{Current Affairs} Daily News Notes: 17th Dec, 2013

· The Supreme Court today held that no approval from the Centre is required by CBI to prosecute senior bureaucrats in Court-monitored corruption cases. The ruling clears the deck for the agency to prosecute bureaucrats allegedly involved in the Coalgate scam. The apex court passed the order in one of the applications filed in coal blocks allocation scam, seeking the court's direction to do away with the provisions of prior sanction of the Centre in cases monitored by the court. The Court had, earlier, expressed its reservation over Centre's stand on mandatory sanction to investigate senior bureaucrats in all corruption cases. It said that such statutory provision would hamper judicial power in court-monitored probe like in the Coalgate case.
· Though several States have expressed opposition to the Prevention of Communal Violence Bill, the Union Cabinet on Monday gave its approval to it, paving the way for its introduction in the winter session of Parliament that ends on Friday. The new bill makes bureaucrats and public servants accountable for any acts of commission and omission while handling communal violence. However, bureaucrats who refuse to obey unlawful orders of their superiors during communal situations cannot be held responsible for dereliction of duty. According to the draft bill, communal violence includes "any act or series of acts, whether spontaneous or planned, resulting in injury or harm to the person and or property, knowingly directed against any person by virtue of his or her religious or linguistic identity". The reworked version of the prevention of Communal Violence Bill is a much diluted version of the draft Bill earlier approved by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC). The NAC draft bill had defined a riot-hit group as a religious or linguistic minority and proposed a national authority for communal harmony with wide-ranging powers to oversee and monitor action taken by states to prevent and control communal violence. The latter stands replaced by NHRC in the new bill.
· Minister of State for Tourism has informed that the Tourist Visa on Arrival (TVOA) facility was initially available to citizens of Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore in 2010. This was extended to citizens of Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos and Myanmar in 2011. Presently, it is not proposed to extend the Tourist Visa-on-Arrival facility to more countries. As regards Airports, he said that the facility was extended to four more airports viz. Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi. Further, he said that the provisions relating to two months gap between two visits of a foreign national to India on a Tourist Visa and Tourist Visa on Arrival has been reviewed by the Government. It has been decided to lift the restriction of two-month gap on re-entry of foreign nationals coming to India on Tourist Visa and Tourist Visa on Arrival. However, this relaxation does not include nationals of Afghanistan, Maldives, China, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan, foreigners of Pakistan origins and Stateless persons.
· Minister for Corporate Affairs has informed that it has been decided to constitute the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in a phased manner. The process for appointment of 30 Members of the NCLT has been set in motion. The location of Benches will depend on the assessed work load at various locations.
· Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Centre tried to reach out to rural masses by making major changes in its flagship programme NREGA, which include Rs.10,000 for constructing toilets for all job card holders and assistance for buildings for women self-help federations. In a bid to address the issue of delay in distributing wage payments to NREGA workers, the UPA government also announced compensation for them if it is delayed beyond 15 days and the amount would be deducted from officials responsible for it. Rural Development Minister said that with this decision, the government was universalizing the toilet construction programme in the country, where 60% of its people still defecate in the open.
· The Indian government pulled up the country’s Army chief General Bikram Singh for accepting a ‘Legion of Merit’, the sixth highest American military honor, without its approval. The Indian Defense Ministry questioned that the bestowment of the honor was not the part of General Singh’s itinerary during his visit to the U. S., then why he accepted the ‘Legion of Merit’, without prior clearance from the government. General Bikram Singh is the fifth Indian armed forces officer, to have received the award after Field Marshal Kariappa and first Indian Chief of Army Staff Gen Rajendra Singhji.
· The National Green Tribunal (NGT) banned “unregulated open burning” of plastic, rubber or such other articles across the country. NGT directed all the municipal authorities to ‘set up, operationalise and coordinate the waste management systems within their limits. All the plastic waste/scrap dealers and/or recyclers including the members of the PVC and Plastic Waste Dealers Association, respondent herein, shall be bounded from carrying on their business of separatism of plastic waste and its eventual transfer to recyclers or disposal contrary to and without registration under the Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011. National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 is a federal legislation enacted by the Parliament of India, under India’s constitutional provision of Article 21, which assures the citizens of India the right to a healthy environment. The tribunal itself is a special fast-track court to handle the expeditious disposal of the cases pertaining to environmental issues.
· Iran is focusing on exporting natural gas to India along a deep-sea route — the move coinciding with the cancellation of a $500-million loan to Islamabad to build the Pakistani section of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline and the signing of the Geneva nuclear accord that could help relax sanctions against Tehran. Iran’s National Iranian Gas Exports Company (NIGEC) said that India’s South Asia Gas Enterprise Pvt. Ltd. (SAGE) had conducted feasibility studies for the multi-billion-dollar undersea pipeline, which could carry gas from Iran’s giant South Pars gas field to India’s west coast. It said the project cost estimated by the company was $4-5 billion. Once operational, it could channel 31 million cubic meters of gas per day. It added that there were no technical hurdles to build the deep sea pipeline, and the project, which was financially viable, could be completed in 4-5 years, once the sanctions against Iran are lifted. In boosting exports, the Iranians have identified countries (Indian subcontinent, Turkey and Europe) which could be linked with cost-effective pipelines to receive gas, and others which will have to depend on LNG tankers.
· The Supreme Court today asked the Uttar Pradesh Police not to take any coercive action against Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin who is facing criminal charges (Section 66A of the IT Act) for her Twitter posts, as the plea cannot be entertained at this stage. Section 66A of the IT Act provides for arrest of a person hurting the sentiments of others through offensive remarks or information through electronic media, including social networking sites.
· India is expanding its strategic footprint in the Indian Ocean. A trilateral security group of India, Maldives and Sri Lanka will be expanded to include Mauritius and Seychelles. Senior officials of the trilateral group will meet in the third trilateral meeting at the NSA level on December 19 to prepare the ground for a formal joining of these countries. After the second trilateral meeting, the three countries decided to harmonize identification and tracking services and training in maritime domain awareness while India committed to sharing automatic identification system (AIS) data, coordinate efforts on search and rescue efforts etc. India agreed to share with Sri Lanka and Maldives its long range identification centre (LRIT) and merchant ship information system (MSIS) for tracking merchant vessels. The three countries also agreed to intensify surveillance of each other's exclusive economic zones (EEZ). India has taken the lead in this, in an effort to tie the other countries in an information and security network where Indian information systems held the key. However, India's recurrent problem appears to be the gap between promise and delivery. Maldives has complained that India has provided very few of the radars promised to monitor the 26 atolls of the island nation. Repeated delays by India make it easier for these countries to opt for China as an alternative source of security, just what India is trying to avoid. In recent years, China has made tremendous inroads in the Indian Ocean region, including in Maldives and Sri Lanka. As India's political establishment seems determined to ruin political relations with Sri Lanka even further, the security establishment fears its impact on the security relationship between the countries. The US has offered to set up a security presence in Maldives, even offering a bilateral security agreement. This has been stalled for the time being, but Indian officials say this could return at any time.
· China, Japan and South Korea on Sunday agreed to jointly combat air pollution, a common challenge to East Asia, to boost sustainable development for greater ecological improvement. China pointed out that Japan and South Korea have advanced technologies and experience in energy saving, environmental protection and air pollution treatment. It added the three nations have great potential for cooperation in the environmental protection industry as the Chinese leadership has vowed greater efforts for ecological improvement. Lingering smog covering large parts of China for about the past month have caused traffic jams and school closures. The bad air has also led to an increase in patients visiting hospitals due to respiratory problems. Experts blame over-dependence on coal, an unreasonable industrial structure, as well as surging numbers of cars on the roads for the worsening air quality. China's State Council, the cabinet, released an action plan for air pollution treatment in September, requiring heavily polluted regions to take measures to improve air quality by 2017.
· Socialist Michelle Bachelet was swept back into office on Sunday as Chile's next president, on a platform of boosting education and narrowing the gap between rich and poor. Bachelet takes office March 11 to succeed conservative billionaire President Sebastian Pinera for a term running through 2018. She served as Chile's first woman president back in 2006. The national electoral board said Bachelet earned 62.40 percent of the vote against Matthei's 37.50 percent, with 81.05 percent of votes tallied. More than 13 million Chileans were eligible to vote.