Current Affairs 30 Sep 2023

Today’s News

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Kerala Oppn. Appeals to Governor to deny assent to former CJ’s appointment as SHRC chairperson

(Current Affairs 30 Sep 2023 | Relevant for  GS paper-2, Prelims)

• Leader of the Opposition VD. Satheesan on Friday set off another bout of sparring over the government’s move to appoint former Kerala High Court Chief Justice S. Manikumar as chairperson of the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC).
• In an open appeal to Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, Mr Satheesan requested Raj Bhavan to deny assent to the proposed appointment. Mr. Satheesan said a few of Mr. Manikumar’s decisions as Chief Justice had raised serious concerns about his ability to function impartially and fairly.

Refresh basics

State Human Rights Commission (SHRC)

• A statutory body created under the Protection of Human Rights Act of 1993 is the State Human Rights Commission. Only those topics covered under the State List (List-II) and the Concurrent List (List-III) of the Constitution’s Seventh Schedule are subject to investigation by a State Human Rights Commission. In light of this, the State Human Rights Commissions have been established by 26 states via Official Gazette Notifications.
• The State Human Rights Commission, or SHRC, is made up of two commissioners and a chairperson. The Governor appoints the members of the State Human Rights Commission. However, the President alone has the power to remove them. The State Human Rights Commission’s chairperson and members are appointed for terms of three years or until they turn 70.
• The retired Chief Justice or judge of the High Court must be the SHRC chairman to be eligible. The members will also only be qualified if they have at least seven years of District Judge experience and have served or retired as a High Court Judge or a District Judge.
• Additionally, the candidates should have some background in or awareness of human rights. The SHRC chairman and members’ terms in office are for three years or until they turn 70, whichever comes first. Only on the basis of proposals given by a particular Committee of Chief Ministers (chairman of the committee) and the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly is the Governor authorized to designate the Chairman and members of the State Human Rights Commission.
• The State Human Rights Commission must carry out a number of additional duties in order to accomplish its primary goal, which is to protect human rights. Its duties include investigating any human rights violations in the state in question and taking steps to prevent them from occurring in the case of public employees, arbitrating any ongoing legal disputes involving claims of human rights violations at any given time in the state, and evaluating the living conditions of prisoners and those who have spent time in other detention facilities.
• The State Human Rights Commission has full authority to oversee the entire procedure on its own. It conducts judicial procedures in the same manner as a court and has a full range of authority comparable to a civil court. The SHRC has the jurisdiction to request information about the case from the state governor or any other authority, as well as to demand payment of damages to the victim.

Limmitations

• The SHRC merely has a narrow scope of authority and can only look into cases of human rights abuses in India.
• The SHRC is dependent on the government to put its recommendations into action because it lacks enforcement authority.
• The SHRC lacks the jurisdiction to take legal action against private individuals who violate human rights. Little of the State Human Rights Commission’s cases involving the military forces fall under its purview.

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Global dispute settlement, India and appellate review

(Current Affairs 30 Sep 2023 | Relevant for GS paper-3)

• The recently concluded G­20 Declaration, among its many commitments, reiterated the need to pursue reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to improve all its functions and conduct proactive discussions “to ensure a fully and well functioning dispute settlement system accessible to all members by 2024”.
• The WTO’s dispute settlement system, conceived as a two­tier panel cum appellate body structure, has been dysfunctional since 2019,because the United States has blocked the appointment of appellate body members.
• Hailed as the crown jewel of the WTO, the dispute settlement system, with the scope for   and mechanisms to enforce rulings, has issued over 493 rulings since its establishment in 1995. To put this in context, the International Court of Justice has dealt with only around 190 cases since 1947.
• While the commitment expressed in the G­20 Declaration is heartening, whether it will have an appellate process or just be a one­stage panel process, given Washington’s continued opposition to an appellate review process, remains to be seen.
• While the future of the WTO’s appellate process is uncertain, another area of international law witnessing the formative stages for an appellate process is international investment law through investor­ state ­dispute settlement (ISDS), an ubiquitous component of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs).
• The absence of an appellate review mechanism has meant that inconsistent and incoherent decisions and legal reasoning dot the landscape of international investment law. This has caused instability and improbability for states and foreign investors, making the regime chaotic.
• An appellate review mechanism will allow for rectifying errors of law and harmonizing diverging interpretations. It will have the power to uphold, modify, or reverse the decision of a first­ tier tribunal and thus bring coherence and consistency, which, in turn, will infuse predictability and certainty into the ISDS system.
• An appellate mechanism will also be better than existing mechanisms such as the annulment proceedings, which only apply to arbitrations administered by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes — an institution India is not a member of Further, such annulment proceedings can only address limited issues, such as the improper constitution of an arbitration tribunal or corruption but cannot correct errors in legal interpretation.
• Discussions on creating an appellate review mechanism are ongoing at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law or UNCITRAL’s working group III, deliberating on ISDS reforms. 
• Although India has not made a formal statement on this issue, India, presumably, supports the idea of an appellate review in the ISDS because Article 29 of the Indian model BIT talks of it. Given India’s concerns about inconsistency and incoherence in the ISDS system, supporting the creation of an appellate review mechanism will be in India’s interest.
• In any case, India will have to take a stand on this issue as part of the ongoing investment treaty negotiations with the European Union, which is championing the creation of an appellate review mechanism for investment disputes.

Refresh basics

Investor­ state ­dispute settlement (ISDS)

• The ISDS mechanism permits companies to drag governments to international arbitration without exhausting the local remedies.
• It also allows them to claim huge amounts as compensation citing losses they suffered due to reasons, including policy changes.
• The contentious ISDS mechanism already has been incorporated by investment pact by the EU and Canada.

International Investment Agreement (IIA)

• An International Investment Agreement (IIA) is a type of treaty between countries that addresses issues relevant to cross-border investments, usually for the purpose of protection, promotion and liberalization of such investments. Most IIAs cover foreign direct investment (FDI) and portfolio investment, but some exclude the latter.
• Countries concluding IIAs commit themselves to adhere to specific standards on the treatment of foreign investments within their territory. IIAs further define procedures for the resolution of disputes should these commitments not be met.
• The most common types of IIAs are Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) and Preferential Trade and Investment Agreements (PTIAs). International Taxation Agreements and Double Taxation Treaties (DTTs) are also considered as IIAs, as taxation commonly has an important impact on foreign investment.
• Countries conclude IIAs primarily for the protection and, indirectly, promotion of foreign investment, and increasingly also for the purpose of liberalization of such investment. IIAs offer companies and individuals from contracting parties increased security and certainty under international law when they invest or set up a business in other countries party to the agreement. The reduction of the investment risk flowing from an IIA is meant to encourage companies and individuals to invest in the country that concluded the IIA.

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Age of consent under POCSO must remain

(Current Affairs 30 Sep 2023 |GS paper-2, Prelims)

• The government should not tinker with the age of consent — currently 18 years — under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the Law Commission said in a report made public.
• The 22nd Law Commission, headed by Justice (Retired) Ritu Raj Awasthi, submitted its report (no. 283) to the Law Ministry on September 27.
• In the report, the Law panel noted that certain amendments would be required in the POCSO Act, 2012 to remedy the situation in cases involving tacit approval, though not consent under law, on the part of children aged between 16 and 18 years.

Refresh to basics

POSCO ACT

• POCSO Act came into effect on 14th November 2012 which was enacted in consequence to India’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992.
• The aim of this special law is to address offences of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children, which were either not specifically defined or in adequately penalised.
• The Act defines a child as any person below the age of 18 years. The Act provides punishment as per the gravity of offense.
• The Act was further reviewed and amended in 2019 to Introduce more stringent punishment including the death penalty for Committing sexual crimes on children, with a view to deter the perpetrators & prevent such crimes against children.
• The Government of India has also notified the POCSO Rules, 2020.

Gender-Neutral Nature:

• • The Act recognizes that both girls and boys can be victims of sexual abuse and that such abuse is a crime regardless of the gender of the victim.
  • This is in line with the principle that all children have the right to protection from sexual abuse and exploitation, and that laws should not discriminate based on gender.

Ease in Reporting Cases:

• • There is sufficient general awareness now to report cases of sexual exploitation of children not only by individuals but also by institutions as non-reporting has been made a specific offense under the POCSO Act. This has made it comparatively difficult to hide offenses against children.

Explicit Definition of Terms:

• • The storage of child pornography material has been made a new offense.
  • Further, the offence of ‘sexual assault’ has been defined in explicit terms (with increased minimum punishment) unlike an abstract definition of ‘outraging modesty of a woman’ in the Indian Penal Code.

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Hot, dry August lifts core sector growth to a 14­month high

(Current Affairs 30 Sep 2023 | Relevant for Prelims)

• Output at the eight core infrastructure sectors rose by a combined 12.1% in August, the fastest pace in 14 months, with five reporting double ­digit growth, spurring hopes of a healthy uptick in industrial production last month.
• This was the second straight month that all eight sectors, which constitute about 40% of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), recorded an uptick, after a 14­month streak of uneven trends.
• Provisional core sector output measured by the Index of Core Industries (ICI) rose 2.5% over July’s level, the first uptick in three months. The core sectors collectively grew 8.4% in July, when IIP growth hit a five­ month high of 5.7%.
• Cement output grew 18.9%, the largest uptick since November 2022. Deficient rains also lifted coal production and electricity generation, which grew 17.9% and 14.9%, respectively, their fastest rates of expansion in 14 months.
• Steel production rose 10.9%, the slowest pace in a 10­month streak of double­digit growth, while natural gas output grew 10%, the most since February 2022.
• Crude oil output grew 2.1% for the second successive month after a contractionary streak between May 2022 and June 2023.
• Fertilizers was the only sector to record the slowest growth in at least a year, rising 1.8% in August.

Refresh basics

Eight Core Sectors:

• • Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertiliser, Steel, Cement, Electricity

  About:

• • These comprise 40.27% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
  • The eight core sector industries in decreasing order of their weightage:
  • Refinery Products> Electricity> Steel> Coal> Crude Oil> Natural Gas> Cement> Fertilizers.

  Index of Industrial Production:

• IIP is an indicator that measures the changes in the volume of production of industrial products during a given period.
• It is compiled and published monthly by the Central Statistical Organization (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
• It is a composite indicator that measures the growth rate of industry groups classified under:

Broad sectors:

  Mining, Manufacturing, and Electricity.

Use-based sectors:

  Basic Goods, Capital Goods, and Intermediate Goods.

Base Year for IIP is 2011-2012.

• Significance of IIP:

• • It is used by government agencies including the Ministry of Finance, the Reserve Bank of India, etc, for policy-making purposes.
  • IIP remains extremely relevant for the calculation of the quarterly and advance GDP (Gross Domestic Product) estimates.

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Urban Shift Asia Forum

(Current Affairs 30 Sep 2023 |Relevant for Prelims)

Recently, the first Urban Shift Forum (Asia) was held in New Delhi.

• The primary objective was to provide training and capacity-building to regional cities for integrated and sustainable urban development.
• Urban Shift is a Global Environment Facility(GEF)- funded program within Urban Development and the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. It is led by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and implemented in partnership with C40 Cities, International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), UNDP, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank.

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Pangolin’s Hidden Diversity

(Current Affairs 30 Sep 2023 |Relevant for Prelims)

• The Pangolin, an elusive and highly endangered creature often touted as the world’s most trafficked mammal, has unveiled a hidden secret.
• Previously thought to consist of eight species—four Asian and four African varieties—research has revealed the existence of a ninth pangolin species, provisionally named Manis mysteria.
• This discovery was made through the analysis of scales confiscated from traffickers in China’s Yunnan province in 2015 and 2019.
• Despite a ban on international trade since 2016, the newly discovered pangolin species is already under pressure, showing signs of declining population, low genetic diversity, inbreeding, and genetic load.

Related Blogs…

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