25th June 2021
The Process of Delimitation
News: At present the delimitation exercise in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir is going on, and the Prime Minister reiterated that this is a step in ensuring grassroot democracy.
Delimitation :
The constitution has provided for a readjustment is to be made in every census in the following manner:
Total number of seats in the assembly of each state and
The division of each state into territorial constituencies, the population among the constituencies should be equally divided.
The constitution empowered the Parliament to determine the authority and the manner in which it is to be made. Thus, Parliament has enacted the Delimitation Commission Acts in 1952, 1962, 1972 and 2002 for this purpose, which led to the establishment of Delimitation Commission.
About the delimitation:
Through the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1976 the total number of seats in the assembly of each state and the division of such states into territorial constituencies till the year 2000 as per the population level of the 1971 level.
84th Amendment Act of 2001, extended the ban upto year 2026 with the same objective of encouraging population limiting measures.
This act also empowered the government to undertake readjustment and rationalisation of territorial constituencies within a state on the basis of the population figures of 1991 census.
Later, the 87th Amendment Act of 2003 provided for the delimitation of constituencies on the basis of 2001 census instead of 1991 census.
Delimitation Commission:
The commission is appointed by the President of India.
Delimitation commission works in collaboration with the Election Commission of India.
Composition:
It consists of retired Supreme Court judge, Chief Election Commissioner, and Respective State Election Commissioners
Functions:
It determines the number and boundaries of constituencies to make the population of all constituencies nearly equal.
To identify the seats which will be reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, wherever their population is relatively large.
Decision making: decision is taken by the majority vote.
The orders of the Delimitation Commission have the force of law and they cannot be called in question before any court.
SCO meet and Afghanistan- India talks
News: National Security advisor of India, Ajit Doval attended the SCO meet with its counterparts, at Dushanbe.
Outcome of the meet:
In the meeting NSA of India highlighted the need to preserve gains made in the last two decades in Afghanistan and to give top priority to the welfare of its people”
He further proposed an action plan against Pakistan-based terror outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) as part of the anti-terror framework of the SCO.
India sought adoption of international standards to counter terror financing, including an MoU between the SCO and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
India further called for the need of monitoring of new technologies used by terrorists, such as drones, dark web, Artificial Intelligence, blockchain and social media
Post this meeting India released a statement with respect to the Afghanistan Peace process.
India’s statement:
It says, India supports all peace initiatives in afghanistan. India has a long-term commitment towards development and reconstruction of Afghanistan.
It says India remains in touch with various stakeholders, including regional countries.
It further highlighted India’s contribution to the development of Afghanistan including electricity, dams, schools, health clinics, roads and community projects to Afghanistan.
Felling of heritage pine trees in Meghalaya
News: there was an outrage of locals over felling of heritage pine trees for road in Meghalaya
About the news:
Most of these coniferous pine trees, among the hill towns, were more than 100 years old.
The road is being widened from the town’s Rilbong Bridge to Upper Shillong. This road is a part of 71 km Shillong-Dawki project.
Dawki is a trade point on the border with Bangladesh.
Activists stand: they said that the National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) took advantage of the COVID-19 lockdown to cut the pine trees.
Officials stand: under compensatory afforestation act they will be growing ten trees per felled tree. However, the place chosen is another district for plantation purposes.
Consortium of Indian Associations (CIA) findings related to MSME
News: Consortium of Indian Associations (CIA) surveyed the present economic Condition of the MSME.
Findings of the report:
88% of self-employed, small and micro businesses (SMB) were yet to avail any benefit under the stimulus schemes unveiled by the Centre.
82% of the more than 81,000 self-employed, micro/small businesses (SMBs) surveyed opined that the Union and State governments were not taking care of their interests.
73% of SMBs had not made any profit during the last fiscal and 42% were unable to decide on retention of employees; 59% said they had reduced/sacked/removed their staff compared with the pre-COVID period.
It suggested three-pronged approach to revive MSME:
First: To exempt SMBs from statutory compliances, penal actions and litigation.
Second: To protect them from high interest burden, price wars, high cost of raw materials, losing employees, penalties, and late fees.
Third: To support them by giving liberal loans, clearing pending dues, offering moratorium with interest waiver and not declaring sectoral NPAs for a year.
CIA also proposed to amend the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006, to strengthen State facilitation councils.