DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS 19 DECEMBER
POLITY
Supreme Court refuses to stay Citizenship (Amendment) Act
The Supreme Court refused to stay the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, which fast-tracks citizenship by naturalisation process for “illegal” migrants from six religious communities, other than Muslims, who have fled persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Recent development is violence, riots, arson and police action on protesting students has spread to various parts of the country.
Court’s guidelines:
- There is lot of confusion in the public mind about the objectives of the CAA. Therefore, government must publicise the actual intent of the Act to reduce any confusion among the public about its objectives and aims.
- It instates that amendments made to the Citizenship Act of 1955 allowed for protecting and welcoming religiously persecuted people fleeing the three neighbouring countries where Muslims form the majority.
Petitioner’s arguments:
- The petitions argue that the law welcomes “illegal migrants” into India selectively on the basis of their religion and pointedly exclude Muslims.
- It is against the principles of secularism, right to equality and dignity of life enshrined in the Basic Structure of the Constitution.
- It welcomes “illegal migrants” from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan only, Why not those from Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Myanmar?
- The new law does not impose any requirement on illegal migrants from the six religions to prove their claim of religious persecution or even a reasonable fear of it.
- Only an illegal immigrant who is Muslim will be singled out, prosecuted under the Passports (Entry into India) Act, 1920 or the Foreigners Order 1949, and deprived of his personal liberty.
- While Muslim migrants should show their proof of residency in India for at least 11 years, the law allows illegal migrants from the six communities to be naturalised in five years time.
ECONOMY
Bank mergers may pose cybersecurity risks, says G. Padmanabhan
Former executive director of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) G. Padmanabhan cautioned that public sector bank mergers is likely to pose security challenges as divergent security solutions and controls get amalgamated.
Details:
- Technology integration is the toughest. Security solutions and controls are divergent. To bring together all such systems and rebuilding adequate security solutions and processes is a tough task.
Challenges:
- Skill set availability on security is a greater challenge.
- There is a lot of dependency on service providers. There is a significant cyber security risk as lot of data is going back and forth and held by third parties.
- Though banks chosen for mergers had the same Core Banking Solution (CBS), the versions they used were different.
- Another challenge would be merging of set of controls (SOC) operations of the banks.
Way forward:
- Banks must focus on security as much as on functionalities or user interfaces.
- Different banks may have a different set of controls and until these are fully merged the weakest link threat needs to carefully monitored and controlled.
ART & CULTURE
Sahitya Akademi’s 2019 awards includes non-fiction by Shashi Tharoor
The Sahitya Akademi announced its annual literary awards for 2019 for works in 23 languages, including one for Shashi Tharoor’s non-fiction book about British rule in India.
About Sahitya Akademi Award:
- Established in 1954, the award comprises a plaque and a cash prize of Rs. 1, 00,000.
- The plaque awarded by the Sahitya Akademi was designed by the Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray.
- It was registered as a society on 7 January 1956, under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
- Besides the 22 languages enumerated in the Constitution of India, the Sahitya Akademi has recognised English and Rajasthani as languages in which its programme may be implemented.
HEALTH
‘High prevalence of pre-diabetes in Rajasthan’
A new study on diabetes prevalence, sponsored by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has revealed that the number of persons with pre-diabetes in Rajasthan have increased faster than those with diabetes.
Details:
- The prevalence of pre-diabetes at 15.2% in Rajasthan's population is the same as that in 15 more developed States, while the persons with diabetes are lesser in number.
- Though the average prevalence of diabetes in Rajasthan has been found to be lower than more developed States, it is greater among the urban, sedentary and high-income men with hypertension and abdominal and generalised obesity.
- High prevalence of pre-diabetes was a “worrying aspect” of the lifestyle disease.
- People with impaired glucose tolerance could progress to type 2 diabetes, unless controlled by healthy eating habits and regular exercise.
- Those found with pre-diabetes, 17.1% were in the urban areas and 14.7% in the villages.
About Survey:
- Data on demographic and socio-economic parameters as well as behavioural aspects, including tobacco use, alcohol use and physical activity was obtained.
- The surveyors also collected information on family history of diabetes and heart disease in the cross-sectional study.
- It is designed to provide estimates for pre-diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, obesity and the level of glycemic control among the confirmed cases of diabetes.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Delegation from Dhaka fails to arrive in Delhi for river panel meeting
- Bangladesh did not send a delegation for the Joint River Commission (JRC) meeting with India that was scheduled to be held in India.
- This has cast a shadow over the agreement to share the waters of the Feni River, that was taken up during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India.
- A joint statement issued after Ms. Hasina’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid down the agenda of the JRC, declaring that the technical-level committee of the JRC was to firm up the draft framework agreement of the interim sharing of the Feni River’s waters with Tripura.
- Bangladesh had agreed to let India withdraw 1.82 cusecs from the river to supply the border town of Sabroom in the northeastern State.
- Meeting cancellation is expected to delay the preparation of the draft framework for the Interim Sharing Agreements regarding the Manu, Muhuri, Khowai, Gomati, Dharla and Dudhkumar rivers that were mentioned in the Joint Statement.
- It is believed that the cancellations indicate Dhaka’s displeasure over repeated reference by India’s political leadership to the alleged persecution of religious minorities in Bangladesh.
Germany moves to ban gay ‘conversion therapy’
- The German government signed off on a new law banning “conversion therapies” designed to force heterosexuality on homosexuals.
- The legislation, set to be introduced in 2020, would see the practice made punishable with up to a year in prison and fines of up to €30,000 ($33,000).
- Once it is approved, Germany would be only the second European country with such a ban after Malta passed similar legislation in 2016.
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