News: Plea has been filed by Rajasthan Assembly Speaker to stop the State’s High Court from deciding the validity of the anti­defection notices issued to rebel Congress MLAs.

About Petition 

• High Court has crossed the line by interfering in the ongoing disqualification proceeding even before the decision of speaker. 

• High Court had no jurisdiction to ask him to defer the disqualification proceedings till July 24. 

Questions raised by SC Panel

• Whether a legislator’s “voice of dissent” can be “shut down” with the threat of disqualification in a democracy? 
• Can expressing dissent amount to “voluntarily giving up the party membership” under Paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and invite anti-defection proceedings?

Arguments put forward by petitioner’s side 

• If these MLAs have to voice their dissent, let them do it in their party meetings.
• MLAs attempted to destabilise their own government, they are sitting incommunicado in a Haryana hotel and making demands for a floor test in the media.
• July 14 notice issued by the Speaker was an opportunity for the MLAs to explain their conduct.

SC’s decision 

• Supreme Court refused Rajasthan Assembly Speaker C.P. Joshi’s plea to stop the State’s High Court from deciding the validity of the anti-defection notices. 
• But HC’s decision will be subject to the final decision of SC in the case. 

News: Few observations were made by HC while hearing the petition raising concerns over the change in colour of the lake’s water.

Concept of development of the Lonar crater lake would include the core issue of preservation and conservation of the lake. Observations made by court

If the development of Lonar Crater lake and its surroundings takes place without any care for the conservation of the lake, the crater i.e. the very heartbeat of this development, would be gone and there would remain nothing more to build, develop and enjoy as the Crater lake. 

Development would mean conservation of the lake and appreciation of the beauty of the Crater lake, its biology, geology and aesthetic value. 

Directions by High Court 

Various agencies like the state public works department (PWD), forest department, Buldhana Municipal Council, Archaeological Survey of India, and the National Highway Authority of India should coordinate on the issue. 

Collector of Buldhana would act as an umbrella authority (nodal) for coordinating the works of all these agencies. 

Nodal officer will be overseeing, supervising, undertaking and ensuring the completion of all works related to the preservation, conservation and development of the lake. 

All proposals related to the lake shall be forwarded to the nodal authority.

Buldhana collector has been directed to take effective steps to stop open defecation in the vicinity of the lake.

Meanwhile, fencing would be erected at crucial points so as to physically prevent people from using the area for defecation.

Superintendent of Police, Buldhana, has been directed to deploy police personnel in the morning and evening to deter the practice of open defecation. 

Causes of colour change of the lake

As per the findings of Geological Survey of India and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), the organism responsible for lake colour change are dunaliella algae and halo bacteria.

under stress conditions, these organisms release a substance called carotenoid. This substance is pink in colour.

News: China launches ambitious Tianwen-1 Mars rover mission

About Mission 

• Tianwen-1 was launched on a Long March-5 carrier rocket from Hainan Island, a resort province off the south coast of the mainland. 
• It is China’s first fully homegrown Mars mission, consists of an orbiter and a lander/rover duo and will arrive at the Red Planet in February 2021 
• It will touch down on the Martian surface two to three months later somewhere within Utopia Planitia.
• Utopia Planitia is a large plain in the planet’s Northern.
• Scientific objectives of Tianwen-1 include:
  • to map the morphology and geological structure.
  • to measure the ionosphere and the characteristics of the Martian climate and environment at the surface.
  • to perceive the physical fields (electromagnetic, gravitational) and internal structure of Mars.
  • to investigate the surface soil characteristics and water-ice distribution.
  • to analyse the surface material composition.
• This isn’t China’s first attempt at Mars. In 2011, a Chinese orbiter accompanying a Russian mission was lost when the spacecraft failed to get out of Earth’s orbit after launching from Kazakhstan, eventually burning up in the atmosphere.

Other mars missions 

• It marked the second flight to Mars this week, after a United Arab Emirates orbiter Hope orbiter.
• U.S. is aiming to launch Perseverance, its most sophisticated Mars rover ever that will hunt for signs of ancient life inside the 28-mile-wide (45 km) Jezero Crater.

News: Defence ministry issued the formal Government Sanction Letter for grant of Permanent Commission (PC) to women officers in the Army. 

News details 

The order specifies the grant of PC to Short Service Commissioned (SSC) women officers in all the 10 streams of the Army in which they presently serve.

10 streams of army include Army Air Defence (AAD), Signals, Engineers, Army Aviation, Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME), Army Service Corps (ASC), Army Ordnance Corps (AOC), and Intelligence Corps in addition to the existing streams of Judge and Advocate General (JAG) and Army Educational Corps (AEC). 

According to Army Chief Gen. Manoj Naravane, the procedure for providing PC to women officers will be same as for male SSC officers.

Order of defence ministry is followed by a Supreme Court verdict that directed the government that women Army officers be granted permanent commission and command postings in all services other than combat.

About Feb. SC judgement

On February 17, the top court dismissed the Union government’s submissions that women are physiologically weaker than men as a “sex stereotype” and directed that women officers in the Army will be eligible for Permanent Commission and command postings.

As per the directions to Centre, all serving SSC women officers have to be considered for Permanent Commissions within three months, irrespective of them having crossed 14 years or, as the case may be, 20 years of service.

SC found that remarks of government are not only constitutionally invalid but discriminatory, affecting the dignity of women officers.

Entry of women in the Army till now has only been through Short Service Commission (SSC) and they could not serve beyond 14 years, however, there were some who continued on extensions but were still not given permanent commission.

There are over 300 women officers who are serving for more than 14 years on extension.

News: Many activists have raised concerns Earlier this month, Delhi High Court has extended the window for public feedback to the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification 2020. 

HC decision was followed by plea filed by activists after Environment Ministry extended the deadline for only 20 days, in the wake of COVID-19, compared to demanded 60 days by activists.

Draft notification has attracted heavy criticisms from environmental activists, calling it regressive. 

About EIA in India 

• EIA the study to predict the effect of a proposed activity/project on the environment and examines both beneficial and adverse consequences of the project. 
• Properly conducted EIA also lessens conflicts by promoting community participation. 
• Environmental protection act was enacted in 1986 as an umbrella act, after Bhopal gas leak disaster in 1984.
• First EIA norms were notified in 1994, under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 for regulating activities that access, utilise, and affect (pollute) natural resources. 
• Since then, every development project required to go through the EIA process for obtaining prior environmental clearance. The 1994 EIA notification was replaced with 2006 notification. 
• 2006 notification makes environment clearance mandatory for various projects such as thermal power plants, river valley, mining, infrastructure (road, highway, ports, harbours and airports) and industries including very small electroplating or foundry units.
• Under EIA, 2006, industries were divided into 2 categories: 
  • Category A projects require mandatory environmental clearance and thus they do not undergo the screening process.
  • Category B projects undergoes screening process and they are classified into two types.
    • Category B1 projects (Mandatorily requires EIA).
    • Category B2 projects (Do not require EIA).
  • In the 2006 EIA notification, category ‘B’ project was treated as category ‘A’ project if the project fulfilled the ‘general conditions’, like if they were located (in whole or in part) within 10 km from the boundaries of protected areas, critically polluted areas, eco-sensitive zones, or inter-State and international boundaries.
• Earlier this year (2020) EIA was redrafted again to incorporate the amendments to make it more transparent and expedient.

Concerns against EIA notification, 2020 

• No information on projects with “strategic” tag shall be placed in the public domain. Decision to decide the strategic tags for projects lies with government. 
• New draft exempts a long list of projects from public consultation. E.g. roads and pipelines in border areas will not require any public hearing. ‘border area’ is defined as “area falling within 100 kilometres aerial distance from the Line of Actual Control with bordering countries of India.
• 40 different types of industries would be automatically exempted include all inland waterways projects and expansion/widening of national highways, including roads that cut through forests and dredging of major rivers.
• For existing projects that may be merely looking to expand less than fifty percent of the project capacity, the notification denies any need for a public consultation.
• Reduction of the time period from 30 days to 20 days for the public to submit their responses during a public hearing for any application seeking environmental clearance.
• It is up to the discretion of regulatory authority to undertake public consultations through any means.
• It also allows for post-facto approval of projects i.e. clearances for projects can be awarded even if they have started construction or have been running phase without securing environmental clearances.

News: India holds the first ever Indian Scholastic Assessment (Ind-SAT) Test 2020 exam under ‘Study in India’ Programme. 

Exam details 

Nearly five thousand candidates from 12 countries Ethiopia, Nepal, Bhutan, Mauritius Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Sri-Lanka, Kenya, Zambia, Indonesia and Bangladesh appeared for the exam conducted in the proctored internet mode by the National Testing Agency.

Ind-SAT is an exam for grant of scholarships and admissions to foreign students for studying in select Indian universities under the Study in India programme.

The exam was held in 12 countries on a pilot basis this year. There are plans to extend this to other countries in the future.

Study in India’ Programme

It is a programme of MHRD under which foreign students come to study in 116 select higher education institutions in India. 

It covers admissions under graduate and post graduate programmes. About top 2000 students are given scholarships, while some others are given fee discounts by the institutions, this year.

Around 780 students had taken admission under the programme during its first year – 2018-19. In the second year this number rose to about 3200.

News: Union Home Minister Launches Tree Plantation Campaign-2020 “Vriksharopan Abhiyan” of the Coal Ministry. 

More about program 

The tree plantation campaign was conducted at more than 130 locations spread in 38 Districts of 10 coal/lignite bearing States through Video Conferencing.

Foundation stone of six eco-parks and tourism sites was also laid down, 2 of which will be developed in Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu and 3 in UP.

Under this program, thousands of saplings will be planted across 10 states in the country, on 6000 acres of area.  

Program was launched on the birth anniversary of two freedom fighters of India – Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Chandrashekhar Azad. 

More steps taken for environment development 

Government has set up the District Mineral Fund with a corpus of Rs.39,000 crore for the development of the mining areas and 35,000 minor projects have been completed.

As per coal ministry, till Financial year 2019-20, coal and lignite PSUs have planted around 157 Million plants restoring total area of about 25000 Hectares. 

The coal and lignite PSUs have planned to spend Rs. 50 crores on creation of new Eco-Parks, expansion of existing eco-parks and other tourism sites at 15 locations across the country by financial year 2023-24.