Parliament approves long-pending Insurance Bill
- In a major relief to the NDA government, the Congress extended its support to pass the long- pending Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2015 in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday even as a number of Opposition parties staged a walkout.
The Bill, which replaced an ordinance promulgated in December 2013, was passed by a voice vote after a walkout by the Trinamool Congress, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Janata Dal (United), the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.
BJP, Congress in a new alliance: TMC
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s ally, Shiva Sena, did not oppose the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2015, but did “register reservations” that it had over certain provisions that allow an increase in the foreign direct investment cap from 26 per cent to 49 per cent. Another ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal, asked the government to ensure that foreign investments did not benefit a “select few”.
The Left parties, which had earlier moved a statutory resolution disapproving the Ordinance promulgated in December 2013, also came together to register their opposition to the Bill. P. Rajeeve and Tapan Sen of the CPI (M) and D. Raja of the CPI insisted on a “division.” “This Bill should not be passed without any protest registered,” Mr. Rajeeve said turning down Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu’s request to not push for a division.
Earlier, while moving the statutory resolution, Mr. Raja said his party was not opposed to FDI per se, especially if it “helps to create jobs, national assets and new technology,” but is was not convinced by the government’s decision to allow FDI in insurance. Derek O’Brien of the TMC, which has been vociferous in its opposition to the Bill, said his party had been consistent in resisting the move. Hitting out at the Congress for breaking ranks with the rest of the Opposition, he said a “new alliance” of the Congress and the BJP had come together to pass the Bill.
The Bill, which has been pending since 2008, got support from the BJD and the NCP, and the AIADMK that suggested that insurance companies should be asked to emulate LIC, which has helped infrastructure development. The passage of the Bill is being considered a key reform likely to help the government’s efforts to strengthen the investment sentiment and business confidence in the country.
India among top 20 realty investment destinations in world
- Investments in Indian real estate last year jumped more than two-fold to over USD 5 billion, helping the country figure in the list of world's top 20 property destinations, according to consultant Cushman & wakefield.
"India is amongst the top 20 real estate investment destinations for 2014 with total of USD 5,000 million," global property consultant Cushman & Wakefield said in a statement.
India at the 20th rank recorded the third highest growth in investments, with an increase of over 140 per cent in total investment volumes in 2014 at USD 5,050 million against USD 2,100 million in the previous year.
Of the total investment volume, the domestic investments were recorded at USD 3,120 million (62 per cent) and foreign at USD 1,930 million (38 per cent).
"The Indian real estate investment scenario saw a high point in 2014 reaching highest investment levels in the last five years," C&W said in its report 'International Investment Atlas 2015'.
However, the consultant, said the global real estate investments fell in 2014 for the first time in five years, dropping 6.3 per cent to USD 1.21 trillion.
"By activity, the USA has moved back to the top for the first time since 2009, with volumes rising 16.2 per cent to USD 390.6 billion, 16 per cent ahead of China. These two of course dominate global activity with a combined 60 per cent market share," the report said.
Out of total investment volumes in Indian real estate, corporate investments increased sharply at USD 2,550 million in 2014 against USD 900 million in 2013.
Private Equity investments too increased to USD 2,500 million from USD 1,200 million during the period under review.
Corporate investments transactions include real estate purchases by companies including office or development site assets for end-use, development or investment, C&W said.
"Residential emerged as the sector to receive the highest amount of investment totalling up to USD 2,600 million while office sector followed closely at approximately USD 2,000 million," C&W said.
Commenting on the report, C&W Executive Managing Director, South Asia Sanjay Dutt said: "The huge growth in investment volumes in real estate markets in India are proof that investors are already acting out on their expectations of improvements in the ease of doing business in India".
He expects investment volumes to increase even more to match the levels of top 10 global investment destinations.
"Indeed, there is huge longer-term potential if the government addresses supply-side bottlenecks such as poor infrastructure to enhance India's position as a global IT and outsourcing hub, as these could boost private investments (including foreign funds) and ensure all-inclusive growth for the entire population," Dutt said.
Law Comission of India Submits its Report on Electoral Reforms
- The law Commission of India today submitted its Report No. 255 on “Electoral Reforms” to the Union Law and Justice Ministry. Informing this to the Media persons here in New Delhi Justice Shri A. P. Shah, Chairman Law Commission of India said the 201 page report has come after due consideration and deliberations with the stake holders including of register national and state political party and extensive and in-depth analysis of various issues by the commission. He said this report is sequel of the request of Ministry of Law and Justice made in January 2013 to the Twentieth Law Commission of India to consider the issue of ‘Electoral Reforms’ in its entirety and suggest comprehensive measures for changes in the law. While working on the subject, the Supreme Court of India, in the matter of ‘Public Interest Foundation & Others V. Union of India & Anr- Writ Petition (Civil) No. 536 of 2011, directed the Law Commission of India to make its suggestions on two specific issues, viz., (i) ‘curbing criminalization of politics and needed law reforms’; and (ii) ‘impact and consequences of candidates filing false affidavits and needed law reforms to check such practice’. In the light of this judgment, the Commission worked specifically on these two areas and, after series of discussions, followed by a National Consultation held on 1st February 2014, submitted its 244th Report titled ‘Electoral Disqualification’ on 24th February 2014 to the Government of India.
Justice Shah further said that after the submission of Report No. 244, the commission circulated another questionnaire to all registered national and state political parties seeking their views on ten points, the response received was not very encouraging, though. However, the Commission undertook an extensive study to suggest electoral reforms, held various rounds of discussions with the stakeholders and analysed in-depth the issues involved. After detailed deliberations, the Commission has come up with its recommendations which are put in the form its final Repot, Repot No.255, titled ‘Electoral Reforms’, which been submitted for for consideration by the Government.
Following is the summery of the report on various issues discussed in the report. The amendments to the Constitution, RPA, Election Rules and any other laws have been made in track changes in the Annexure appended to this Report. The detailed report is available on the website of the commission:
1.Election Finance
The Law Commission has proposed wide ranging reforms on the issue of candidate expenditure limits; disclosure obligations of individual candidates and political parties; and penalties imposable on political parties; as well as examining the issue of state funding of elections.
a. Section 77 of the RPA, regulating the election expenses incurred or authorized by candidates or their election agents, currently extends from the date of nomination to the date of declaration of results. This period should be extended by amending section 77(1) to apply from the date of notification of the elections to the date of declaration of results. [Para 2.31(a)1]
b. Section 182(1) of the Companies Act, 2013 should be amended to require the passing of the resolution authorising the contribution from the company’s funds to a political party at the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) instead of its Board of Directors.
[Para 2.31(a)2]
c. The existing disclosure obligations of individual candidates are limited to maintaining an account of electoral expenses under sections 77 and 78, RPA. This is sought to be amended by inserting a new section 77A to require candidates or their election agents to maintain an account and disclose the particulars (names, addresses and PAN card numbers of donors and amounts contributed) of
i. any individual contribution received by them from any person or company, not being a Government company and
ii. any contribution by the political party from the date of notification of elections, which have to be made by the party by a crossed account payee cheque or draft or bank transfer.
[Para 2.31(b)3]
d. Section 78 should be amended in light of the proposed amendment to section 77A above, and the reference to more than one returned candidate should be removed.
[Para 2.31(b)4]
e. A new section 78A should be inserted requiring the district election officer to make publicly available, on his website or on file for public inspection on payment of prescribed fee, the expenditure reports submitted by every contesting candidate under section 78.
[Para 2.31(b)5]
f. Political parties should be required to maintain and submit annual accounts, duly audited by a qualified and practicing chartered accountant from a panel of such accountants maintained for the purpose by the Comptroller and Auditor General, to the ECI every financial year. These accounts will fully and clearly disclose all the amounts received by the party and the expenditure incurred by it. The ECI will then upload these accounts online or keep them on file for public inspection on payment of fee.
[Para 2.31(b)6]
g. Disclosure provisions governing political parties has been substantially recast, with the existing 29C being deleted and replaced by a new section 29D requiring all parties to:
i. mandatorily disclose all contributions in excess of Rs. 20,000;
ii. include aggregate contributions from a single donor amounting to Rs. 20,000 within its scope;
iii. disclose the names, addresses and PAN card numbers (if applicable) of these donors along with the amount of each donation above Rs. 20,000;
iv. disclose such particulars even for contributions less than Rs. 20,000 if such contributions exceed Rs. 20 crore or 20 % of the party’s total contributions, whichever is less. Consequential amendments will need to be made to the Election Rules and the IT Act.
[Para 2.31(b)7]
h. A new section 29E to be inserted in the RPA requiring the ECI to make publicly available, on its website or on file for public inspection on payment of prescribed fee, all the contribution reports submitted by all political parties under section 29D.
[Para 2.31(b)8]
i. ECI’s transparency guidelines prescribing, first, a “statement of election expenditure” to be filed with it, by every party contesting an election within 75 days of the Assembly elections and 90 days of the General elections election; and second, expenses incurred by political parties to be usually in the form of cheque or draft, unless banking facilities are not easily available or the payment is made to a party functionary in lieu of salary or reimbursement, should be given a statutory basis vide a newly inserted section 29F.
[Para 2.31(b)9]
j. The disqualification of a candidate for a failure to lodge an account of election expenses and contributions reports under section 77 and proposed 77A should be extended from the current three period up to a five year period, so that a defaulting candidate may be ineligible to contest at least the next elections.
[Para 2.31(c)10]
k. Express penalties, apart from losing tax benefits, should be imposed on political parties vide section 29G for the non-compliance with the disclosure provisions of proposed section 29D of the RPA. This should include a daily fine of Rs. 25,000 for each day of non-compliance, with the possibility of de-registration if the default continues beyond 90 days. Further, ECI may levy a fine of up to Rs. 50 lakhs if its finds any particulars in the party’s statements as having been falsified.
[Para 2.31(c)11]
l. A new section 29H should be inserting penalising parties that contravene the stipulations of section 29B, RPA and section 182 of the Companies Act in terms of accepting contributions from impermissible donors, by levying a penalty of five times the amount so accepted.
[Para 2.31(c)12]
m. A new Part IVB, section 29I should be inserted to the RPA dealing with the “Regulation of Electoral Trusts”, and detailing provisions pertaining to their entitlement to accept contributions, disclosure obligations, and penal provisions (apart from losing income tax exemptions) so that the RPA can be amended in line with the changes already made to the IT Act and the ECI guidelines on “Electoral Trust Companies” of 2013.
[Para 2.31(c)13]
n. The Commission does not consider a system of complete state funding of elections or matching grants to be feasible, given the current conditions of the country. Instead, it supports the existing system of indirect in-kind subsidies, with section 78B of the RPA being possibly amended in the future to expand these subsidies.
[Para 2.31(d)1-4]
2.Regulation of Political Parties and Inner Party Democracy
a. The Commission recommends amending sub-section (5) of section 29A of the RPA requiring that the accompanying memorandum/rules/ regulations with the party’s application under sub-section (1). This accompanying document, by whatever name it is called, should also contain a specific provision stating that the party would shun violence for political gains, and would avoid discrimination or distinction based on race, caste, creed, language or place of residence.
[Para 3.17.4, 1]
b. A new Chapter IVC should be inserted dealing with the “Regulation of Political Parties” and incorporating the Commission’s previous recommendations in its 170th Report with certain modifications. Thus, sections 29J to 29Q will deal with internal democracy, party Constitutions, party organisation, internal elections, candidate selection, voting procedures, and the ECI’s power to de-register a party in certain cases of non-compliance.
c. Another section, section 29R should be inserted in the same Part, providing for the de-registration of a political party for failure to contest Parliamentary or State elections for ten consecutive years.
[Para 3.17.4, 2]
3.Proportional Representation
It is clear that both the electoral systems come with their own merits and demerits – proportional representation theoretically being more representative, while the FPTP system being more stable It is also clear, from the experience of other countries that any changes in India’s electoral system will have to follow a hybrid pattern combining elements of both direct and indirect elections. This, in turn will necessitate an increase in the number of seats in the Lok Sabha, which raises concerns regarding its effective functioning.
[Para 4.19.1]
As a result, the Law Commission recommends that the findings of the 170th Law Commission Report on the proportional system may be examined by the Government to determine whether its proposals can be made workable in India at present.
[Para 4.19.2]
4.Anti Defection Law in India
The Law Commission recommends a suitable amendment to the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which shall have the effect of vesting the power to decide on questions of disqualification on the ground of defection with the President or the Governor, as the case may be, (instead of the Speaker or the Chairman), who shall act on the advice of the ECI. This would help preserve the integrity of the Speaker’s office.
[Para 5.22]
5.Strengthening the office of the Election Commission of India
The ECI should be strengthened by first, giving equal constitutional protection to all members of the Commission in matters of removability; second, making the appointment process of the Election Commissioners and the CEC consultative; and third, creating a permanent, independent Secretariat for the ECI.
a. Article 324(5) of the Constitution should be amended to equate the removal procedures of the two Election Commissioners with that of the Chief Election Commissioner. Thus, equal constitutional protection should be given to all members of the ECI in matters of removability from office.
[Para 6.9]
b. The appointment of all the Election Commissioners, including the CEC, should be made by the President in consultation with a three-member collegium or selection committee, consisting of the Prime Minister; the Leader of the Opposition of the Lok Sabha (or the leader of the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha in terms of numerical strength); and the Chief Justice of India. Elevation of an Election Commissioner should be on the basis of seniority, unless the three member collegium/committee, for reasons to be recorded in writing, finds such Commissioner unfit. Amendments should be made in the Election Commission (Conditions of Service of Election Commissioners and Transaction of Business) Act, 1991 to reflect this.
[Para 6.12.5]
c. A new sub-clause (2A) should be added to Article 324 of the Constitution to provide for a separate independent and permanent Secretariat for the ECI along the lines of the Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha Secretariats under Article 98 of the Constitution. This will further improve the independence of the ECI.
[Para 6.19 & 6.20]
6.Paid News and Political Advertisements
The issue of paid news and political advertisements should be regulated in the RPA in the following manner:
a. The definitions of “paying for news”, “receiving payment for news” and “political advertisement” should be inserted in section 2 of the RPA.
[Para 7.48.4 & 7.48.5]
b. The consequences attached to those indulging in such practices should be delineated by creating
i. an electoral offence of “paying for news” / “receiving payment for news” in a newly inserted section 127B of the RPA - Not only will the incorporation of this electoral offence make paying for news / receiving payment for news penal, the stringent punishment will ensure that if the candidate themselves are found guilty, then, in all likelihood, they will be disqualified pursuant to section 8(3) of the RPA;
[Para 7.49.1]
ii. a corrupt practice of paying for news under newly inserted sub-clause (iii) in section 123(2)(a) of the RPA.
[Para 7.50]
c. In order to curb the practice of disguised political advertisement, disclosure provisions should be made mandatory for all forms of media. The purpose of disclosure is two fold; first, to help the public identify the nature of the content (paid content or editorial content); and second, to keep the track of transactions between the candidates and the media. Thus, a new section 127C should be inserted in the RPA to deal with the non-disclosure of interests in political advertising. The ECI can regulate the specifics of the disclosure required.
[Para 7.51.2]
7.Opinion Polls
Section 126(1)(b) of the RPA, which prohibits the display of any election matter forty-eight hours before polling begins, is limited to display by means of “cinematograph, television or other similar apparatus”; and does not deal with the independence and robustness of the opinion polls themselves. Thus:
a. The ban on opinion polls in the electronic media does not extend to the print media and section 126(1)(b) should be amended to prevent the publication, publicity, or dissemination of any election matter by print or electronic media.
[Para 8.27.1]
b. Section 126(1)(b) should also provide for cognizance being taken only on the basis of a complaint made by order of, or under authority from, the ECI or the Chief Electoral Officer of the State.
[Para 8.27.2]
c. The regulation of opinion polls is necessary to ensure that first, the credentials of the organisations conducting the poll is made known to the public; second, the public has a chance to assess the validity of the methods used in conducting the opinion polls; and third, the public is made adequately aware that opinion polls are in the nature of forecasts or predictions, and as such are liable to error. Consequently, new sections 126C and 126D should be inserted in the RPA.
[Para 8.28.3]
Compulsory Voting
The Law Commission does not recommend the introduction of compulsory voting in India and in fact, believes it to be highly undesirable for a variety of reasons described above such as being undemocratic, illegitimate, expensive, unable to improve quality political participation and awareness, and difficult to implement.
[Para 9.24]
8. Election Petitions
Wide-ranging reforms have been suggested to Part VI of the RPA dealing with “disputes regarding elections” and the proposed amendments have been drafted in the annexure appended to this Report. These include, inter alia:
a. The introduction of one or more “election benches” in each High Court, designated so by the Chief Justice of the particular High Court, exercising jurisdiction over all election disputes under the RPA. A single Judge shall ordinarily exercise such jurisdiction, although the Chief Justice can assign more judges, if they so desire.
b. The procedure for presenting election petitions should be made simpler and less formalistic by:
i. requiring election petitions to be ordinarily filed in the Principal seat of the relevant High Court, although this can be shifted to another bench or place in the interest of justice;
ii. removing requirement of impleading those candidates who have lost their security deposit as respondents to an election petition, if the petitioner makes an additional declaration that he himself or any candidate has been duly elected; and
iii. removing non-compliance with section 117’s stipulation of security for costs as a ground for summarily dismissal under section 86.
c. The trial of election petitions by the election bench of the High Court should be expedited by providing for
i. daily trial;
ii. minimising adjournments, with the possibility of imposing exemplary costs;
iii. a time limit of 45 days to file a written statement, with a further extension of 15 days, after which such right shall be forfeited;
d. The trial should be concluded within six months from the date of presentation of the petition; otherwise, a report should be sent to the Chief Justice of the High Court explaining the reasons for the delay.
e. The election bench of the High Court should pass its order under section 98 within ninety days from the conclusion of arguments.
f. A new provision, section 98A, should be inserted pertaining to the collection of data (such as the number of election petitions filed and pending, the status of each petition, the names of the parties, and designated election bench) by the High Court and uploading it on its website. The ECI has been mandated to prepare an annual report after compiling such data from all the High Courts across the country.
g. Appeals to the Supreme Court should now only be on the basis of a question of law, instead of the earlier provision permitting questions of fact or law as grounds for appeal. This appeal should be filed within 30 days of the High Court’s order, although an extension of a maximum of 30 more days can be granted, with nothing thereafter. The Supreme Court should try and conclude the appeal within three months from the date of appeal.
h. The security for costs has been increased from the existing Rs. 2000 to Rs. 10,000, although section 117 has been amended to empower the election bench of the High Court to grant an extension of time, as considered reasonable, to deposit this new security amount.
[Para 10.37]
9.NOTA and the Right to Reject
The Law Commission currently rejects the extension of the NOTA principle to introduce a right to reject the candidate and invalidate the election in cases where a majority of the votes have been polled in favour of the NOTA option. This is premised on the fact that, first, the underlying premise of the Supreme Court’s decision in NOTA was the importance of safeguarding the right to secrecy, and this secrecy rationale does not pre-empt the right to reject. Second, good governance, the motivating factor behind the right to reject, can be successfully achieved by bringing about changes in political horizontal accountability, inner party democracy, and decriminalisation. However, the issue might be reconsidered again in the future.
[Para 11.15]
10. The Right to Recall
The Law Commission is not in favour of introducing the right to recall in any form because it can lead to an excess of democracy, undermines the independence of the elected candidates, ignores minority interests, increases instability and chaos, increases chances of misuse and abuse, is difficult and expensive to implement in practice, especially given that India follows the first past the post system.
[Para 12.20]
11. Totaliser for Counting of Votes
The Commission reiterates and endorses the ECI’s suggestion for introducing a totaliser for the counting of votes recorded in electronic voting machines to prevent the harassment of voters in areas where voting trends in each polling station can be determined. Prior to the introduction of EVMs, ballot papers could be mixed under Rule 59A of the Election Rules, although this was not permitted for EVMs. Using a totaliser would increase the secrecy of votes during counting, thus preventing the disclosure of voting patterns and countering fears of intimidation and victimisation.
Thus, similar to the existing Rule 59A, the Commission proposes to amend Rule 66A to empower the ECI to decide when, and in which constituency and polling booths, to employ a totaliser, after taking into consideration various factors and the overall context of the elections.
[Para 13.7]
12.Restriction on Government Sponsored Advertisements
The Commission recommends regulating and restricting government sponsored advertisements six months prior to the date of expiry of the House/Assembly to maintain the purity of elections; prevent the use of public money for partisan interests of, inter alia, highlighting the government’s achievements; and ensure that the ruling party or candidate does not get an undue advantage over another in the spirit of free and fair elections.
This can be achieved by inserting a new Chapter VIIB in Part V of the RPA prohibiting State/Central government sponsored advertisements in the print or electronic media or by way of banners and hoarders, six months prior to date of expiry of the term of the Lok Sabha/Vidhan Sabha. However, an exception has been carved out for advertisements highlighting the government’s poverty alleviation programmes or any health related schemes
[Para 14.6]
13.Restriction on the Number of Seats from which a Candidate May Contest
The
Commission recommends an amendment of section 33(7) of the RPA, which permits a candidate to contest any election (parliamentary, assembly, biennial council, or bye-elections) from up to two constituencies. In view of the expenditure of time and effort; election fatigue; and the harassment caused to the voters, section 33(7) should be amended to permit candidates to stand from only one constituency.
[Para 15.4]
14.Independent Candidates
The Law Commission recommends that independent candidates be disbarred from contesting elections because the current regime allows a proliferation of independents, who are mostly dummy/non-serious candidates or those who stand (with the same name) only to increase the voters’ confusion. Thus, sections 4 and 5 of the RPA should be amended to provide for only political parties registered with the ECI under section 11(4) to contest Lok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha elections.
[Para 16.16&16.17]
15. Preparation and Use of Common Electoral Rolls
The Law Commission endorses the ECI’s suggestions regarding the introduction of common electoral rolls for Parliamentary, Assembly and local body elections. However, given that introducing common electoral rolls will require an amendment in the State laws pertaining to the conduct of local body elections, the Central Government should write to the various States in this regard. We hope that the States will consider amending their laws based on the suggestions of the ECI and the Law Commission.
Sh.Bandaru Dattatreya Gives Away NSCI Safety Awards-2014
- Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Labour and Employment has urged the industry to work in close cooperation with workers and the Government creating work culture that addresses occupational health and safety issues of workers. The Minister said this while presenting NSCI Safety Awards-2014 here today. Speaking on the occasion the Minister said relations between management and workers are more important than machines and cordial relations do help reduce the unpleasant occurrences.
Shri Bandaru Dattatreya also unveiled a specially designed logo to mark the launching of Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the National Safety Council. To mark 50th year of its journey, a commemorative Book was also released by the Minister along with the logo. Shri PP Mitra, the Principal Labour and Employment Advisor, Ministry of Labour and Employment was also present.
Numaligarh Refinery Ltd., Golaghat, Assam and Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd., Lawkim Motors Group, Satara, Maharashtra under Group A and Group B respectively in Manufacturing Sector; M/s. Larsen and Toubro Ltd., Heavy Civil Infrastructure IC for the Kakrapar Atomic Power Project 3a nd 4 of NPCIL at Tapi, Gujarat in Construction Sector and M/s. Elin Appliances Pvt. Ltd., Solan, Himachal Pradesh in MSME Sector have won the top level Sarva Shreshtha Suraksha Puraskar for 2014.
Altogether 66 organisations won the Awards for the Award Year-2014 in four award categories – Sarva Shreshtha Suraksha Puraskar, Shreshtha Suraksha Puraskar, Suraksha Puraskar and Prashansa Patra. Besides, 9 client organizations from Construction Sector were also awarded.
The NSCI Safety Awards are much coveted national level Awards in the field of Workplace Safety, Health and Environment and are given in recognition of establishing effective Safety Management System and excellent safety and health performance by the organizations in Manufacturing, Construction and MSME Sectors during the relevant assessment periods. These Awards are adjudged and declared every year by the National Safety Council. The National Safety Council, non-commercial, non-profit making autonomous society, was set up by the Ministry of Labour, Govt. of India on 4th March, 1966 to generate, develop and sustain a voluntary movement on Safety, Health and Environment in the Country.
China mocks India's democratic system
- Deriding India's democratic system, official Chinese media here today defended ruling Communist Party's monopoly on power, saying if China had opted for democracy it would have become another India "where around 20 per cent of the world's poorest live".
"Hindsight shows us that the Western political system, which is not inherently problematic and was designed to encourage freedom, would have been incompatible to a country where efficiency has driven remarkable economic growth and social development," state-run Xinhua news agency said in a commentary.
"Further, China's feat of becoming the first developing country to halve its population living in poverty would have never been accomplished. Half of the 1.3-billion population may have been recipients of foreign aid, making it a huge burden on the world," it said.
"At best, China would have been another India, the world's biggest democracy by Western standards, where around 20 percent of the world's poorest live and whose democracy focuses on how power is divided," the commentary said, mocking the democratic political system in India.
"In 2014, India registered a per capital GDP equal to a mere quarter of China's GDP," it said. State-run China Daily which carried Xinhua's commentary as editorial omitted references to India.
"Or, China could have become certain African democratic country that has struggled with civil wars, military junta, coup d'etats and the curse of resources for decades following the end of Western colonial rule in the 1960s," it said.
"The ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC) China's top legislature, provides a suitable backdrop to reflect upon the country's 61-year-old fundamental political system," it said.
It shrugged off the image of a rubber stamp parliament for its 3,000-strong member NPC for its routine adoption of bills put forward by the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC). NPC is currently holding its 10-day annual session.
"Seemingly endless political bickering, inherent in the Western model, would have resulted in political dysfunction, which in turn would have had catastrophic repercussions for a nation with a population four times as large as the United States," the Xinhua commentary said.
"Should China have adopted a system that facilitated lobbying among interest groups, it would have been caught in a self-perpetuating cycle of endless debates.
"Should China's mainstream political parties have been fiscally irresponsible and pursued interventionist policies globally, like in the United States, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) would have received an inflated military budget -- at the expense of development projects.
"This situation would have fed nationalist sentiment, and wars would be imminent. This would have only been good news for opportunists and arms dealers, who would have rushed to cash in on the unrest," it said.
A system that allows plurality is fertile ground for election rigging, vote buying and the silencing of minorities.
In a country as ethnically and geographically diverse as China, the fires of opposition would have been stoked and divided the nation, it said.
Endophytic algae found in Indian Ocean
- A species of algae previously reported to inhabit the seas around the British Isles and the East China Sea has now been found thriving in the Indian Ocean. The algae belong to a type known as endophytic — meaning they are microscopic in size and found living inside macroscopic seaweeds. Belonging to the species, Ulvella leptochaete, they are believed to confer ecological advantage to the host such as disease resistance. The discovery in the Indian Ocean gains significance because these algae may very well be an important source of anticancer compounds such as Taxol and this discovery may contribute in anticancer drug development.
Taxol, or Paclitaxel, is a well known anti cancer drug currently in use for many cancers including ovarian cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer and pancreatic cancer. Most of the marine endophytes produce taxol, although no confirmation exists for the Ulvella leptochaete.
A team led by Dr. Felix Bast, Assistant Professor, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda has recently published the results in the Journal of Biosciences. The research involved analysis of green seaweeds, Cladophora glomerata collected from Calicut, Kerala and red seaweeds, Laurentia obtusa collected from Mandapam, Tamil Nadu.
The researchers were able to discover the microscopic endophytic alga within its host seaweeds using advanced microscopes. Subsequently, researchers extracted and sequenced a small genomic region called Internal Transcribed Spacer, which is a routinely used DNA barcode for aquatic plants, and compared the sequence information with the global DNA sequence database NCBI-GenBank to confirm the identity of the endophytic algae. Further, they reconstructed molecular evolutionary legacy of this alga using computational phylogenetics, to reconfirm the identity.
“DNA sequencing is a technique for reading the code of DNA. As you know, DNA consists of four letter alphabets, A, T , G & C. These are nucleotide bases. These are linearly arranged to form genes that in turn code for proteins, and our entire life. If we know the code of a particular gene precisely by means of sequencing, the code can be used as a barcode to confirm the species identity. For example, gene coding for cox — an enzyme — is a standard barcode for animals. From unknown blood sample, we only have to sequence this gene and compare with DNA database to determine to which animal the blood belongs,” noted Dr. Bast in an email to this Correspondent.
“Phylogenetics involves the construction of a tree for the depiction of evolution. We used DNA sequence of endophytic algae and compared it with closely related species to arrive at a definitive conclusion on its taxonomic identity,” he added.
Sunderbans hardly prepared for climate change, migration
- The fragile Sunderbans - the largest mangrove forests and delta region spread over both Bangladesh and India - is "hardly prepared" for climate change-related issues, experts said here on Thursday.
Policy makers, academicians, civil society organisations and community development experts said gaps in preparedness in the face of submergence of islands in Sunderbans and the consequent mass migration needs to be addressed "immediately" and at a global level.
"Bay of Bengal harbouring all coastal countries - Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Indonesia - have the highest record of disasters historically and the frequency of disasters is six times more in this region than that in any part of the world," said climate change expert Saroj Dash.
He was speaking at the third sub-regional workshop on community resilience to climate change in Bay of Bengal organised by World Vision India. The previous editions of the workshop were held in Odisha (2012) and Dhaka, Bangladesh (2013).
"Sunderbans flanked by India and Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal is one of the most vulnerable regions of the world and one of the most densely populated region on earth. It is hardly prepared for even partial submergence and consequent mass migration," said Dash, regional technical co-ordinator, climate change, Concern Worldwide, an international humanitarian organisation.
Observations such as these will be part of a charter that will feed into two forthcoming key global events - the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan, the 21st Conference of Parties in Paris, and finally targeting the Sustainable Development Goals 2015.
Aiming to build resilience to climate change in the region, the charter will focus on women and children.
"Women and children are the most vulnerable because of food security, health and migratory issues.
"Their identities and empowerment have a lot to do with their homes and if that is washed away due to floods and other disasters, then they suffer," said Ardhendu Sekhar Chatterjee, a leading figure in sustainable agriculture and agro-forestry.
In addition to highlighting adaptation, biodiversity, climate change impact monitoring and assessment, experts also called for building up more active networks of parliamentarians of countries in the Bay of Bengal.
"The need of the hour is to build up more and more active networks of MPs to combat climate change. Capacity development of parliamentarians could also have a positive impact on international climate negotiations," said Mukul Sharma, regional director-South Asia, Climate Parliament.
Astronauts return to Earth on Russian Soyuz spaceship
- Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut on Thursday returned to Earth aboard a Soyuz space capsule after six months at the International Space Station.
Yelena Serova -- the first female Russian cosmonaut to have spent time on the ISS -- landed along with Alexander Samokutyaev and Barry Wilmore in snowy Kazakhstan just after sunrise.
The International Space Station is one of the few areas of cooperation between Russia and the United States that has not been hit by the crisis in Ukraine.
In the six months that the crew has been orbiting the Earth relations on the surface between their two countries have gone from bad to worse as Washington and Moscow tangle over the conflict in east Ukraine.
However in space, and in the journey back to Earth, US-Russian cooperation could not have been smoother.
"The Expedition 42 crew is back on Earth," said NASA commentator Rob Navias on the US space agency's live broadcast of the event.
"They have landed in a vertical position, upright," he added, citing Russian search and recovery units which pick up returning space-farers after they touch down on the remote steppe southeast of Dzhezkazgan.
Russia's space agency Roscosmos also confirmed that the crew had "successfully returned to Earth".
"The piloted descent craft completed its landing at 05:14 Moscow Time (0214 GMT)," the agency said in a statement.
The trio left Earth on September 26. They spent 167 days in space and travelled more than 70 million miles (112 million kilometers) during that time, NASA said.
'Feeling good'
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the space industry, said that the crew had been picked up and were all in good health.
"Everything is in order. The crew has been retrieved from the capsule. They're feeling good. Serova is best off in terms of blood pressure," Rogozin wrote on Twitter.
Television footage showed the smiling crew members being lifted out of the capsule by a recovery team and loaded into waiting vehicles after being wrapped in thick blankets.
During their time in orbit the Russian cosmonauts conducted some 50 experiments and did repair work on the space station, Roscosmos said
A scare over a possible ammonia leak onboard the craft in January forced astronauts in the US side to shelter briefly in the Russian section but that later appeared to have been a false alarm.
The next crew launches from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on March 27, Roscosmos has said.
The men on board will be US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka.
Kelly and Kornienko will stay at the research outpost for an entire year instead of the usual six months, "collecting valuable biomedical data that will inform future deep space, long-duration missions," NASA said.
Meanwhile, three crew members -- Russian Anton Shkaplerov, Italian Samantha Cristoforetti and American Terry Virts -- remain onboard the space station.
Russia last month confirmed that it will continue using the International Space Station in partnership with NASA until 2024.
NASA had already said the ageing ISS will remain operational until 2024 but Moscow had threatened to pull out and stop financing it by 2020.
GENERAL AWARENESS PRACTICE QUESTIONS FOR ALL BANK EXAMS
- 1. Consider the following sentences in context of “National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme” (NERPAP).1. This Programme launched by the Election Commission of India.2. It Objective is to bring a totally error free and authenticated electoral roll.3. During the programme, data of electors will be linked with Aadhar data of UIDAI for the purpose of authentication.Which of the above sentence(s) is/are true?(a) 2 and 3(b) 1 and 2(c) 1 and 3(d) 1, 2 and 3
- 2.Consider the following sentences about ‘Act East’ Policy.1. This ‘Act East’ policy of the Government endeavours to cultivate extensive economic and strategic relations in North-East Asia.2. The Government has announced setting-up of manufacturing hubs in CMLV countries, namely, Combodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.Which of the above sentence(s) is/are true?(a) Only 1(b) Only 2(c) 1 and 2(d) None of the above
- Consider the following sentences in context of Visa on Arrival Facility (VOA).1. It was introduced on January 1, 2010.2. It was initially trialed for citizens of five countries. Now, the Citizens of 43 countries can avail this facility.3. It shall be allowed for a maximum of two times in a calendar year.Which of the above sentence(s) is/are true?(a) 1 and 2(b) 1 and 3(c) 2 and 3(d) 1, 2 and 3
- 4. Consider the following sentences regarding Atal Pension Yojana.1. It is open to all bank account holders who are not members of any statutory social security scheme.2. The minimum age of joining APY is 18 years and maximum age is 40 years.3. The existing subscribers of Swavalamban Scheme would be automatically migrated to APY, unless they opt out.Which of the above sentence(s) is/are true?(a) 1 and 2(b) 2 and 3(c) 1 and 3(d) 1, 2 and 3
- 5. Consider the following sentences in context of International Women day which was celebrated on 8 March 2015.1. In 1914, International Women’s Day was held on March 8 in Germany to press the demand that women be given the right to vote and to hold public office.2. In 1977, the United Nations proclaimed March 8 as UN Day for women’s rights and world Peace.Which of the above sentence(s) is/are true?(a) Only 1(b) Only 2(c) 1 and 2(d) None of the above
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