Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

The “health star rating” system that the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) plans to adopt in order to help consumers reduce their intake of unhealthy foods has been opposed by close to a dozen consumer and health advocacy groups.

About FSSAI’s Star Rating:

In February 2022, the FSSAI decided to adopt the “health-star rating system”, which gives a product 1/2 a star to 5 stars, in its draft regulations for front of package labelling (FOPL).

• It aims to help consumers reduce their intake of unhealthy foods.
• The HSR format ranks a packaged food item based on salt, sugar, and fat content and the rating will be printed on the front of the package.
• The underlying premise of the HSR is that positive ingredients such as fruits and nuts can offset negative nutrients such as calories, saturated fat, total sugar, sodium to calculate the number of stars ascribed to a product.

 Applicability:

• All packaged food items or processed food will have the HSR label. These will include chips, biscuits, namkeen, sweets and chocolates, meat nuggets, and cookies.
• Exemptions: However, milk and its products such as chenna and ghee are EXEMPTED as per the FSSAI draft notified in 2019.

 Need for HSR:

• A lot of Indian consumers do not read the information available at the back of the packaged food item.
• Also, India has a huge burden of non-communicable diseases that contributes to around 5.87 million (60%) of all deaths in a year.
• HSR will encourage people to make healthy choices and could bring a transformational change in the society.

Why is it being opposed?

• Some experts opposed the use of the HSR model in India, suggesting that consumers might tend to take this as an affirmation of the health benefits rather than as a negative warning of ill effects.
• Impact on Sale: Certain organisations fear it might affect the sale of certain food products.

FSSAI:

FSSAI is an autonomous statutory body established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (FSS Act).

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Appointment of Judges 

Constitutional Provisions

• Article 124(2) of the Indian Constitution provides that the Judges of the SC are appointed by the President after consultation with such a number of the Judges of the SC and of the High Courts in the States as the President may deem necessary for the purpose.
• Article 217 of the Indian Constitution states that the Judge of a High Court shall be appointed by the President consultation with the Chief Justice of India, the Governor of the State, and, in the case of appointment of a Judge other than the Chief Justice, the Chief Justice of the High Court.
• The Supreme Court has offered diverse meanings of the phrase “consultation”

Evolution of Collegium System

• Collegium System: It is the system of appointment and transfer of judges that has evolved through judgments of the SC

First Judges Case (1981):

• The Supreme Court judgment held that consultation does not mean concurrence and it only implies an exchange of views.

Second Judges Case (1993):

• SC introduced the Collegium system, holding that “consultation” really meant “concurrence”.
• It added that it was not the CJI’s individual opinion, but an institutional opinion formed in consultation with the two senior-most judges in the SC.

Third Judges Case (1998):

• The Court opined that the consultation process to be adopted by the Chief Justice of India requires ‘consultation of plurality judges’.
• The sole opinion of the CJI does not constitute the consultation process.
• He should consult a collegium of four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court and even if two judges give an adverse opinion, he should not send the recommendation to the government.
• The court held that the recommendation made by the chief justice of India without complying with the norms and requirements of the consultation process is not binding on the government.
• Judges of the higher judiciary are appointed only through the collegium system and the government has a role only after names have been decided by the collegium.
• The government’s role is limited to getting an inquiry conducted by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) if a lawyer is to be elevated as a judge in a High Court or the Supreme Court.

Criticism of the Collegium System:

• Opaqueness and a lack of transparency
• Scope for nepotism
• Embroilment in public controversies
• Overlooks several talented junior judges and advocates

Attempts to reform judicial appointments

• The attempt made to replace Collegium System by a ‘National Judicial Appointments Commission’ (through Ninety-ninth Amendment Act, 2014) was struck down by the court in 2015 on the ground that it posed a threat to the independence of the judiciary.

Judiciary is one of the most important pillars of the democracy, thus making the appointments continuous and collaborative process involving the executive and the judiciary, hence it is time to think of a permanent, independent body to institutionalize the process with adequate safeguards to preserve the judiciary’s independence guaranteeing judicial primacy.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

The ISRO is now readying a spacecraft to orbit Venus to study what lies below the surface of the solar system’s hottest planet, and also unravel the mysteries under the Sulfuric Acid clouds enveloping it. ISRO is planning to launch the mission in December 2024.

About Venus:

• Venus is the second planet from the sun and the hottest planet in the solar system with a surface temperature of 500C – high enough to melt lead.
• The planet’s thick atmosphere has cranked the surface pressure up to 90 bars.
• A single Venusian rotation takes 243.0226 Earth days. That means a day lasts longer than a year on Venus, which makes a complete orbit around the sun in 225 Earth days.
• The Venusian planetary core has a diameter of about 4,360 miles (7,000 km), comparable to Earth’s core.
• Venus is one of just two planets that rotate from east to west. Only Venus and Uranus have this “backwards” rotation.

Historic missions to Venus:

• Magellan– A NASA mission that ended in 1994.
• Venus Express – A European mission- focused on atmospheric science.
• Akatsuki- Japanese spacecraft- focused on atmospheric science.

NASA’s two new missions to Venus:

• Davinci+: The Davinci+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) mission will:
• Measure the planet’s atmosphere to gain insight into how it formed and evolved.
• Determine whether Venus ever had an ocean.
• Return the first high resolution images of the planet’s “tesserae” geological features (These features could be comparable to continents on Earth).
• Veritas (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy):

• This mission will map the planet’s surface to understand its geological history and investigate how it developed so differently than Earth.
• It will use a form of radar to chart surface elevations and discover whether volcanoes and earthquakes are still happening.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

According to the annual report on Vital Statistics based on 2020 Civil Registration System report:

• The Union Territory of Ladakh (1104) recorded the highest sex ratio at birth in the country in 2020, followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Tripura and Kerala.
• Lowest sex ratio at birth was reported by Manipur (880), followed by Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (898), Gujarat (909), Haryana (916) and Madhya Pradesh (921).
• In 2019, the highest sex ratio at birth was reported by Arunachal Pradesh (1024), followed by Nagaland (1001).

Sex ratio at birth is number of females per thousand males.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

The Supreme Court, in the Media One ban case, has reiterated its intention to examine the legality of governments filing incriminating material in sealed covers without sharing the information with the accused/other party.

The issue of “sealed cover jurisprudence” came up in the previous hearing on March 15, when the Centre wanted to pass on to the court its internal files regarding the ban in a sealed cover.

What is Sealed Cover Jurisprudence?

It is a practice used by the Supreme Court and sometimes lower courts, of asking for or accepting information from government agencies in sealed envelopes that can only be accessed by judges.

• While a specific law does not define the doctrine of sealed cover, the Supreme Court derives its power to use it from Rule 7 of order XIII of the Supreme Court Rules and Section 123 of the Indian Evidence Act of 1872.

 Rule 7 of order XIII of the Supreme Court Rules:

It is stated under the said rule that if the Chief Justice or court directs certain information to be kept under sealed cover or considers it of confidential nature, no party would be allowed access to the contents of such information.

 Exceptions:

• If the Chief Justice himself orders that the opposite party be allowed to access it.
• It also mentions that information can be kept confidential if its publication is not considered to be in the interest of the public.

 Section 123 of the Indian Evidence Act of 1872:

• Under this act, official unpublished documents relating to state affairs are protected and a public officer cannot be compelled to disclose such documents.
• Other instances where information may be sought in secrecy or confidence are when its publication impedes an ongoing investigation, such as details which are part of a police case diary.

 Reasons for Sealed Covers:

• When the matter pertained to the Official Secrets Act.
• To maintain public confidence in the Government agency.
• Delicate international negotiations or those that relate to sensitive aspects of security.
• Details about survivors of sexual assaults or child abuse which may affect their future life and bring unncessary shame affecting the Right to Live with Dignity.
• Disclosure sometimes affects the ongoing investigation. 

Issues with the Sealed Cover Jurisprudence:

• Against the Principles of Transparency and Accountability.
• Reduces the Scope of Reasoning.
• Obstruction to Fair Trial and Adjudication.
• Arbitrary in Nature.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

The Supreme Court disagreed with the Central government’s suggestion that the court should wait till the President took a call on Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convict A.G. Perarivalan’s mercy plea referred to him by the Tamil Nadu Governor for a decision.

Under Article 161 of the Constitution, the Governor was bound by the aid and advice given by the Tamil Nadu Council of Ministers in September 2018 to the Governor to release Perarivalan, who has already served over 30 years of his life sentence. The Governor prima facie had no authority to transfer the mercy plea to the President. There was no role for the President here under the Constitution.

Article 161 mentions the Pardoning Power of the Governor. When a convict has committed an offence against state law, the concerned punishment can be granted the pardon, reprieve, respite and remission by the Governor of the state.

Governor’s Pardoning Power

Similar to the Pardoning power of the president , the pardoning power of the Governor grants the following:

1. Pardon
2. Respite
3. Remission
4. Reprieve
5. Commute

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

An outbreak of Shigella bacteria is believed to be the reason behind the recent incident of suspected food poisoning in Kasaragod district, where around 58 people fell ill and a young girl died after consuming food — specifically “shawarma” — from a eatery in Kerala.

• Shigella is one of the leading bacterial causes of diarrhea worldwide and is an intestinal infection caused by a family of bacteria.
• Some of the common symptoms of shigella infection are diarrhoea, abdominal pain, fever, vomiting, tiredness and blood in stool.

How it spreads?

• Shigella is generally transmitted through contaminated food or water, or through person-to-person contact.
• Shigellosis is primarily a disease of poor and crowded communities that do not have adequate sanitation or safe water.
• The bacteria, after entering the body through ingestion, attack the epithelial lining of the colon resulting in inflammation of the cells and subsequently the destruction of the cells in severe cases.
• Handwashing is said to reduce shigella transmission by 70%

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

Prime Minister of India participated in the 2nd India-Nordic Summit on May 04, 2022

• The summit is being hosted by Denmark
• Prime Ministers of Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Norway have also participated in the summit.

Background

• The 1st India-Nordic Summit took place in 2018 in Stockholm
• The 2018 India-Nordic Summit reiterated the six countries’ commitment to global security, economic growth, innovation and climate change.

Key Discussions

• It primarily focused on post-pandemic economic recovery, climate change, renewable energy and the evolving global security scenario.
• The issue of Indo-Pacific too was discussed at the meeting
• The Prime Minister also held separate bilateral meetings with his counterparts of Nordic countries
• With Finland the discussion focused on to expand cooperation in the fields of new and emerging technologies like AI, quantum computing, future mobile technologies, clean technologies and smart grids
• With Norway the discussion was to deepen engagement in areas like blue economy, renewable energy, and green hydrogen, solar and wind projects, green shipping, fisheries, water management, rainwater harvesting, space cooperation, long-term infrastructure investment, health and culture.
• Both Indian and Sweden PMs expressed satisfaction at the progress made by the Lead IT initiative.
• This was a India-Sweden joint global initiative to set up a Leadership Group on Industry Transition (LeadIT) in September 2019 at the UN Climate Action Summit to help guide the world’s heaviest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting industries towards the low-carbon economy. Its membership has now grown to 35 with 16 countries and 19 companies
• With Iceland leaders discussed ways to further strengthen economic cooperation, especially in the sectors of geothermal energy, blue economy, Arctic, renewable energy, fisheries, food processing, education including digital universities, and culture

On World Press Freedom Day, the World Press Freedom Index compiled by the Reporters Sans Frontières. India ranked 150 out of 180 countries in the world.

The Press Club of India (PCI) and the Indian Women Press Corps (IWPC) on Tuesday said attacks on press freedoms had seen an exponential rise and that India did not fare too well in this regard.

The incarceration of journalist under draconian laws for flimsy reasons, and on some occasions, faced threat to their lives as well from “self-styled” custodians of Law In the social media space.

The freedom of the press is Integral to the functioning of a vibrant democracy. The media has to come together to reclaim its role towards realisation of this objective

The State of Tamil Nadu has been witnessing a confrontation between the elected government and the State Governor on the question of giving assent to the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) Bill (linked to an all India pre-medical entrance test) passed by the State Assembly.

Giving assent to a Bill passed by the legislature is a normal constitutional act performed by the Governor. But of late, even such normal acts have become a source of confrontation between State governments and the Governors.

On the advice of Ministers

• The position of a Governor in the constitutional setup in India needs to be clearly understood in order to grasp the significance of the actions.
• The Governor is an appointee of the President, which means the Union government. Although Article 154(1) of the Constitution vests in the Governor the executive power of the State, he is required to exercise that power in accordance with the Constitution. In other words, the Governor can act only on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers. 

Governor is only a constitutional head and the executive power of

the State is exercised by the Council of Ministers. In Shamsher Singh

vs State of Punjab (1974), the Supreme Court had clearly affirmed

this position in the following words: “We declare the law of this branch of our Constitution to be that the President and Governor, custodians of all executives and other powers under various Articles, shall, by virtue of these provisions, exercise their formal constitutional powers only upon and in accordance with the advice of their Ministers save in a few well

known exceptional situations”.

Dr. Ambedkar explained the position of the Governor in the Constituent Assembly as follows: “The Governor under the Constitution has no functions which he can discharge by himself: no functions at all.”

The Sarkaria Commission restates this position in its report, “it is a well-recognized principle that so long as the council of ministers enjoys [the] confidence of the Assembly its advice in these matters, unless patently unconstitutional, must be deemed as binding on the governor”. In 2016, a five-judge constitution Bench of the Supreme Court (the Nabam Rebia case) reaffirmed the above position on the governors’ powers in our constitutional setup.

Article 200 of the Constitution provides for four alternative courses of action for a Governor when a Bill after being passed by the legislature is presented to him for his assent. 

• Assent of the Governor or the President is necessary for a Bill to become law. 
• The Governor can give his assent straightaway or withhold his assent.
• He may also reserve it for the consideration of the President, in which case the assent is given or withheld by the President. 
• The fourth option is to return the Bill to the legislature with the request that it may reconsider the Bill or any particular provision of the Bill. 
• The Governor can also suggest any new amendment to the Bill.

In this case the Governor of Tamil Nadu returned the NEET Bill to the Assembly for reconsideration of the Bill. Accordingly, the Assembly held a special session in the first week of February and passed it again and presented it to the Governor for his assent. He has not assented to the Bill so far.

But sitting on the Bill after the Assembly has passed it again and sent it to him is impermissible under the Constitution. Article 200 (proviso) clearly says that when the Assembly reconsiders the Bill on the recommendations of the Governor and presents it to him, he shall not withhold assent. The Constitution makers could never have intended that the Governor could sit on a Bill passed by the legislature for as long as he wants and take advantage of the absence of any specific time frame.

The words used in Article 200 “… it shall be presented to the governor and the governor shall declare….” indicates that the Constitution requires the Governor to act without delay upon the presentation of the Bill.

In Article 200, it is clear that the Constitution does not permit the Governor to sit on a Bill after the Assembly re-submits it to him after reconsideration.

An undemocratic option

Giving assent to a Bill passed by the legislature is a part of the legislative process and not of the executive power. But the Constitution has by providing for definite options made it obligatory for the Governor to exercise any of those options without delay. Withholding of assent, though an option, is not normally exercised by Governors because it will be an extremely unpopular step.

In the United Kingdom it is unconstitutional for the monarch to refuse

to assent to a Bill passed by Parliament. Similarly, in Australia, refusal of assent to a Bill by the crown is considered repugnant to the federal system.

In our constitutional system, the Governor or the President is not personally responsible for their acts. It is the elected government that is responsible. Under Article 361, the President or a Governor is not answerable to any court for anything done in the exercise and performance of their powers and duties. But when a Governor does not take any decision on a Bill which is put up for his assent, he is not acting in exercise and performance of the duties cast upon him.