Source: The Hindu, Live Mint and Indian Express
PRESIDENT’S RULE VS GOVERNOR’S RULE IN J&K
Context: Jammu and Kashmir Governor said his administration wants the President’s Rule to end in the State at the earliest.
Essentials
- The State Emergency (President’s Rule) is applicable to the state. However, this emergency can be imposed in the state on the ground of failure of the Constitutional machinery under the provisions of the state Constitution and not Indian Constitution.
- In fact, two types of Emergencies can be declared in the state, namely, President’s Rule under the Indian Constitution and Governor’s Rule under the state Constitution.
- While in the rest of India, the Governor’s rule and President’s rule are co-terminus as under Article 356 of the constitution, the state of Jammu and Kashmir, on account of its special status, has a slightly different mechanism in place.
- Here the failure of governmental function results in Governor’s rule under Section 92 of the constitution of Jammu and Kashmir with a set of powers, the only requirement being the President’s consent.
- It is only when the Governor’s rule is not revoked for six months that the President’s rule is imposed in the state under Article 356.
- In Governor’s rule, lawmaking power, financial power, budgetary sanction, all these powers are with the Governor.
- Once President’s rule is imposed, lawmaking power is transferred to Parliament, the Budget is also passed by Parliament. However, in both the cases, the Governor administers as per the Centre’s directions.
- Jammu and Kashmir assembly remains under suspended animation during Governor’s rule. However, the governor may dissolve the assembly.
- Suspended animation of the assembly means the elected MLAs remain in office and legislative assembly continues to exist without the power of legislation.
- In 1986, the President’s Rule was imposed in the state for the first time.
- A National Emergency declared on the ground of internal disturbance will not have effect in the state except with the concurrence of the state government.
- The President has no power to declare a Financial Emergency in relation to the state.
- The President has no power to suspend the Constitution of the state on the ground of failure to comply with the directions given by him.
- Special status of J&K
- Under Article 1 of the Indian Constitution, the State of J&K is a constituent state of Indian Union and its territory forms a part of the territory of India.
- On the other hand, Article 370 in Part 21 of the Constitution grants a special status to it.
- Accordingly, all the provisions of the Indian Constitution do not apply to it.
- It is also the only state in the Indian Union which has its own separate state Constitution – the Constitution of J&K.
- Under the same Part 21 of the Constitution, eleven other states (Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh; all NE-states except Meghalaya and Tripura) also enjoy special status but only in certain minor matters.
- On the other hand, the special status enjoyed by the state of J&K is unparalleled.
INTERNATIONAL SOLAR ALLIANCE (ISA)
Context: Kochi offers help to ‘solarize’ airports in ISA countries.
Essentials
International Solar Alliance (ISA)
- The ISA was jointly launched in November 2015 by India and France, on the side lines of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties 21 (CoP21) at Paris, France.
- The ISA is a treaty-based alliance of 122 prospective solar-rich Member Nations situated fully or partially between the Tropics, and aims at accelerating development and deployment of solar energy globally.
- Most of these countries fall within Asia, Africa and South America.
- There are three objectives behind the International Solar Alliance.
- First is to force down prices by driving demand;
- Second is to bring standardisation in solar technologies and
- Third is to foster research and development.
- The Alliance had already got the required number of ratification (by 15 countries) to become an international legal entity.
- The 15 countries which have already submitted their instrument of ratification include India, France, Mauritius, Niger, Nauru, Tuvalu, Fiji, Somalia, Ghana, Mali, Seychelles, South Sudan, Bangladesh, Comoros and Guinea.
- The Headquarters is in Indiawith its Interim Secretariat being setup in
- It is the India’s first international and inter-governmental organization to have headquarters in India with United Nations as Strategic Partner.
- Countries that do not fall within the Tropics can join the ISA as “Partner Countries” and enjoy all benefits as other members, with the exception of voting rights.
- United Nations including its organs can join the ISA as “Strategic Partners”. Partner Countries, Partner Organizations, Strategic Partners, and Observers may participate without having the right to vote.
- The ISA has set a target of 1 TW of solar energy by 2030 through mobilisation of more than 1000 Billion US Dollars of investments. Though there are no targets or legal obligations imposed on member-countries.
- In March 2018, the Prime Minister of India, and the President of France co-hosted the founding conference of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in New Delhi.
- The Delhi Solar Agenda, adopted in the Founding Conference of the ISA, states that the ISA member States inter-aliahave agreed to pursue an increased share of solar energy in the final energy consumption in respective national energy mix.
- The first Assembly of the International Solar Alliance was inaugurated in New Delhi in October 2018.
- At CoP23 Bonn it has been clarified that the efforts and targets set out by the International Solar Alliance (ISA) are over and above the INDCs.
- Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) outlines actions on climate change that countries intend to take in the post 2020 period under the new Paris international climate change agreement.
- Bolivia is the latest country to join this alliance.
BrahMos
Context: The IAF had successfully test-fired the aerial version of the supersonic BrahMos cruise missile from a Su-30 MKI fighter aircraft. The 2.5 tonne air-to-surface missile has a range of around 300 km.
Essentials
BrahMos
- The name BrahMos is formed from the names of two rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia.
- It was developed as a joint venture between India and Russia.
- BrahMos is a two-stage supersonic (denoting a speed greater than that of sound) cruise missile that is first test-fired in June, 2001.
- It has been demonstrated in various configurations in land-attack, anti-ship and from the air.
- The Army and the Navy have already inducted the missile, while the air-launched variant is undergoing trials.
- It has a strike range of around 290 km and is described as the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile.
- It is a two stage missile with a solid propellant booster engine as its first stage which brings it to supersonic speed and then gets separated.
- The liquid ramjet or the second stage then takes the missile closer to 3 Mach speed in cruise phase.
- It carries a conventional warhead weighing 200 to 300 kgs.
- It is the first supersonic cruise missile known to be in service.
Special Features:
- Universal for multiple platforms
- Fire and forget principle of operation
- High supersonic speed all through the flight
- Long flight range with varieties of flight trajectories
- Low radar signature
- Shorter flight times leading to lower target dispersion and quicker engagement
- Pin point accuracy with high lethal power aided by large kinetic energy on impact
- Stealth technology and guidance system with advanced software
- Non-interception with any known system in the world
RISAT-2B
Context: In a pre-dawn launch, RISAT-2B, the country’s newest, an X-band microwave Earth observation satellite, rode to its orbit 557 km above the ground.
Essentials
- RISAT-2B is a radar imaging earth observation satellite developed by ISRO.
- When it is cloudy or dark, ‘regular’ remote-sensing or optical imaging satellites — which work like a light-dependent camera — cannot perceive hidden or surreptitious objects on the ground.
- Satellites like RISAT-2B that are equipped with an active sensor, the synthetic aperture radar (SAR), can sense or ‘observe’ Earth in a special way from space day and night, rain or cloud.
- RISAT-2B will use microwave radiation.
- Unlike visible light, microwaves have longer wavelength and so will not be susceptible to atmospheric scattering.
- Microwave radiation can thus easily pass through the cloud cover, haze and dust, and image the ground.
- The RISAT-2B satellite uses X-band synthetic aperture radar for the first time; the synthetic aperture radar was developed indigenously.
- Unlike the C-band that was used by RISAT-1, the shorter wavelength of the X-band allows for higher resolution imagery for target identification and discrimination.
- Since it has high resolution, the satellite will be able to detect objects with dimensions of as little as a metre.
- This capacity to study small objects and also movement could be useful for surveillance.
- This all-weather seeing feature is what makes them special for security forces, disaster management support, forestry and agriculture..
- A radar imaging satellite is complex to assemble. Interpreting its images is equally complex. ISRO took almost 10 years to realise RISAT-1.
- It sends much heavier data than plain remote sensing satellites.
- India has almost kept pace with the world with radar satellites.
- Radar imaging satellites pick up structures, new bunkers very well, and sometimes help to count them, too.
- In India we also use radar imaging for crop estimation because our main crop growing season of kharif is in May-September when it rains and gets cloudy.
- We have used this data extensively for forestry, soil, land use, geology and during floods and cyclone.
- This is the third Indian RISAT in ten years, coming up after the Israeli-built RISAT-2 in 2009 and later ISRO-built RISAT-1 in 2012. The older two have reached the end of their lives.
- ISRO has planned a series of radar imagers in the coming months to enhance its space-based observation of Earth and the Indian region.
- The launch also tested a new low-cost light Vikram processor developed at the Semiconductor Complex Chandigarh. The processor will control future ISRO launch vehicles.
Vikram Processor
- Main application of Vikram Processor is in the realisation of on-board computers for navigation, guidance and control processing in flight applications as well as for general purpose processing applications.
CHAGOS ARCHIPELAGO
Context: In a stinging defeat for Britain, the UN General Assembly demanded that London cede to Mauritius the Chagos Islands. A total of 116 countries voted in favour of a non-binding resolution that urged Britain to “withdraw its colonial administration” within six months.
Essentials
Chagos Archipelago
- It is an island group in the central Indian Ocean, located about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) south of the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent.
- The Chagos group are made up of a combination of different coralline rock structures, which top a submarine ridge that runs southwards across the centre of the Indian Ocean.
- This was formed by volcanoes above the Réunion hotspot.
- Most of the coralline structures of the Chagos are submerged reefs.
The Dispute?
- Between 1967 and 1973 the United Kingdom evicted the Chagossians, in order to build a military base on the largest of the Chagos Islands – Diego Garcia.
- Mauritius claims it was forced to give up the islands – now a British overseas territory – in 1965 in exchange for independence, which it gained in 1968.
- Chagossians have also brought forward cases in British courts for the right to return to the islands.
- The International Court of Justice recently said the islands were not lawfully separated from the former colony of Mauritius.
- The UK has previously said it will hand the islands back to Mauritius when they are no longer required for defence purposes.
International Court of Justice
- The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN).
- It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946.
- The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands).
- Of the six principal organs of the United Nations, it is the only one not located in New York (United States of America).
- The main organs of the UN are the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat.
- All were established in 1945 when the UN was founded.
- The Court has a dual role:
- to settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by States and
- to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies.
- The Court is composed of 15 judges, who are elected for terms of office of nine years by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council.
- In order to be elected, a candidate must receive an absolute majority of the votes in both bodies (UNSC and UNGA).
- It is assisted by a Registry, its administrative organ.
- Its official languages are English and French.
- Judges are chosen on the basis of their qualifications, not their nationality, but no two judges can be from the same nationality.
- The following are the qualifications of International Court of Justice (ICJ) judges:
- A judge should have a high moral character.
- A judge should fit to the qualifications of appointment of highest judicial officers as prescribed by their respective states or
- A judge should be a jurisconsult of recognized competence in international law.
- Effort is also taken to ensure that the principal legal systems of the world are reflected in the composition of the court.
- Its judgments have binding force and are without appeal for the parties concerned.
- In 2017, India’s nominee to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Dalveer Bhandari was re-elected to the fifth and the last seat of the world court after Britain withdrew its candidate from the election.
- This was the first time since the ICJ was established in 1945 that there was no British judge in the ICJ.
Who may submit cases to the Court?
- Only States are eligible to appear before the Court in contentious cases. At present, this basically means the 192 United Nations Member States.
- The Court has no jurisdiction to deal with applications from individuals, non-governmental organizations, corporations or any other private entity. It cannot provide them with legal counselling or help them in their dealings with the authorities of any State whatever.
- However, a State may take up the case of one of its nationals and invoke against another State the wrongs which its national claims to have suffered at the hands of the latter; the dispute then becomes one between States.
- The Court can only hear a dispute when requested to do so by one or more States. It cannot deal with a dispute of its own motion. It is not permitted, under its Statute, to investigate and rule on acts of sovereign States as it chooses.
Are decisions of the Court binding?
- Judgments delivered by the Court (or by one of its Chambers) in disputes between States are binding upon the parties concerned.
- Judgments are final and without appeal.
What differentiates the International Court of Justice from the International Criminal Court and the ad hoc international criminal tribunals?
- The International Court of Justice has no jurisdiction to try individuals accused of war crimes or crimes against humanity.
- As it is not a criminal court, it does not have a prosecutor able to initiate proceedings.
- This task is the preserve of national courts, the ad hoc criminal tribunals established by the United Nations and also of the International Criminal Court, set up under the Rome Statute.
- The Court is not a supreme court to which national courts can turn; it does not act as a court of last resort for individuals. Nor is it an appeal court for any international tribunal. It can, however, rule on the validity of arbitral awards.
News in brief
Bishnoi community
- Rajasthan’s Bishnoi community is known for its beliefs associated with nature worship and wildlife conservation.
Mismatch between EVM and VVPAT
- In case of mismatch between counting of slips and EVM results, recounting of slips of the particular VVPT will be done and then election symbols of slips will be
- If results don’t tally after implementing the set process, the VVPAT slip count will prevail.
Canada’s Garbage
- Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered tonnes of garbage dumped in the Philippines years ago to be shipped back to Canada.
- He also warned that if Ottawa would not formally accept the shipment of trash, it would be dumped inside Canada’s territorial waters or 12 nautical miles out to sea from the baseline of their country’s shores.
- The rubbish is stored containers which a Canadian firm sent to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014 — ostensibly for recycling — and the issue of what to do with it has rankled for years.
In a first, Arabic novel wins international Booker
- Omani writer Jokha Alharthi shares award with translator Marilyn Booth.
- Celestial Bodies, a family saga set against Oman’s transition from slave trading centre to oil producer, became the first novel originally written in Arabic to win the Man Booker International Prize.
- The prize, given each year to the best book translated into English and published in Britain, is widely seen as the world’s most significant award for translated fiction.
- It is distinct from the more well-known Booker Prize for fiction, originally published in English.
