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Expansion of

Central List of OBCs

The Union Cabinet of India approved inclusion of

the names of some castes and communities in the

Central list of other backward classes. The Union

Cabinet gave this approval on the advice of Na-

tional Commission for backward Classes which

asked for amendment in the list of backwardclasses. These caste and communities belong to

14 states namely Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal

Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh,

Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, West

Bengal, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra

Pradesh and two union territories- Andaman and

Nicobar Islands and Puducherry.The Union Cabi-

net of India also approved a payment security

scheme to make sure that financial closure of

projects under phase-1 of the Jawaharlal Nehru

National Solar Mission.

Legislation to Curb

Honour Killings

The Law Commission headed by Justice P.

Venkatrama Reddi approved the proposed draft

legislation, The Endangerment of Life and Liberty

(protection, prosecution and other measures) Act,

2011 to prosecute persons or a group involved in

honour killings. Law commission memberR.Venkatramni drafted the proposed

legislation.The draft legislation prohibits village

elders to interfere with the life and liberty of young

couples who marry as per their choice even if they

belong to the same gotra. According to the legisla-

tion, village elders cannot place these couples in a

hostile environment in the village concerned.As

per the draft legislation, the act of endangerment

of life and liberty will mean and include measures

such as social boycott, forcing people to leave their

homes in the locality and deprivation of the means

of livelihood. However, the law commission

turned down the demand for introducing a clause

in Section 300 of the Indian Penal Code to bring

honour killings under its ambit (Section 300).The

act drafted by the law commission to curb honur

killings was necessary becuase Article 21 of the

Constitution of India clearly states that no person

shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty ex-

cept according to procedure established by law

Khap Panchayats can't impose their dictats on

young couples.

Remote Sensing

Data Policy

The Union government unveiled a new remote

sensing data policy called the Remote Sensing DataPolicy 2011(RSDP2011) which allows all data of

resolutions up to 1 metre to be distributed on a

non-discriminatory basis. The new policy replaced

the 2001 policy.Apart from opening up the remote

sensing sector, the RSDP 2011 will remove restric-

tions to facilitate more users to get high resolution

data for developmental activities. Restrictions as

per the earlier 2001 policy, was removed. Now

there is no bar on publishing of high resolution

remote sensing data of up to one metre

resolution.However, the RSDP stated that all data

of better than 1 metre resolution shall be screened

and cleared by the appropriate agency before dis-

tribution. According to the RSDP2011, the Na-

tional Remote Sensing Centre will be vested with

the authority to acquire and disseminate all satel-

lite remote sensing data in India both from Indian

and foreign satellites for the purpose of develop-

NATIONAL ISSUES





ment activities. The RSDP-2011 comes into ef-

fect immediately.

Critic isism of State Governments

for Misusing Provisions of Land

Acquisition

|A Supreme Court bench including Justice GS

Singhvi and Justice AK Ganguly refused to stay

the Allahabad High Court order quashing the no-

tifications for land acquisition in the area adjoin-

ing New Delhi and NCR. The court slammed state

governments for misusing provisions of Land Ac-

quisition Act to divest farmers of their agricultural

land and giving it to builders. The court even ques-

tioned building of hotels, malls and commercial

complexes on land acquired for public purpose.The

bench made an observation that a sinister campaign

has been launched by many state governments to

take advantage of the law against the poor people

for taking away the land and giving it to builders

where multiplexes, malls, posh residential com-

plexes are developed which are beyond the reach

of common men. The bench questioned the change

in land use by Uttar Pradesh government in Greater

Noida.

Extension ofthe RSBY Scheme

The Union Cabinet approved extension of the

Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) to all

the registered domestic workers in India. The

scheme will likely cover approximately 47.50 lakh

domestic workers in the country. The RSBY will

provide for smart card based cashless health in-

surance cover of Rs.30000 per annum to BPL

workers (a unit of five) in unorganised sector in

any empanelled hospital anywhere in India. More

than 2.34 crore smart cards were issued on 31 May

2011. The health insurance cover, available to do-

mestic workers in the 18-59 age bracket, will en-

title the beneficiary to cashless treatment at

empanelled hospitals. The beneficiaries will have

to get identification certificates from two of the

four eligible institutions namely- employer, resi-

dents welfare association, registered trade union

or the local police.The scheme has since then been

extended to building and other construction work-

ers registered with Welfare Boards constituted

under the Building and Other Construction Work-

ers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of

Service) Act, 1996, street vendors, beedi workers

and such MNREGA workers who have worked for

more than 15 days during the preceding year.

National Mission for JusticeDelivery and Legal Reforms

Union Cabinet of India approved of a proposal of

the law ministry for a National Mission for Justice

Delivery and Legal Reforms, providing for fast

track courts to clear the backlog in the judicial

system.The objective of the Mission is to increase

access to justice by reducing delays and arrears inthe system and enhance accountability through

structural changes and by setting performance stan-

dards. The objectives are to be achieved in a time

bound manner by 2015-16 through a mission mode

approach. The Mission is planned to have a Mis-

sion Directorate, an Advisory Council and a Gov-

erning Council for overseeing the implementation

of the Mission.

Areas covered :Policy and legislative changesre-engineering of procedures, human resource de-

velopment, leveraging ICT and improve physica

infrastructure of subordinate courts. Infrastructure

development is a much needed requirement of the

subordinate judiciary. It aimed to increase access

to justice by reducing delays and arrears and en-

hanced accountability through structural changes

and by setting performance standards. The focus

was on infrastructure development in the courts

through computerisation, improving physical in-

frastructure and human resource development.

The salient features:

» The National Mission would comprise of Advi-

sory Council, Governing Council, National Mis-

sion Leader and the Mission Directorate.

» The Advisory council is to advise on the goals,

objectives and strategies of the National Mission

and the Action Plan and its implementation and





performance of the Mission in meeting its objec-

tives and would be chaired by the Minister for Law

and Justice and would have membership from Par-

liament, State Governments, Jurists & senior of-

ficers of Government of India.

» The Governing Council would facilitate imple-

mentation, give policy directions and oversee thework of the Mission and would be headed by the

Minister for Law and Justice.

» The Secretary, Department of Justice would be

the National Mission Leader.

» A Mission Directorate would be constituted to

implement and monitor the various initiative/pro-

gram of the National Mission. It would be headed

by an officer of the rank of the Joint Secretary who

would act as the Mission Director.

» An Action Plan has been drawn up which would

of course be subjected to change once the Gov-

erning Council meets to set out the agenda.

» Inadequacy of infrastructure facilities in Dis-

trict and Subordinate courts has remained a major

bottleneck in the judicial system largely contrib-

uting to the accumulation of arrears. So, a pre-

liminary assessment of requirement of infrastruc-

ture for subordinate courts from the States was also

made.

High-powered Task Forc e o fDefence Management

The Union government decided to set up a high-

powered task force to review the unfinished tasks

and make further suggestions for implementation

with a view to revamp of defence management in

India. The government arrived at the decision ten

years after the Kargil Review Committee and a

Group of Ministers attempted the first major

revamp.The 14-member task force will be headedby Naresh Chandra, a former bureaucrat who has

held top administrative jobs in the Ministry of

Defence and Prime Minister's Office. Task force

members include Air Chief Marshal (retd.) S.

Krishnaswamy, Gen. (retd.) V.R. Raghavan, the

former Department of Atomic Energy chief Anil

Kakodkar, Admiral (retd.) Arun Prakash, the

former R&AW head K.C. Verma, the former Union

Home Secretary V.K. Duggal, G. Parthasarathy

former diplomat, and senior journalist Manoj

Joshi.The panel is expected to start its work on 14

July and has six months to complete its report.The

Naresh Chandra committee will contemporarise

the Kargil Review Committee’s (KRC) recommen-

dations in view of the fact that 10 years have passed

since the report was submitted. It is also expected

to examine why some of the crucial recommenda-

tions relating to border management and restruc-

turing the apex command structure in the armed

forces have not been implemented. It will look at

the reasons why the post of first among equals

among the three service chiefs in the form of a

Chief of Defence Staff was never created.The for-

mation of the task force marked the first compre-

hensive attempt at reviewing the entire gamut of

defence preparedness and management in a decade

Salwa Judum is Illegal

and Unconstitutional

Sudershan Reddy and Justice SS Nijjar declared

Salwa Judum as illegal and unconstitutional. The

court ordered the immediate disarming of triba

youths who are deployed as Special Police Offic-

ers- either as Koya Commandos, Salwa Judum or

any other force- in the fight against the Maoistinsurgency. The court gave the ruling in response

to writ petition filed by social anthropologist

Nandini Sundar and others. The ruling given by

the court indicted the Chhattisgarh state for vio-

lating Constitutional principles in arming youth

who had passed only fifth standard and conferring

on them the powers of police.The bench held that

the policy of the Chhattisgarh state violated the

rights under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution

of those who were employed as SPOs and used in

counter-insurgency measures against Naxalites aswell as of citizens living in the concerned areas.The

bench asked the state of Chhattisgarh to recall all

firearms issued to any of the SPOs. The word fire-

arm means all forms of guns, rifles, launchers etc.





India International Institute of

Democ rac y and Elec tion

Management

The Election Commission of India launched the

India International Institute of Democracy andElection Management, IIDEM in New Delhi. It is

an advanced resource centre of learning, research,

training and extension for participatory democracy

and election management. The institute is set to

be a national and international hub for exchange

of good practices in election management. It was

inaugurated by the Chief Election Commissioner

Dr. S Y Quraishi at Nirvachan Sadan 17 June

2011.IIDEM is to work for enhancing voter edu-

cation, and developing human resource for effi-cient conduct of free and fair elections in India.

Along with this it is also set to develop mutually

beneficial partnership with other countries. The

institute has four components. These are – (1)

Training and Capacity Development, (2) Voter

Education and Civic Participation, (3) Research,

Innovation and Documentation and (4) Interna-

tional Projects and Technical Collaboration.

Centre for

Social Research Report

The Centre for Social Research (CSR) recently

released a report- “Gender dimensions of interna-

tional migration from India and Bangladesh: Im-

pact on the families left behind” on 5 August 2010.

The report was based on the study of the socio-

economic impact of migration on 1000 families

from migration pockets of India and Bangladesh

in 2009. In both these countries poverty, better pay

packets, employer relocation, landlessness, aban-donment/divorce, husband's premature death, edu-

cation and children's dowry payment were the rea-

sons that compelled people mostly women to mi-

grate. Among the total number of people who mi-

grated only a handfull used formal government

migration channels while the majority relied on

informal channels like ‘dalaals’ and agents. The

study showed that in India, United Arab Emirates

was the most favoured destination of male and fe-

male migrants, followed closely by Saudi Arabia

Whereas in Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia was the most

preferred, followed by UAE and Kuwait.

India Signed Three Agreem ents

with the World Bank forCleaning the ang a River

India signed three agreements with the World Bank

for cleaning the Ganga River on 14 June 2011

Besides this, the agreement also held for strength-

ening Rural Livelihoods and Biodiversity Conser-

vation of India. The World Bank agreed to pro-

vide one billion US Dollars (approximately Rs

4,600 crore) for the Ganga river cleaning project

It also agreed for a credit worth approximately 24

million dollars for the two projects, i.e. strength-

ening Rural Livelihoods and Biodiversity Conser-

vation of India. The agreements for the Biodiversity

Conservation and Rural Livelihood Improvement

Project were signed by Mr. Venu Rajamony, Joint

Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Min

istry of Finance, on behalf of the Government of

India, and Mr. Roberto Zagha, World Bank Coun-

try Director in India in presence of Mr Jairam

Ramesh, Minister Environment and Forests, Gov-

ernment of India.The Ganga faces great challengesfrom expanding population, urbanization and in-

dustrial growth. To stop the flow of untreated mu-

nicipal sewage and industrial effluent into the

Ganga river by 2020 is the objective of Ganga

project. The World Bank has been a major finan-

cier of biodiversity projects globally. With the as-

sistance of the World Bank, an empowered and

collaborative body of the Central and state gov-

ernments, National Ganga River Basin Authority

(NGRBA) decided to implement the Nationa

Ganga River Basin Project. The focus of the projectis on (1) building and strengthening the Nationa

Ganga River Basin Authority’s (NGRBA) related

institutions at the Central and state level; (2) es-

tablishing a world-class Ganga Knowledge Cen-

tre; (3) enhancing river basin management; and (4)

financing select priority investments to reduce

point-source pollution in a sustainable manner. A

complete new model of managing the protected





areas while safeguarding the livelihoods of local

communities is set to put in place in two protected

areas, one each in Uttarakhand and Gujarat.

Pension Age-limit

for BPL to 60

The Union Cabinet of India lowered the age limit

for the purpose from 65 to 60 years. The decision

taken by the cabinet will be effective from 1 April

2011. It is like to benefit an additional 72.32 lakh

people in the age-group of 60-64 years. The deci-

sion would lead to an additional expenditure of

1736 crore rupees.In 2007, the government had

launched the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pen-

sion scheme to provide assistance to senior citi-

zens falling in the Below Poverty Line (BPL)

category.The Union Cabinet also decided to raisethe rate of pension to persons of 80 years and above

from 200 rupees to 500 rupees.

Navodaya Vidyalayas outside

the ambit of RTE Ac t

The Union Law Ministry decided to keep the

Navodaya Vidyalayas in the country outside the

ambit of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. The

decision was reached by the Law Ministry afterhearing out the logic of Human Resource Devel-

opment Ministry and consultation with the Attor-

ney General (AG). The two key provisions of the

RTE Act are- no screening and 25% reservation

for economically weaker sections will not be ap-

plicable to 444 Navodaya Vidyalayas across the

country. The RTE Act states that no screening test

of either children or their parents can be conducted

for admission in any school. Every school will have

to reserve 25 percent seats for the children belong-

ing to economically weaker section. However en-

trance examination is the basis for admission in

Navodaya Vidyalayas, which had refused to admit

children under RTE. Following the refusal of the

Navodaya Vidyalayas to abide by the prescribed

admission procedures, National Commission for

Child Protection had issued notice to Navodaya

Vidyalaya to cancel admission on the basis of en-

trance test.

There are a number of reasons for letting

Navodaya Vidyalayas off the RTE hook:

» Navodaya Vidyalayas start from class VI and

not class I.

» These schools, located in all districts, have 75%

seats reserved for rural children. Seats are also re-

served for children from SC and ST communitiesin proportion to their population in the district, but

not less than the national average.

» One-third of the seats are for girl students and

3% of the seats are for disabled children.

» Till class IX there is no fee, and from IX to XII,

Rs 200 is charged per month.

CCS Gave Nod for

National Intelligenc e Grid

Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, gave its nod for

National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID)

NATGRID would be a repository of information

ranging from train and air journey to Income Tax

and bank accounts of individuals. NATGRID wil

facilitate sharing of such kind of information with

law enforcement agencies to combat terror

threat.The NATGRID will have access to 21 cat-

egories of database like air travel, railway, bank

account details, income tax, credit card transac-tions, visa and immigration records.

Following the Mumbai terror attack on 26 Novem-

ber 2008, Home ministry had proposed a blue print

for country’s internal security, which included the

formation of NATGRID.

Janani-Shishu

Suraksha Programme

The UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi launched the

Janani-Shishu Suraksha Programme at Mewat in

Haryana. Janani-Shishu Suraksha programme was

sponsored by the Ministry of Health and Family

Welfare. The programme was launched for preg-

nant women with the objective to effectively ad-

dress the problem of maternal and child

mortality.Under the Janani-Shishu Suraksha





programme, pregnant mothers can avail govern-

ment health institutions for free deliveries. Both

the mother and her child will get free treatment,

free drugs and consumables, diagnostics, user

charges besides free provision of blood and

transportation.The free facilities will comprise

delivery including C-section, special diet, diagnos-

tics etc.

MPLAD Sc heme

Revised

As part of an effort to ensure timely and effective

implementation of works proposed under the

Member of Parliament Local Area Development

Scheme (MPLADS), the Union Government de-

cided to raise the amount to be released in the first

instalment. The MPLADS allow MPs to suggestworks to the Head of District to be taken up in

their constituency.Projects implemented by gov-

ernment agencies would now be provided 75 per

cent of the project cost as the first instalment, while

the ones implemented by non-governmental agen-

cies would be provided 60 per cent. Currently only

50 per cent of the estimated cost is released as the

first instalment, irrespective of the nature of the

project, which led to complaints of delays in

completion.According to Union Minister for Sta-tistics and Programme Implementation M.S. Gill,

the government’s decision is likely to improve the

working of the Scheme as a whole. Conditions

were further relaxed for smaller projects costing

less than Rs.2 lakh. For such small projects the

entire amount would be released at one go.To en-

sure that funds were not spread too thinly, the gov-

ernment decided against sanctioning project cost-

ing less than Rs.1 lakh.The Centre aims at ensur-

ing that the MPLADS funds were utilised fruit-

fully for the benefit of the grassroots, therefore thebasket of works that could be taken up under the

scheme had been widened to include projects such

as the purchase of books for libraries, and ambu-

lances and hearse vans that would be owned and

controlled by district authorities.The scope and ex-

tent of the physical monitoring of completed

projects would also be expanded to cover 400 more

districts.

Highlights of revised MPLADS:

» Projects implemented by government agencies

would now be provided 75 per cent of the project

cost as the first instalment.

» Conditions relaxed for smaller projects costing

less than Rs.2 lakh.

» Projects costing less than Rs 1 lakh will not tobe sanctioned.

» Basket of works that could be taken up under

the scheme had been widened to include projects

such as the purchase of books for libraries.

» MPs would be allowed to spend up to Rs.10

lakh a year on projects in any State or Union Terri-

tory.

» Limit of Rs.50 lakh per annum was imposed on

contributions to trusts and societies.

» Scope & extent of the physical monitoring ofcompleted projects expanded to cover 400 more

districts.

Sec urity Audit

of Nuc lear Stations

The Union government of India ordered security

audit of all important installations comprising

nuclear stations, military bases and oil refineries

across the nation. The order was issued after a high-

level meeting held by the Union Home Ministry

following the terrorist attack on a naval base in

Pakistan. A joint-team of local security heads and

Intelligence Bureau will survey and assess the leve

of security of the important installations. The se-

curity audit will cover all nuclear plants, oil refin-

eries, Indian Space Research Organisation instal-

lations, military camps and airports.

20 More Districts in the

Naxal-hit states

The Union government of India decided to bring

20 more districts in the Naxal-hit states for declar-

ing more districts as extreme Left Wing

Extremism(LWE) affected districts. If these dis-

tricts included in the list of LWE-hit distrcts, these

areas will receive special Central funds for infra-

structure and security- related expenses under the





Security Related Expenditure scheme. Under this

scheme, districts of Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkahnd

and Orissa will be benefitted. A proposal regard-

ing this was sent by the Union Ministry of Home

Affairs to the Planning Commission. At present,

60 districts receive 25 crore rupees each for the

scheme earmarked by a committee chaired by dis-

trict collector. It has been a long-time demand of

the Naxal-affected states that more districts be

declared LWE.

Diesel is dea rer by Rs 3 a litre

& Kerosene by Rs 2 a litre

The Union government on 24 June 2011 decided

to increase the price of diesel by Rs. 3 a litre, kero-

sene by Rs. 2 a litre and domestic LPG by Rs.50 a

cylinder. The government also slashed the Cus-toms duty on crude oil and all other petroleum

products by five percentage points. The excise duty

on diesel was reduced from Rs. 4.60 a litre to Rs.

2 a litre. As a result of the government decisions a

revenue loss of Rs Rs.49,000 crore was

entailed.The hike in the prices of the three com-

modities will lead to a revenue gain of Rs. 21000

crore to the oil marketing companies (OMCs), that

are currently suffering huge under-recoveries that

are being projected at Rs.170140 crore in 2011-12. The under-recoveries will now come down to

Rs.1.20 lakh crore.The Trinamool Congress had

opposed any increase in the prices of petroleum

products, especially those of kerosene and

LPG.However Pranab Mukherjee described the

increase in fuel prices as modest. Mukherjee ex-

pressed the hope that the State governments would

reduce their taxes to provide relief to consumers.

Grievance Redressal Portal for

Insurance Policy Holders

SK Sharma, Secretary, Department of Financial

Services, Ministry of Finance launched an online

grievance redressal portal for insurance policy

holders in New Delhi. The portal would offer in-

tegrated grievance management system (IGMS).

The government launched this portal with the ob-

jective of putting in place a proper regulatory

mechanism to protect the interest of insurance

policyholders.Integrated Grievance Management

System (IGMS) is a comprehensive solution which

not only provides a centralized and online access

to the policyholder but also completes access and

control to Insurance Regulatory Development

Authority (IRDA) for monitoring grievance dis-

posal by insurance companies. The system will be

able to assign, store and track unique complaint

IDs and also enable intimation to various stake

holders as needed.

NAC d irec ted the Tribal Affairs

Ministry to c onsult Jarawa s

The National Advisory Council (NAC) directed

the Tribal Affairs Ministry consult the Jarawas, a

primitive tribal group in the Andaman and NicobarIslands who are threatened with extinction, before

drafting a policy on their future. The question on

their future revolves around whether they should

continue to live in their pristine habitat, in splen-

did isolation, or be allowed to mingle with the lo-

cal population.NAC’s concern was raised follow-

ing a recommendation made by the Andaman and

Nicobar Islands administration that as the Jarawas

have already begun mingling with the local popu-

lation, the policy of isolation should end. Earlierin 2011, the NAC itself had sent an official to the

island to check whether the Jarawas were being

adversely affected by the droves of tourists. There

have been fears of exploitation, including sexual

exploitation of the Jarawas.Sonia Gandhi headed

NAC wanted a full-fledged discussion on the is-

sue regarding the future of Jarawas. Lieutenant

Governor of the Islands, Lt.Gen. (retd.) Bhopinder

Singh, made a presentation on the Jarawa policy

adopted by the government in 2004 and the cur-

rent status of the threatened tribal group.

The Survey o f Ind ia ReportSubmitted

The Survey of India report was submitted to the

submitted to the Supreme Court on 30 April 2010

The report deals with the mining activities of the

Andhra Pradesh- Karnataka border that involved





the Karnataka Cabinet ministers- the Reddy brothers. The report recommended the Andhra Pradesh

government to redraw the leases of all their four mines and continue with the ban on their mining

activities until the demarcation is complete. The report became a cause of concern for the Reddy broth-

ers whose Obulapuram Mining Company has three mining leases and their partnership firm Anantapur

Mining Corporation has one lease in Andhra Pradesh. The boundary pillars in the Reddy’s mines were

reported missing. Reddys’ mines extended into Karnataka and overlapped with the mine of rival miner

Bellary Iron Ores Pvt Ltd, belonging to S K Modi.

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