Part of: GS Prelims and GS – I – Culture & GS – III – Economy
In news
The Indian Prime Minister will inaugurate The India Toy Fair 2021 on 27th February.
Key takeaways
Aim: To boost toy manufacturing in India.
It shall bring together all stakeholders including buyers, sellers, students, teachers, designers etc.
Sustainable linkages shall be created which will encourage dialogue for the overall development of the industry.
Do you know?
‘Toycathon’ was recently established for innovative toys/games concepts.
Toycathon-2021 is conceived to challenge India’s innovative minds to conceptualize novel Toy and Games based on Bharatiya civilization, history, culture, mythology and ethos.
Part of: GS Prelims and GS – I – Culture & GS – III – Environment
In news
12 iconic sites under Phase IV of Swachh Iconic Places (SIP) were recently announced.
Ministry: The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Jal Shakti in association with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Culture and the concerned State/UT governments.
Part of: GS Prelims and GS – III – Sci & Tech; Biotechnology
In news
The 2nd edition of Global Bio-India will be organised from 1-3 March 2021 on digital platform.
Objective: To showcase the strength and opportunities of the India’s biotechnology sector at national level and to the global community
Co-organised by: Department of Biotechnology along with its Public Sector Undertaking, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) in partnership with Invest India.
Key takeaways
Theme: “Transforming lives”
Tag line: “Biosciences to Bioeconomy”
Representatives from 50+ countries shall participate.
Switzerland will be the partner country and Karnataka as India’s state partner.
The first edition of Global Bio-India 2019 was organized at New Delhi.
Now, LPG can be transported through Inland Waterways.
Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has signed MoU with MOL (Asia Oceania) Pvt. Ltd for transportation of LPG through National Waterways-1 and 2
Ministry: Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways
Key takeaways
MOL Group will invest for construction and operation under Make-in-India initiative.
This project will help reduce the carbon footprints, lowering the overall logistics cost.
Significance Of Project: Currently, 60% of the LPG is transported through road. Strikes by transporters, road blockages also cause delay in transportation sometimes. Also, there are some areas which are difficult to approach through rail or road especially in the North-East region
Context: The Delhi High Court was hearing three separate petitions by same-sex couples seeking to declare that the Special Marriage Act (SMA) and Foreign Marriage Act (FMA) ought to apply to all couples regardless of their gender identity and sexual orientation.
Opposition by Centre/ Stance by Government with regard to petition in HC
Not compatible with Indian Family Concept: Living together as partners and having sexual relationship by same-sex individuals is not comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife and children.
Not Codified: Marriage between two individuals of the same gender is “neither recognised nor accepted in any uncodified personal law or any codified statutory law”.
Issue with Personal Laws: Any interference with the existing marriage laws would cause complete havoc with the delicate balance of personal laws in the country. It may lead to further anomalies with laws governing marriages of persons belonging to the Christian or Muslim faith.
Registration of marriage of same-sex persons also results in violation of existing personal as well as codified law provisions — such as ‘degrees of prohibited relationship’; ‘conditions of marriage’; ‘ceremonial and ritual requirements’ under the personal laws governing the individuals.
No Fundamental Right to same-sex marriage: Supreme Court judgment in the Navtej Singh Johar case “does not extend the right to privacy to include a fundamental right in the nature of a right to marry by two individuals of same gender”.
Legislative Challenges: Any other interpretation except treating ‘husband’ as a biological man and ‘wife’ as a biological woman will make all statutory provisions unworkable. In a same sex marriage, it is neither possible nor feasible to term one as ‘husband’ and the other as ‘wife’ in the context of legislative scheme of various statute
Domain of Legislature: The considerations of “societal morality” are relevant in considering the validity of a law and it is for the Legislature to enforce such societal morality and public acceptance based upon Indian ethos.
Connecting the dots:
Navtej Singh Johar case
K S Puttaswamy Judgement
NALSAR Case
GOVERNANCE/ ECONOMY
Topic:
GS-2: Indian Constitution—Historical Underpinnings, Evolution, Features, Amendments, Significant Provisions and Basic Structure.
The anti-defection law was included in the Constitution as the Tenth Schedule in 1985 to combat the “evil of political defections”.
The main purpose was to preserve the stability of governments and insulate them from defections of legislators from the treasury benches.
Any Member of Parliament (MP) or that of a State legislature (MLA) would be disqualified from their office if they voted on any motion contrary to the directions issued by their party.
The provision was not limited to confidence motions or money bills (which are quasi-confidence motions).
It applies to all votes in the House, on every Bill and every other issue. It even applies to the Rajya Sabha and Legislative Councils, which have no say in the stability of the government.
Issues
Therefore, an MP (or MLA) has absolutely no freedom to vote their judgement on any issue. They have to blindly follow the direction of the party.
This provision goes against the concept of representative democracy.
The anti-defection law makes the MP neither a delegate of the constituency nor a national legislator but converts them to be just an agent of the party.
The legislator is accountable to voters, and the government is accountable to legislators. (This should be the norm of representative democracy).
The chain of accountability has been broken by making legislators accountable primarily to the party.
So, the party forming the government — is unable to hold the government to account.
Legislators cannot justify their positions on various issues to the people who elected them to the post.
The law hollows out our legislatures > If an MP has no freedom to take decisions on policy and legislative proposals, what would be the incentive to put in the effort to understand the different policy choices and their outcomes.
The anti-defection bill weakens the accountability mechanism.
It does not even provide stability. The political system has found ways to topple governments.
Conclusion
The anti-defection law has been detrimental to the functioning of our legislatures as deliberative bodies which hold the executive to account on behalf of citizens.
It has turned them into fora to endorse the decision of the government on Bills and budgets.
And it has not even done the job of preserving the stability of governments.
(TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE)
Model questions: (You can now post your answers in comment section)
Note:
Correct answers of today’s questions will be provided in next day’s DNA section. Kindly refer to it and update your answers.
Comments Up-voted by IASbaba are also the “correct answers”.
Q.1 Mahamrityunjaya temple, recently in news, is situated in which of the following state?
Madhya Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Assam
Karnataka
Q.2 Which is the new status accorded to the Caracal species by National Board for Wildlife?
Critically endangered
Extinct
Vulnerable
Endangered
Q.3 Consider the following statements regarding UJJWALA Scheme:
Under the scheme, families below the poverty line are to be provided with LPG connections with a support of Rs. 1,600 per connection in the next three years.
The LPG connections will be issued in the name of the women of the households.
Which of the above is/are correct?
1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2
Q.4 Which of the following were recently added in the Phase IV of Swachh Iconic Places (SIP)?
Jaisalmer Fort, Rajasthan
Ramdevra, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan
Golconda Fort, Hyderabad, Telangana
Sun Temple, Konark, Odisha
Ajmer sharif, Ajmer, Rajasthan
Select the correct code:
1,2, 3 and 5 only
1, 2, 4 and 5 only
1, 2,3, and 4 only
1 and 2 only
ANSWERS FOR 26th February 2021 TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE (TYK)
