Junior Digest

New Delhi : A bill to give statutory backing to the unique identity number scheme for better targetting of subsidies was on Wednesday returned by Rajya Sabha to the Lok Sabha with several amendments, with Opposition parties  objecting strongly to treating it as a money bill. The Lok Sabha on Wednesday evening passed the Aadhar bill after rejecting five amendments introduced in Rajya Sabha.

The amendments to the Aadhar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other subsidies, benefits and services) Bill, 2016, moved by Congress leader and former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, were passed in Rajya Sabha with a majority voting in favour. The ruling BJP-led NDA does not have majority in the House. Members of BSP, TMC and BJD also walked out of the House raising objections on several issues concerning the measure.

‘ Why Aadhar brought as money bill’

The process of return of the bill saw an animated debate over why it was brought as a money bill, with a number of opposition members also raising concern over privacy and national security on the biometric data of Indians so collected through the scheme. Brushing aside the objections by the Opposition, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Aadhar Bill was a money bill as it dealt with the way public money or subsidy will be distributed among the needy under various government schemes.

Moving the Bill in Rajya Sabha, Jaitley said Parliament cannot abdicate its right to legislate just because the issue is pending in the Supreme Court. The Minister also emphasised that the present bill was different from the one brought by the UPA government as it had further tightened the privacy provisions with regard to sharing of information of individuals collected by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

Several Opposition members including Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Jairam Ramesh (Cong), Naresh Agrawal (SP) and K C Tyagi (JD-U) among others, opposed the government’s decision to label the Aadhar bill as a money bill. Refuting the objections in a debate marred by acrimony, Jaitley said the Lok Sabha Speaker had the final authority under the Constitution to declare a bill as money bill and nobody can question that. The Lok Sabha has passed the bill on March 11.

Jaitley explains

“One, the purpose of this bill is distribution of government money by subsidies and the rest is incidental, so it is a money bill. Two, merely because the executive action is challenged and pending in the Supreme Court, the powers of Parliament cannot suspend the right to legislate. Three, learning from UPA’s experience, we have further tightened privacy laws much more than the UPA had in its bill,” he said.

Speaking about the Aadhar bill, Ramesh said it was because of “small mercies” that a debate had taken place over it. The Congress leader said the major use of Aadhar should be that it could be used to improve the way subsidy is distributed to curb leakages, but it should not determine who is eligible for for subsidy.

Ramesh said while much has been made out by the Finance Minister about Rs 14,000 crore savings in the distribution of LPG subsidies because of Aadhar based DBT, the findings of a London-based think tank suggest otherwise. He said while the present Bill is better in some respects than the one brought by UPA in 2010, it is silent on other aspects. He said he had overall nine objections to the Bill, a number for which Jaitley had shown much fascination in the budget.

Opposition unimpressed

He said that during the UPA regime, there was scepticism over Aadhar even among the National Advisory Council (NAC) but his party leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had remained firm. Ramesh said while the government had provided the opposition with “fait accompli”, it should have rather been sent to a Select Committee headed by a BJP member like Anil Madhav Dave or Bhupendra Yadav and better bill could have been come up with.

Speaking after Ramesh, BJP member Chandan Mitra said the Congress leader had on one occasion mentioned that criticism of Aadhar could get anyone labelled as ‘anti-national’, which reflected the paranoia of the opposition. Naresh Agarwal (SP) said the government’s action of bringing the Bill as a Money Bill raised suspicions. He too suggested that the Bill should be sent to a Select Committee.

Opposing making of Aadhar mandatory, he said questions could be raised about citizenship of several people. K G Tyagi of JD(U) raised questions about the safety of data saying it could reach CIA or Mossad. He also referred to the Nazi regime in Germany and said it had introduced cards to identify Jews.

‘Security concerns addressed’

Earlier when the Aadhar bill was introduced by Jaitley, Yechury raised a point of order and sought to know why the government was in “haste” to legislate when a five-member bench of Supreme Court is seized of the matter.

“This is actually, I suspect, it is a method of trying to subvert the judicial verdict, which is something not acceptable to me. On these two grounds, the bill is beyond the legislative capacity of the House,” he said.

To this, Vice Chairman P J Kurien said “the bill is transmitted by the Lok Sabha. At this point, legislative competence does not arise. On the basis of point of order, I cannot reject the bill. The reason is that the bill is passed in the Lok Sabha. So, we are bound to consider it.” Responding to queries of various members on the bill, Jaitley said, “One argument raised is that five-member bench of Supreme Court is considering the issue and therefore Parliament may suspend the power to legislate. It is an unprecedented argument, particularly in a democracy which is governed by the separation of powers.”

“The power to legislate belongs to Parliament. The power to legislate does not belong to courts. And therefore, the court only has power of judicial review before a legislation is framed, hold your hands and don’t legislate is anunprecedented argument,” he said. Maintaining that the Supreme Court was looking at “theoretical” questions relating to the right of privacy, Jaitley said the present law has much tighter norms to protect the privacy of individual as compared to the one framed by the UPA government.

The present law restricts sharing details of UID holder on two occasions. The details can be shared by consent of the person but biometric details cannot be shared even with his consent, he said. However the UPA law provided for sharing data under special circumstances. “We are made to share only when it is of national security issue,” he added. “I am not criticising the UPA law. Since it was the beginning of a thought process, then you need that unique identity number for some purpose and obviously there was some gap. The present law is completely different. I borrow the complete idea from the UPA law, that you need an unique identify number. To that extent, I give all credit to them.

That is an idea which was rightly created,” the Minister said. The unique identify number will help in better targeting of crores of government subsidies, he added. “If subsidies are given to unquantified and unidentified sections, then non-merit people will get the subsidy. Centre and states assist people some way or the other by way of subsidy. You are entitled to take UID if you want the benefit of subsidy,” Jaitley said.He said the US had passed a similar law in 1935 and India is behind the time.

@ Agency report.

Pune, Mar : Thirty five FTII students were today listed in a charge sheet for allegedly gheraoing and illegally confining the institute’s director Prashant Pathrabe last year, of whom 30 were later granted bail.

The Deccan-Gymkhana police, which is probing the case, filed the charge sheet against 35 students in a court and the next hearing will be held on April 2, the prosecution said.

“There are total 35 students against whom the charge sheet has been filed. Five students were arrested on the intervening night of August 18-19 and released on bail. 30 students, including 12 who were out on anticipatory bail, were given (regular) bail today,” defence counsel Shrikant Shivade said.

Shivade moved a bail plea for 30 students in the court of first class judicial magistrate S S Bangad, who granted bail to all the students on a personal bond of Rs 3,000 each.

The FTII students, who were on a strike for 139 days since June last year against the appointment of BJP member and TV actor Gajendra Chauhan as its chairman, had allegedly gheraoed and confined Pathrabe in his office on August 17.

They had challenged his decision to go ahead with the assessment of the incomplete diploma film projects of the 2008 batch students.

The incident had led to police swooping-in on the campus on the intervening night of August 18-19, and arresting five students.

The students were booked under various sections of IPC, including 143, 147, 149, 323, 353 and 506, dealing with offences, some of them non-bailable, related to unlawful assembly, criminal intimidation and rioting.

Seventeen students were last year identified and named in an FIR filed in connection with the case.

Last week, the police, after screening the video footage of the incident, had identified 18 more students and asked them to present themselves in the court today.

@Agency report.

Naypyidaw: Myanmar’s lawmakers today elected a close aide and longtime friend of Aung San Suu Kyi to become the country’s first civilian president in decades, a historic moment for the formerly junta-run nation.

Htin Kyaw, 69, hailed his elevation to the top post as “Suu Kyi’s victory”, a clear nod to her plan for him to serve as a proxy for the Nobel laureate who is constitutionally barred from becoming president.

MPs erupted into applause after victory was announced following a lengthy ballot count by hand in the capital Naypyidaw in which Htin Kyaw took 360 of 652 votes cast.

Myanmar is in the grip of a stunning transformation from an isolated and repressed pariah state to a rapidly opening aspiring democracy.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won a thumping victory at the polls in November, allowing her party to dominate Myanmar’s two legislative houses.

But the military remains a powerful force in the Southeast Asian nation and has refused to change a clause in the junta-era constitution that bars Suu Kyi from top political office.

The veteran activist has instead vowed to rule “above” the next leader.

Her choice of Htin Kyaw to act in her place is seen as a testament to her absolute faith in his loyalty.

“This is sister Aung San Suu Kyi’s victory,” the newly elected president told reporters after the vote. “Thank you.”

Htin Kyaw will take office on 1 April, replacing incumbent Thein Sein’s five years of army-backed quasi-civilian leadership that has been lauded for steering the nation out from the shadow of outright military rule.

The two other candidates who were also running in Tuesday’s election will now become the country’s joint vice presidents.

They are retired general Myint Swe, an army-backed candidate who remains on Washington’s sanctions list and won 213 votes, and ethnic Chin MP Henry Van Thio, who gathered 79 votes.

Most of Myint Swe’s votes came from the army’s parliamentary bloc, which is reserved a quarter of seats in parliament, and from military-backed parties.

Suu Kyi, 70, has unrivalled popularity both as the daughter of the country’s independence hero and as a central figure in the decades-long democracy struggle.

Her party’s huge election victory was seen as a further endorsement of her political star power, as millions were swept to polling stations by the NLD’s simple message of change.

But the military still retains significant power, including control of the vital home, defence and border ministries.

Months of negotiations with army chief Min Aung Hlaing failed to remove the obstacles blocking Suu Kyi from power.

@Agency report.

New Delhi : Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, in a written reply in Lok Sabha, said a comprehensive set of actions following an integrated approach is required to make substantial improvement in air quality. He said the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had assessed the impact of odd-even scheme launched by Delhi government from January 1-15 this year.  “The assessment of CPCB revealed no clear trend and wide fluctuations were observed in the concentrations. It is evident that the meteorology and emissions from other polluting sources have been major factors impacting air quality of Delhi during the period. Higher wind speeds and mixing height in general results in better dispersion and lower pollution levels. “Overall it can be stated that while some reduction in air pollution is likely to happen due to odd-even scheme, a single factor or action cannot substantially reduce air pollution in Delhi. Therefore, a comprehensive set of actions following an integrated approach is required to make substantial improvement of air quality,” Javadekar said.

He said the decision on implementation of odd-even scheme is within the purview of the state or UT government. Asserting that an overwhelming majority of respondents were in favour of the vehicle-rationing scheme, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had earlier announced that the second phase of the odd-even scheme will be implemented in the city from April 15 to 30. He had said government was “seriously deliberating” on the idea of enforcing the scheme every month for a fortnight, while admitting the city’s public transport was not capable of handling the resultant passenger rush.

@Agency report.

Paris : Rising sea levels driven by climate change could upend the lives of more than 13 million Americans by the end of the century, according to a study released on Monday.

If global warming lifts oceans 1.8 metres (six feet) by 2100, as some scientists forecast in worst-case scenarios, 13.1 million people living in US coastal areas will become vulnerable to flooding and storm surges, the study said.

In Florida alone, some six million residents could be affected, and one million each in California and Louisiana.

Previous estimates of the number of people in the US who would be disrupted or displaced by rising ocean levels have not taken in account population increases, the researchers said.

“This research merges population forecasts with sea level rise,” said Mathew Hauer, lead author of the study and a doctoral student at the University of Georgia.

“The impact projections are up to three times larger than current estimates, which significantly underestimate the effect of sea level rise in the United States,” he said in a statement.

More than 25 per cent of the people living in major urban centres such as Miami and New Orleans are likely to face severe flooding by century’s end, the study warned.

“The longer we wait to implement adaptation measures, the more expensive they become,” Hauer said.

All told, there are 31 counties where more than 100,000 residents would be hit hard by a two-metre jump in sea levels, according to the new calculations.

In three of them — including Monroe County, home to the Florida Keys — 80 per cent of the population would be adversely affected.

On a global scale, an increase of one-to-two metres in sea levels would have a similar or even more devastating impact on hundreds of millions of people, especially in poorer countries ill-equipped to cope, previous research has shown.

One study estimated that — even under optimistic scenarios that assume swift and deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions — land currently occupied by some 200 million people would be submerged, though over a longer time scale.

@ Agency report.

Kolkata : Eminent Shehnai exponent Ustad Ali Ahmad Hussain Khan, one of the best-known players of the instrument after the legendary Bismillah Khan, passed away in Kolkata on Wednesday following prolonged illness.

Suffering from kidney-related problems, he was hospitalised for the past few days and breathed his last on Wednesday morning, family members said.

He was 77 and is survived by his five sons, five daughters and a number of grandchildren.

Ustad Khan was felicitated with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for his contribution to Hindustani instrumental music.

He hailed from a family of renowned Shehnai exponents from Benaras and was known for his innovative style and mastery over the classical and semi-classical and folk music repertoire.

The musician had also played at the inauguration ceremony of Doordarshan in 1973.

A top-graded artiste of All India Radio, Ustad Khan also used to teach in the ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata and was active before he got hospitalised.

In 2012, he was felicitated with the ‘Bangabhushan’ award by the West Bengal government.

“His death is an irreparable loss in classical music. I pray for peace to the departed soul. I convey my deep condolences to the family,” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in a message.

@Agency report.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a nun who dedicated her life to helping the poor, will be made a saint of the Roman Catholic Church at a ceremony on September 4, Pope Francis announced on Tuesday.

Last December, he cleared the way for sainthood for the Nobel peace laureate, who died in 1997 at the age of 87 and was known as “saint of the gutters”.

Teresa, who was born Agnese Gonxha Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents in 1910 in what was then part of the Ottoman Empire and is now Macedonia.

Francis, who has made concern for the poor a major plank of his papacy, was keen to make Mother Teresa a saint during the Church’s current Holy Year.

She founded the Missionaries of Charity with about a dozen nuns in the 1950s to help the poor on the streets of Calcutta, now known as Kolkata. The religious order spread throughout the world. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

The Church defines saints as those believed to have been holy enough during their lives to now be in Heaven and can intercede with God to perform miracles. She has been credited in the church with two miracles, both involving the healing of sick people.

@Agency report.

A Google-developed computer programme had the last word Tuesday in its machine vs human challenge with South Korean Go grandmaster Lee Se-Dol, winning the final game for a sweeping 4-1 series victory.

The win was vindication for AlphaGo’s creators, DeepMind, who had touted the programme as a new form of artificial intelligence (AI) capable of “intuitive” thought and with wide-ranging real-world applications.

“I’m kind of speechless, that was the most mind-blowing game experience so far,” said DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis.

“Early on … it seemed that AlphaGo made quite a big mistake, but in the end it was able to get back into the match for an incredibly close, intense finish,” Hassabis said.

“We’re just kind of stunned really,” he added.

A visibly upset Lee was left at the table with his head in his hands, after resigning at the end of a close-fought, five-hour battle with the AlphaGo programme.

After Lee had managed to pull one back for humanity in game four, AlphaGo was back on its best destructive form, using its deep neural networks to finally outwit the 33-year-old in a nerve-wracking end game.

“I started off the match thinking that I had an advantage, but the fact that I was still defeated showed up my shortcomings,” Lee told reporters afterwards.

The South Korean, who has 18 international titles under his belt and is widely considered one of the greatest Go players of the modern era, said he felt he had under-performed against a formidable, but beatable opponent.

“I think (AlphaGo) is still at a level that can be challenged by humans and in that sense, like I said earlier, I feel a bit disappointed,” Lee said.

“It is different, there’s no doubt. First of all, its not human. It took time for me to get used to its playing style,” Lee said.

“It’s not shaken up psychologically and stays focused right until the end,” he added.

Described as the “match of the century” by local media, the series was closely watched by tens of millions of fans of the ancient board game—mostly in East Asia—as well as AI scientists.

The “machine vs human” element meant the games also made headlines around the world, with AlphaGo’s winning performance hailed as a watershed for the future of AI.

The most famous AI victory to date came in 1997, when the IBM-developed supercomputer Deep Blue beat the then-world class chess champion Garry Kasparov.

But Go, played for centuries mostly in Korea, Japan and China, had long remained the holy grail for AI developers due to its complexity and near-infinite number of potential configurations.

AlphaGo uses two sets of neural networks that allow it to crunch data in a more human-like fashion—dumping millions of potential moves that human players would instinctively know were pointless.

It also employs algorithms that allow it to learn and improve from match play experience.

DeepMind says the technology has far-ranging, real-world applications from making smartphones smarter to health care, although Hassabis said they had no clear idea what the next step might be.

“We’ve really just been focusing on the match until this moment,” he told the post-match press conference.

“We think there are many things we can improve. Maybe in the next few months we’ll be able to announce more concrete plans,” he added.

Before the final game, South Korea’s Go Association said it was awarding AlphaGo the highest Go grandmaster rank of “ninth dan”, reserved for those whose ability at the ancient board game borders on “divinity.”

@ phys.org report.

United Nations:  India has enabling conditions for gender equality and is updating the National Policy for Women to establish a solid foundation for accelerating its commitment to women’s empowerment, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi has said.

“Ensuring gender equality, promoting women’s empowerment and combating discrimination and violence against women are integral to our national pursuit of forging inclusive society and development,” Ms Gandhi, Minister for Women and Child Development, said yesterday.

“We have adopted both enabling legislative and policy framework for advancement of women and undertaken awareness generation and sensitisation programmes to fight social prejudices and stereotypes,” she said during a roundtable session at the 60th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
India is updating the National Policy for Women to “establish a solid foundation to accelerate our commitment” made in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, she said.

“As we begin to implement the new universal agenda for sustainable development, the enabling conditions for realizing gender equality and women’s empowerment are already in place in India,” Ms Gandhi said.

The CSW, which began yesterday and will last until March 24, will bring together representatives from the UN system, member states and civil society from around the world to review the progress so far towards gender equality and women’s empowerment and plan new initiatives and actions.

Over 400 events have been planned throughout the city for the CSW and the priority theme for the events will be on women’s empowerment and sustainable development, given that this is the first session of the Commission since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda in September 2015.

Ms Gandhi told the roundtable on ‘Enhancing national institutional arrangements for gender equality and women’s empowerment’ that many of the Sustainable Development Goals which form the core of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development are already being implemented through flagship programmes of the government such as ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan’, ‘Make in India’, ‘Digital India’, ‘Skill India’, ‘Smart Cities’ and ‘Jan Dhan Yojana’.

“Mechanism has been put in place that every programme or project is shaped by a gender analysis at the planning stage itself and also establishes common indicators for judging our success (Outcome Budget),” the minister said.

Underlining India’s firm commitment to realising a transformative change for gender equality, women’s rights and empowerment globally, Ms Gandhi further said that women leaders in politics are progressively increasing in India and “making the Parliament stronger” through their participation.

“Women’s issues, including new issues, are now raised more easily and more often than before,” she said.

@Agency report

New Delhi : Over 68% of milk in the country does not conform to standards laid down by the food regulator and the most common adulterant found in it is detergent, caustic soda, glucose, white paint and refined oil considered “very hazardous” which could cause serious ailments, the Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday.

Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan said during Question Hour that a new scanner has been developed which can detect adulteration in milk in 40 seconds and can even pinpoint the adulterant.

Earlier, for every type of adulteration, a separate chemical test was required. But now a single scanner can do the job, he said. There were murmurs among members when the minister suggested that these scanners could be purchased by MPs through their constituency funds. Though the scanners are costly as of now, each test costs a mere 10 paisa, he said.

Vardhan said in the near future, GPS-based technology could be used to track the exact location where the milk supplied in the cold chain has been tampered with. There are two lakh villages in the country from where milk is collected.

@Agency report.

New Delhi : The US has conveyed to India it has put in place an “effective oversight” and end-use monitoring system to ensure that security assistance given to Pakistan is used solely to combat terrorism.

The US last month had proposed USD 860 million in aid for Pakistan, including USD 265 million for military hardware, which it said would help the country fight terrorists, secure nuclear weapons and improve ties with India.

The US has been giving financial aid to Pakistan, both for civil and military purposes from time to time.

“India has consistently conveyed its concerns and sensitivities to the US government regarding the US security assistance to Pakistan.

“The US government has conveyed that it has put in place effective oversight and end-use monitoring mechanisms to ensure that its security assistance to Pakistan is used solely for counter-terrorism related purposes,” Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said while replying to a question in Lok Sabha.

Last month, the Obama Administration had decided to sell eight nuclear-capable F-16 fighter jets worth nearly USD 700 million to Pakistan. Reacting to the decision, India had said it will create “negative sentiment” in the India-US relationship.

Replying to a separate question, Singh said a total of 25,049 people of Indian origin died abroad since 2013. He said in 2013, a total of 7,433 people died while in 2014, it was 7,691 and in 2015, it was 8,312. In 2016, a total of 1,613 people of Indian origin have died.

To another query, he said 115 incidents of attacks, involving 276 Indian nationals, have been reported in 30 countries in last three years.

“As a result of these attacks, 57 Indian nationals lost their lives,” the Minister said.