DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS 14 AUGUST
Polity
Centre sets the ball rolling for Jammu and Kashmir polls
Election Commission meets on fresh delimitation under new Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act.
- Earliest possible date for election in J & K is around March in next year.
- Delimitation exercise is the first step towards peaceful elections.
- New assembly, under the reorganization act will have 114 seats. 24 Seats will be kept vacant, as POK seats, which means election, will be conducted for 90 seats.
- Old assembly had 111 seats, out of which 24 seats were kept aside for POK and 4 seats were for Ladakh region. Hence, addition of seven extra seats have taken.
- Delimitation exercise will take SC,ST reservation into account too.
- Refugees settled in Jammu after partition in 1947-48 will also get voting rights.
More about Delimitation:
- Delimitation means drawing of the boundaries.
- Article 82 (Readjustment after each census) makes provision for delimitation of the electoral boundaries.
- Under Article 82, the Parliament by law enacts a Delimitation Act after every census.
- Central government constitutes a commission after enacting the act.
- Objective is to maintain the Population Seat ratio.
- 84th amendment has put a ban on fresh delimitation until 2026. Internal seats of a state can be delimited.
- Delimitation Commission orders cant be challenged in any Court of Law.Its orders are laid before Lok Sabha and State Assemblies but modifications are not permitted.
State to ask for ₹6,800 cr in flood aid
The Maharashtra government will seek an assistance of ₹6,813 crore from the centre for rebuilding flood-ravaged areas in Western Maharashtra and Konkan.
Relief assistance targeted for:
- Compensating crop damage.
- Road and bridge repairs.
- Assistance for the families of diseased.
- Compensation for the losses of small traders.
- Compensation for the repairs of house damage.
- Irrigation and Water resources works.
- Repairs of schools and water supply schemes.
- Undertaking Health related initiatives.
- For Cleaning activities.
- Compensation for loss of livestock.
- Compensation for Fishermen.
- For undertaking the relief works.
- For assistance like Food, Medicine and Clothing.
Disqualified Karnataka legislators move SC for urgent hearing of pleas
The petitions urged the court to set aside the former Speaker’s decision to disqualify them from the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.
Petitioner’s arguments:
- Have a fundamental right under Article 19 to carry on any trade, business and profession.
- Their right to resign from MLA cant be hold illegal and unconstitutional by the Speaker.
- It violates article 19 and 21.
- They have challenged speaker contentions that their resign were not genuine or voluntary.
- They had submitted their resignations and came before speaker to submit the resignation.
- Under Article 190 of constitution, a member can deliver a resignation signed in his own hand and the Speaker is only to satisfy himself about the genuineness and voluntariness of the resignation.
Issues Involved:
- A MLA or MP can leave their post by resigning, by abstaining from house proceedings for 60 consecutive days without permission, and by defection.
- House decides whether to declare the member’s seat vacant or not in case of abstaining from the house.
- Here issue lies between defection and voluntary resignation.
- Supreme Court in Ravi Naik judgement has asked to ascertain the voluntary through his conduct. It means, if they had not expressed their opposition to Policy or programmes of their party or coalition at an internal forum, then, it can be taken as non-voluntary in nature meaning thereby defection.
- Under article 190(3)(b) Speaker has the power to reject a resignation on it being non-voluntary in basis.
- Main argument is seeking by-election. A member can seek by-election in case of voluntary resignation but cant stand in case of defection.
- Members are exploiting the loophole in anti- defection law through this loophole.
Economy
Retail inflation remains flat in July at 3.15%
Retail inflation in July snapped a five-month accelerating trend to ease marginally to 3.15%, according to official data released on Tuesday.
Inflation: Inflation is Sustained increase in the general price level. It leads to fall in the purchasing power of money.
Different Indices like WPI (Wholesale Price Index), CPI (Consumer Price Index) measures inflation in India.
WPI (Wholesale Price Index): WPI is measurement of inflation based on Wholesale prices.
- Ministry of Commerce and Industry releases it.
- Headline Inflation is other name for it.
- It doesn’t include services.
CPI (Consumer Price Inflation): CPI is measurement of Inflation at retail prices.
- Central Statistics Office (CSO) releases it.
- It has basket of Services and Manufacturing goods.
Headline Inflation: It is total inflation in economy. It includes price rise in food, fuel and all other commodities.
Core Inflation: Core inflation does not consider the inflation in food and fuel.
Reference : https://www.thehindu.com/business/retail-inflation-remains-flat-in-july-at-315/article29086555.ece
Expert panel on CSR: Make non-compliance civil offence; spending must be tax deductible
Under the Companies Act, 2013, certain classes of profitable entities are required to spend at least two per cent of their three-year annual average net profit towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in a particular financial year.
A government-constituted high-level committee recommended:
- Making expenditure on CSR as tax deductible.
- Treating non-compliance with CSR requirements a civil offence under the companies law.
- Should not be treated a means to finance government schemes.
- Introduction of impact assessment studies for CSR obligation of Rs 5 crore or more, and registration of implementation agencies.
- Developing a CSR exchange portal to connect contributors, beneficiaries and agencies.
- Allowing CSR in social benefit bonds.
- Third party assessment of major CSR projects.
- It has emphasized on CSR spending as a board driven process to provide innovative technology-based solutions for social problems.
Parliament amended the Companies act last month:
- Transfer unspent CSR funds into an escrow account called the Unspent Corporate Social Responsibility Account, and utilize the corpus within three years of transfer.
- Transfer Unspent annual CSR funds to one of the funds under Schedule 7 of the Companies Act such as the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund, within six months of the financial-year end.
- Law also provided for a fine of Rs 50,000 to Rs 25 lakh and a jail term of up to three years for failing to meet CSR norms.
1.png)
