• SC has observed that for application of anti-defection law, it does not matter whether rival group is the minority or majority within the political party if their acts amount to defection.

About Anti-Defection law:

• It was added by the 52nd Amendment in 1985 that also inserted Tenth Schedule to the Constitution (grounds of defection).
• A member of a House becomes disqualified if:
  1. He voluntarily gives up his membership of such political party; or
  2. He votes/abstains from voting contrary to any direction issued by his political party and such act has not been condoned by the bnparty within 15 days.
  3. An independent member becomes disqualified he joins any political party after such election.
  4. A nominated member becomes disqualified if he joins any political party after expiry of six months from date on which he takes seat.
• Exceptions in anti-defection law:
  1. Allows a party to merge with or into another party provided at least two-thirds of its legislators are in favour.
  2. If a person is elected as speaker of Lok Sabha or Chairman of Rajya Sabha then he could resign from his party, and rejoin the party once he demits that post.

• As part of the Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP), GPLC has been constituted to ensure systematic and time bound implementation of the Greater Panna Landscape Management plan.
• KBLP is an interlinking of rivers project (through the Panna Tiger Reserve), envisages transferring water from the Ken River to the Betwa river.
• The broad objectives of the GPLC are-
  • Enable betterment of habitat, and management for flagship species viz. tiger, vulture, and gharial in the landscape;
  • Consolidate the landscape for biodiversity conservation through spatial prioritization;
  • Provide species-specific and site-specific monitoring strategies.
• Integrated Landscape Management refers to long term collaboration to achieve the objectives required from the landscape, such as agricultural production, the delivery of ecosystem services, cultural heritage and values, and rural livelihoods.

About Panna Tiger Reserve

• It is situated in the Vindhyan Hills nearer to the confluence of the Deccan Peninsula, Upper Gangetic Plain, and Semi-Arid Gujarat Rajputana reflecting the influence of three bio-geographic regions. Ken river passes through it.
• It was formed in 1981 and in 2011 it was designated a biosphere reserve by the government.
  • It is the third biosphere reserve included in the World Network of Biosphere reserves (WNBR) from Madhya Pradesh after Pachmarhi and Amarkantak.

• Recently, a function was held to commemorate the success of “SWAYATT”, an initiative to promote ‘Start-ups, Women and Youth Advantage Through e-Transactions'(SWAYATT) on Government E-Marketplace (GeM) in New Delhi.

About SWAYATT Initiative

• The initiative was launched in February 2019 under Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• It brings together the key stakeholders within the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem to Government e-Marketplace the national procurement portal.

Outcomes of the initiative:

• More than 8.5 lakh Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) have been registered on GeM portal who have been able to get business of over Rs. 1.87 lakh crore spread across 68 lakh+ orders.
• More than 1.45 lakh women MSEs have fulfilled 7.32 lakh orders worth 15,922 Crore.
• Approximately 43000 SC/ ST MSEs have delivered 1.35 lakh+ orders worth 2,592 Crore on the GeM portal so far.
• 105 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) can now sell more than 200 Agri products directly to the Government through GeM.

About GeM-Government e-Marketplace

• GeM is an Online Market platform was setup in 2016 to facilitate procurement of goods and services by the government ministries, departments, public sector undertakings (PSU) etc.
• It has been envisaged as National Procurement Portal of India.
• It has been developed by Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (Ministry of Commerce and Industry) with technical support of National e-governance Division (Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology).
• It functions under Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

• The state Cabinet, under the chairmanship CM , approved the Himachal Pradesh Sadhbhawana Legacy Cases Resolution Scheme 2023 to dispose of around 50,000 pending tax cases pertaining to the pre-Goods and Services Tax (GST) era.
• The Himachal Pradesh Sadhbhawana Legacy Cases Resolution Scheme 2023 will be notified for three months initially.
• Dealers can deposit their taxes along with the prescribed settlement fee, where interest and penalty have been waived.
• This is the third such legacy scheme rolled out since 2020 to settle pending casesof Value Added Tax (VAT) and Central Sales Tax (CST), which were later subsumed in the GST.
• The State Taxes and Excise Department had earlier floated the Himachal Pradesh Swarn Jayanti (Legacy Cases Resolution) Scheme-2021. It was applicable for four months initially and had generated a revenue of Rs 91 crore. There were 1.68 lakh pending cases — 13,705 in Solan, 20,108 in Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh, 11,615 in Sirmaur and 9,869 in Una.

• The CM said that Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved Rs 1,311.20 crore under the phase-1 of the proposed infrastructure development investment programme.
• the state government had been emphasising on making Himachal the best tourist destination in the country by developing unexplored tourist places.
• In the first phase, the beautification of Palampur would be undertaken. A convention centre would be built at Dharamsala, a thematic-cum-green park at Pragpur, wellness centres at Dharamsala, Shimla, Nadaun and Kullu-Manali and a high-end fountain tourist facility at Dharamsala.
• Besides, wayside amenities will be developed on the Mandi-Kullu highway, Nadaun, Kaleshwar Mahadev and Kangra, while rafting-cum-water park complex will be established at Nadaun.
• Facilities like shikaras, house boats, jetties, water biking at Pong Dam, Nadaun and Bangana, etc, would be developed.

• In a significant development in DNA vaccination research, India’s first and only DNA vaccine candidate for dengue has shown promising results.
• It has been in development since 2019 in National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru.
  • Earlier, world’s first DNA vaccine—ZyCoV-D was approved in 2021 for emergency use against COVID-19.
  • Globally, DNA vaccines are being developed for diseases like tuberculosis and chikungunya.

About the DNA vaccine

• DNA vaccine uses a copy of a genetic sequence from a part (i.e., outer or spike-protein) of a pathogen (virus or bacteria) to stimulate body’s immune system. More specifically, it known as “plasmid DNA vaccine”.
• On the other hand, RNA vaccine uses a copy of a natural chemical called messenger RNA (mRNA) to produce an immune response in humans. Delivery of mRNA is achieved by lipid nanoparticles.
• DNA vaccine is more stable than RNA vaccine.
• Unlike RNA vaccine, DNA vaccines have potential to integrate into host cell genome.
• Benefits of DNA vaccine
  • Stability and safety: Vaccines are non-infectious; carries no potential toxicity from viral vectors.
  • Efficacy and boosting: Stimulate both humoral and cellular arms of adaptive immune system; pose minimal risk of anti-vector immunity.
  • Rapid and Scalable manufacturing: Lower cold chain requirements.
• Issues: Relatively limited data on safety and efficacy in humans; risk of development of anti-nuclear antibodies; induction of antibiotic resistance.

• SEBI recently barred 21 entities in the Axis mutual fund front-running case.
• It identified Rs 30.5 crore as wrongful gains accrued due to the alleged front-running activities and directed that this amount be impounded from the entities.
• Front running, also known as tailgating, is the prohibited practice of entering into an equity trade, option, futures contract, derivative, or security-based swap to capitalize on advance, nonpublic knowledge of a large pending transaction that will influence the price of the underlying security.
• Insider trading is when a company insider, an official, employee or a senior executive, takes advantage of unpublished price-sensitive information (UPSI) to trade in the company’s stock and make profits from such transactions.

About Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)

• SEBI is a statutory body established in accordance with the provisions of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992.
• The basic functions of the Securities and Exchange Board of India is to protect the interests of investors in securities and to promote and regulate the securities market.
• SEBI Board consists of a Chairman , full time and part time members.
• SEBI is a quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial body which can draft regulations, conduct inquiries, pass rulings and impose penalties.

• The Supreme Court has directed to provide the Z+ security cover to Reliance Industries CMD Mukesh Ambani and his family members throughout India and abroad.
• There are mainly six categories of security cover provided by Government
  1. SPG (Special Protection Group) is meant only for the Prime Minister and his immediate family. Other protection categories can be provided to anyone about whom the central or state government has inputs about a threat.
  2. X category security usually entails one gunman protecting the individual.
  3. Y has one gunman for mobile security and one (plus four on rotation) for static security.
  4. Y+ has two policemen (plus four on rotation) for mobile security, and one (plus four on rotation) for residence security.
  5. Z has six gunmen for mobile security, and two (plus eight) for residence security.
  6. Z+ has 10 security personnel for mobile security and two (plus eight) for residence security.

• Report provides progress and performance of Indian states on various aspects of clean electricity transition.
  • Electricity Transition refers to the shift from fossil-based power production and consumption to renewable energy sources (RES) like wind and solar.
• It has analysed 16 states on electricity transition pathway with 17 parameters based on four broad dimensions-
  • Decarbonisation– Evaluate states’ preparedness to shift from fossil-based power to RES.
    • Decarbonisation is reduction of carbon dioxide emissions through use of low carbon power sources, achieving lower output of greenhouse gasses into atmosphere.
  • Performance of power system– Evaluate states’ ability to create greener market pulls effectively
  • Readiness of power ecosystem and policies– Transform power systems while ensuring reliable electricity supply.
  • Political commitments– Evaluate proactiveness in promoting innovative policies.
• These states together account for 90% of India’s annual power requirement.
• Important findings-
  • Bihar, UP and West Bengal need to expand their potential and transition commitments.
  • Karnataka is only state that scored well across all four dimensions followed by Gujarat.

About IEEFA

• Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) examines issues related to energy markets, trends and policies.
• It’s mission is to accelerate the transition to a diverse, sustainable and profitable energy economy.
• It is based in Ohio, USA.

• UK government reached a landmark deal with European Union on post-Brexit trade rules that will govern Northern Ireland.
• Windsor Framework will replace the Northern Ireland Protocol.
• Framework has two crucial aspects
  1. the introduction of a Green lane and Red lane system for goods
     • Green lane: British goods meant for Northern Ireland will use the green lane at the ports and will be allowed to pass with minimal paperwork and checks.
     • Physical checks will be conducted if the goods are deemed suspicious, in place of the routine checks now.Also, people in Northern Ireland can order goods online from Britain easily now.
     • Red lane: Goods destined for Ireland or the rest of the EU will have to take the red lane, with the attendant customs and other checks.
  2. ‘Stormont Brake’: It allows Northern Ireland lawmakers and London to veto any EU regulation they believe affects the region adversely.
     • It means the democratically elected Northern Ireland Assembly can oppose new EU goods rules that would have significant and lasting effects on everyday lives in Northern Ireland.
     • For this, they will need the support of 30 members from at least two parties.
     • The British government can then veto the law.