” he added.
•Meanwhile, RBI said services exports in January 2019 were $17.75 billion, registering a negative growth of 1.02% over December 2018.
📰 Post fund infusion, ICRA revises rating for 6 PSBs
IDBI Bank outlook moves to ‘negative’
•ICRA has revised the ratings outlook of six banks that have received substantial capital infusion from promoters.
•The lenders are IDBI Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab and Sind Bank, and Punjab National Bank. Outlook for IDBI Bank, which has now been categorised as private sector lender by RBI following stake buy by Life Insurance Corporation of India from the government, has been changed to ‘negative’ from ‘rating watch with developing implication.’
•According to the ratings agency, the change in outlook is due to sizeable capital infusion by LIC, as part of its acquisition of a majority stake (51%).
•“With this capital infusion, ICRA expects IDBI’s capital levels to remain above the regulatory levels going forward, thereby not posing any challenge for the servicing of its debt capital instruments,” the ratings agency said.
Stable outlook
•For all the other five banks, outlook has been changed from ‘negative’ to ‘stable’ due to capital infusion by the government. ICRA said capital infusion had reduced asset quality pressures and improved earnings indicators.
