Mary Kom-led panel to probe wrestlers’ charges
Summary:
Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur has announced that a government-appointed five-member Oversight Committee will investigate charges leveled by some prominent wrestlers against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. The committee will be headed by six-time World champion and Olympic medallist boxer M.C. Mary Kom and will include Olympic medallist wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, well-known shuttler Trupti Murgunde, former Target Olympic Podium Scheme CEO Rajesh Rajagopalan and former Executive Director (Team) of the Sports Authority of India Radhica Sreeman. The committee will investigate the serious charges levelled by the wrestlers and will submit its report within a month.
Religious texts to be taught in M.P. govt. schools
Summary:
The government in Madhya Pradesh, India, plans to teach religious scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata, and Ramayana in government schools, according to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. He said that the ancient texts are invaluable holy texts that help in building the moral character of human beings. The announcement comes as the state prepares for assembly elections, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government looking to consolidate its traditional Hindu vote bank. The BJP's main challenger, the Congress, has been trying to up the ante to woo voters ahead of the election by holding pujas.
Two students in Kerala infected with Norovirus
Summary:
Norovirus infection has been confirmed in two schoolchildren in Ernakulam district in Kerala, India, as health authorities step up efforts to contain its spread. The infection was confirmed in two children of Classes I and II at Bhavan's Adarsha Vidyalaya, Kakkanad, and was detected in their stool samples. Norovirus is mostly spread through contaminated food and water, and symptoms include vomiting and/or diarrhea, head and body aches. Classes have been suspended and academic sessions will be held online until January 25. Control measures, including chlorination, have been initiated and those showing symptoms are under observation.
Assam to book men marrying girls below 14 years under POCSO Act
Summary:
The Assam Cabinet has decided to book men who marry minor girls under stringent laws prescribing imprisonment from two years to life, according to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. He cited the National Family Health Survey-5 report, which states that an average of 31.8% of girls in Assam get married at the "prohibited age" and 11.7% of them become mothers before adulthood compared to the national average of 23.3% and 6.8%, respectively. The legal age for marriage is 18 years for women and 21 for men. The decision to punish men who marry minors was made due to the high rate of maternal and infant mortality in Assam, which is attributed to child marriage.
MCD gets another chance to elect Delhi’s new Mayor today
Summary:
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have expressed confidence in winning the mayoral elections for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) even as a dispute between the two parties threatens to derail the House proceedings. The dispute is over the sequence in which the nominated members (or aldermen) and the elected councillors will be administered the oath. Several AAP leaders said the party would protest if the aldermen are allowed to take oath before the elected councillors. The BJP has accused the AAP of trying to rig the mayoral elections through its attempt to provide voting rights to the aldermen, while the AAP has accused the BJP of trying to rig the mayoral elections through its decision to administer the oath to the aldermen first.
Hijab row: SC to consider listing students’ plea before 3-judge Bench
Summary:
Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud announced on Monday that he will consider forming a three-judge bench soon to hear petitions filed by Muslim students from Karnataka who are seeking a declaration of their right to wear hijab inside their classrooms. The students are seeking a decision soon as they have their practicals on February 6th. In October of last year, a Division Bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia delivered a split verdict on whether or not students had a fundamental right to wear hijab in government institutions. The bench had a split verdict on whether or not the students had the right to wear hijab in government institutions, with one judge upholding the prohibitive government order, while the other judge said that secularity meant tolerance to diversity and that wearing or not wearing a hijab to school was ultimately a matter of choice.
EDITORIAL
Democracy and its structural slippages
Summary:
The article discusses the evolution of democracy and its link to capitalism. It states that democracy as it is known today is a 19th and 20th century western creation and that devolution of power and welfare from the elite to the masses is basic to democracy. It also states that there is an unbreakable link between the wide spread of this devolution and capitalism and that capitalism's basic requirement to seek freedom for resources such as land, labour, and movement from the autocratic restraints of medieval monarchies helped the notions of the individual’s rights and equality evolved. The article also raises the question of whether elections are truly free and fair and notes that in practice, elections often divide voters into a majority and minority, and that it is rare for a government to govern through a majority mandate.
Needed, a new approach to data protection for minors
Summary:
The draft Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill, 2022 in India provides for mandatory parental consent for all data processing activities by children under the age of 18. However, this approach is seen as ineffective in keeping children safe online as it does not take into account the "best interests of the child" and it does not incentivize online platforms to proactively build safer and better services for minors. The Bill also requires each platform to obtain ‘verifiable parental consent’ in the case of minors, which can change the nature of the internet as we know it and put citizens at risk of harms such as data breaches and identity thefts. The article suggests shifting to a risk-based approach to platform obligations, mandating platforms to undertake a risk assessment for minors and design services with default settings and features that protect children from harm. It also suggests relaxing the age of mandatory parental consent for all services to 13 years.
For Indian startups, the pace up the funding ladder quickens
Summary:
The Reserve Bank of India's monthly bulletin reported that there has been a recent increase in the number of startups in India becoming unicorns and the time it takes for them to climb the funding ladder has drastically decreased. As of January 12, 2023, there were 87,988 startups in India recognized by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) making India the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. The average time it took for a startup to become a unicorn dropped to 7.8 years in 2021 from 9.9 years in 2020. The majority of unicorns in India were Fintech platforms, Software-as-a-Service companies and e-commerce firms, but in 2021 new entrants were from non-traditional areas such as cloud kitchens, gaming, data management and analytics, and content. The median number of months required to rise up the funding stages has also reduced for startups founded in recent years. Indian tech startups raised $17.4 billion in 2019, $6.9 billion in 2020 and $45.4 billion in 2021.
The basic structure of the Constitution
Summary:
The Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, has compared the "basic structure" of the Constitution to the North Star, an unfailing guide which shows the way when the path appears convoluted. His observation marks the response of the Supreme Court to a recent statement made by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar that the basic structure doctrine introduced by a 13-judge Bench 40 years ago, in the Kesavananda Bharati Sripadagalvaru versus State of Kerala through a 7:6 wafer-thin majority judgment, diluted parliamentary sovereignty. The basic structure or framework of the Constitution is its living spirit, holding up the body of its text. Its existence cannot be pinpointed to any particular provision of the text. It is the "soul" of the Constitution, inextricably linked to the values enshrined in the Preamble, without which the document and the ideas that make it sacred would collapse.
Laid-off Indian IT professionals face U.S. visa deadline
Summary:
Thousands of Indian IT professionals in the US who lost their jobs following a series of layoffs at companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon are now struggling to find new employment within the period stipulated by their work visas to stay in the country. According to The Washington Post, nearly two lakh IT workers have been laid off since November. As per some industry insiders, of the sacked IT workers, 30% to 40% are Indians, a significant number of whom are on H-1B and L1 visas. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in special occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.
INS Vagir, fifth Scorpene submarine, commissioned
Summary:
The Indian Navy has commissioned its fifth Scorpene-class submarine, INS Vagir, into service at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai. The sixth and final Scorpene-class submarine, Vagsheer, is currently undergoing sea trials and will be delivered to the Navy in 2024. The Navy now has 16 conventional and one nuclear submarine in service, including Russian Kilo class submarines, German HDW submarines, five Scorpene-class submarines and the indigenous nuclear ballistic missile submarine, INS Arihant. The commissioning is seen as a demonstration of the coming of age of India’s shipbuilding industry and the maturing of its defence ecosystem.