UTTARAKHAND PCS(UKPCS)-2012 MAINS in APRIL- MAY 2015.samveg ias

See the link.......................

http://ukpsc.gov.in/files/scan0001_58.pdf

'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao

सरकार ने बालिकाओं को बचाने और उन्‍हें सशक्‍त बनाने के लिए बेटी बचाओ, बेटी पढ़ाओ महत्‍वाकांक्षी अभियान शुरू किया।

The Government has launched ambitious 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' campaign to save and empower girl child.

इस अभियान से लोगों में देश में लड़कियों की कम होती संख्‍या के बारे में जागरूकता पैदा करना है।

The initiative will also help in spreading awareness about the declining trend of Child Sex Ratio in the country. 

Author Jhumpa Lahiri wins the USD 50,000 DSC Prize for 2015

Indian-American author Jhumpa Lahiriwon the USD 50,000 DSC Prize for Literature, one of South Asia's top literary awards for her book "The Lowland." The Prize celebrates writing on the SouthAsian region from writers across the globe and is given to the best novel or translations into English of a work on or about the region.

"This is an enormous honour for 'Lowland' and for me personally. I wish I was there in person to receive the award," Lahiri said through a phone conversation from Rome.
Publisher Caroline Newbury accepted the award on her behalf.

Lahiri trumped Indian author Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, who was nominated for his novel translated from Urdu besides Pakistani writer Kamila Shamsie, London-based Sri Lankan author Romesh Gunesekera and first-time novelist Bilal Tanweer from Pakistan.

The prize was given by Pulitzer Prize winning poet Vijay Shesadri at a ceremony at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival. The London-born daughter of immigrants from West Bengal said she had begun her award winning book 20 years ago.

"It was my first book but it ended up as the fourth one to be published," said the author adding "I published the book with some apprehension that I have not done justice to the events that transpired in the story."

"I heard about what was happening in Calcutta at that time and based on what I heard I was curious over the years and novel was result of the curiosity," she said. The fiction, which weaves a tale of two brothers set in Kolkata of the 1960s was nominated for the 2013 Man Booker Prize but did not win it.

Conferring the Prize, Shesadri said, "This seems to be an extraordinary grant for several reasons. Remarkable example of en-lighting philanthropy and recognizing South Asian writing.

It seeks to discern the dissemination of these writers, celebration of their books and ultimately the integrity of the South Asia." The event also saw organisers announcing that the DSC Prize won't be announced at JLF from next year and instead pick one South Asian country for the award ceremony. They also announced a termination of the Prize's association with the Jaipur LitFest. The Indian American writer Jhumpa Lahiri has won Asia’s richest literary prize for her novel The Lowland, which pivots around the Naxalite uprisings of the 1960s. The Pulitzer prize-winning novelist beat four other shortlisted writers to the $50,000 (£33,000) DSC award for south Asian fiction with a work that was described by chair of judges Keki N Daruwalla as “a superb novel written in restrained prose with moments of true lyricism” written “by a writer at the height of her powers”.

Black money issue

Fighting the menace of black money stashed abroad, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said India has gathered independent evidence about its citizens having unaccounted money in Swiss banks and Switzerland has offered full co-operation in sharing of information in this regard.

Jaitley, who met his Swiss counterpart Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf for about 40 minutes late last night, said Switzerland has agreed to act expeditiously on such cases. To curb the black money problem, Jaitley said that India would be entering into bilateral pacts with Switzerland and other countries for automatic exchange of tax information.

“Now we do have independent evidence and material available. So, now we have to come back to Switzerland with that material on the basis of which we can get (the information),” the Finance Minister said after meeting his Swiss counterpart.

According to Jaitley, Switzerland has assured that on the basis of such independent information “they will cooperate”. Jaitley said the global community is moving towards automatic exchange of information. Switzerland has agreed to share information expeditiously on black money cases where independent evidence is furnished, he said.

About the meeting with his Swiss counterpart, Jaitley said they discussed about the parameters based on which Switzerland can provide details on unaccounted money parked in Swiss bank accounts once independent evidence is furnished. In October last year, both countries had inked a joint statement of understanding with regard to cooperation on tax matters. However, Switzerland has a clear position that information based on stolen data would not be shared with another country but such requests would be looked into in case of independent evidence on the same being made available.

In continuation with that agreement, Jaitley said he had a detailed meeting with the Swiss delegation as to what could be the parameters of that independent evidence. “Of course, our tax officials are working round the clock. They are trying to finish all the assessments and they are trying to collect evidence. Several people in that list have already admitted to the fact that they had accounts.

“Now we do have independent evidence and material available. So, now we have to come back to Switzerland with that material on the basis of which we can get (the information),” the Finance Minister said

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It’s no ordinance raj

Ordinances have once again become a live political issue, with the president expressing strong views on them. The media and the Opposition have already laid into the government for promulgating ordinances on insurance, land acquisition etc. In some cases, bills are pending before Parliament or its committees and the question had arisen whether the government could still go ahead with promulgation. Going by precedent, this is clearly permissible. In fact, as early as in 1950, an ordinance was issued even though the Sugar Crisis Enquiring Authority Bill was pending in Parliament.

Constitutional experts, the Opposition and the media are against the government issuing ordinances. Generally, their opposition is based on the grounds that an ordinance is an undemocratic route to lawmaking, which is the job of the legislature. Therefore, any executive attempt at lawmaking is bad, they argue.

An ordinance is a temporary law passed by the executive to meet an emergency that necessitates immediate legislative action. Article 123 of the Constitution vests the power to issue an ordinance with the president and Article 213 with the governor of a state. The only condition laid down by the Constitution is that there should be circumstances necessitating immediate action and that Parliament should not be in session. The apex court has said that the president or the governor is free to decide whether such circumstances indeed exist.

It is true that neither the British nor the US government has the power to issue ordinances. Separation of power is zealously guarded in those countries. Therefore, they cannot countenance the use of legislative power by the executive. However, the Government of India Act, 1935, contained a provision for issuing ordinances that was later included in the Constitution with proper safeguards. The Indian Constitution confers on the executive the power to issue orders on all matters on which Parliament can make laws and to promulgate ordinances as an emergency legislative measure.

Although an ordinance is described as a legislative power of the president, in effect it is issued on the advice of the council of ministers and is hence regarded as a law made by the executive. But an ordinance has a short life as it lapses automatically six weeks after the reassembly of Parliament. Of course, Parliament has the power to disapprove an ordinance, which would mean it immediately ceases to be in force. Incidentally, an ordinance, whose lifespan is predetermined by the Constitution, need not be approved by Parliament. What Parliament approves is a regular bill that is moved to replace the ordinance.

It is customary for governments to issue ordinances when the legislature is in recess. And since the ordinance-making power has been conferred on the executive by the Constitution, it cannot be faultedfor issuing one. The only test is whether the circumstances require immediate action. In many cases, ordinances are issued when there is no emergency, particularly in the states. Recently, the president issued as many as eight ordinances soon after the prorogation of Parliament. Many relate to bills pending before the Houses. Since the Rajya Sabha was dysfunctional, some bills could not be passed during the last session. These are central to the economic liberalisation policy of the government. So, it took recourse to ordinances in order to move quickly to remove bottlenecks in infrastructure. There is undoubtedly an urgency for economic reforms, which have been badly delayed so far, severely affecting growth. Urgent legislation is required to accelerate the growth process. The continued disruptions of Parliament have, in fact, created a situation where crucial bills are held up. Under such circumstances, what are the options available to the government? It could either sit with its fingers crossed and wait for Parliament to function smoothly or take the ordinance route. Since the ordinances came into force immediately, all the crucial laws that could not be passed by Parliament have already come into effect. The disruption of Parliament is not normal or acceptable. It blocks all legislative work of the government. After disrupting the Houses and blocking the passage of bills, one cannot turn around and say that issuing ordinances is undemocratic. Considering the context, it can’t be said that promulgating the ordinances was egregious. The practice becomes unacceptable when it degenerates into an “ordinance raj”, where ordinances are seldom brought before the legislature but are re-issued again and again, violating the spirit of the Constitution. In D.C. Wadhwa and others vs State of Bihar and others, 1987, the apex court strongly deprecated this practice and termed it constitutional fraud. That judicial intervention would be inevitable in the case of an ordinance raj was established by the court as far back as in 1970 in its judgment in Rustom Cavasjee Cooper vs Union of India. So when the executive starts abusing its power to issue ordinances, the judiciary could set it right. Otherwise, the executive should be free to decide when and what ordinances should be issued. This is in conformity with the judicial pronouncements on the matter.

India tops malnutrition chart in south Asia

Severe acute malnutrition should be recognized as a medical emergency with one million children under five dying in India due to malnutrition related causes, say activists. A new study in Baran, Rajasthan and Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh has found that preventable deaths continue to hit children in the poorest areas of the country.
According to UNICEF, every year 1 million children under five die due to malnutrition related causes in India. The statistics are alarming, and far above the emergency threshold for acute malnutrition (as per WHO classification of the severity of malnutrition).
ACF India and Fight Hunger Foundation on Tuesday announced the launch of the Generational Nutrition Program. Speaking about the program ACF India deputy country director Rajiv Tandon said that there was an urgent need to recognize severe acute malnutrition as a medical emergency. He also stressed on the need for policies to tackle malnutrition and adequate budgets for implementation.
The ACF report says that the number of children affected in India is higher than all the south Asian countries with high burden of wasting or acute malnutrition.
"Within India, scheduled tribes (28%), scheduled castes (21%) and other backward castes (20%) and rural communities (21%) have a high burden of acute malnutrition," the report said.
These reports throw light on the malnutrition situation in the two districts analyzing the infant mortality rates and child deaths due to conditions which are preventable.
In Madhya Pradesh, according to NFHS 3, 40% children were stunted down from [NFHS 2 - 49%], 60% underweight up from [NFHS 2 - 54%] and 33% wasted [NFHS 2 - 20%]. "The rise in these nutritional indicators in the state is worrisome and it is essential that strategies for addressing this are adopted on a war footing,'' the report says.
Regarding Rajasthan the report said that according to NFHS-3, 20% of children under five are wasted, an increase from 11.7% in NFHS-2, 24% are stunted as opposed to (52% in NFHS-2) and 44% are underweight (50.6% in NFHS-2). The NFHS-3 data also shows that children under five belonging to scheduled tribes in Rajasthan have the highest prevalence of severe acute malnutrition.

Making retirement meaningful

To the three crucial events in the life of every human being ` birth, marriage and death ` can be added a fourth, retirement. It is a significant event of not only salaried people in public and private sectors but of self-employed persons too. When a rickshaw-puller ceases to ply his contraption, being aged or ailing, he is said to have retired too. A huge chunk of every government's revenue is spent on paying pension and other superannuation benefits to its employees from day one of retirement. Over 10.12 lakh retirees get pension from the Central government on the last day of every month (except March), through the Central Pension Authority which authorises over 55,501 bank branches across the country to release pension and settle all related matters.  Recently, in reply to a RTI enquiry, the Union government gave out that of Central retirees, except from the railways, defence and telecom; nearly 2.33 lakh took voluntary retirement before reaching 60. Over 3.32 lakh were aged between 60 and 70, over 1.7 lakh lived up to 80, nearly 41 thousand were between 80 to 85; over 27.5 thousand between 85 and 90, only 11.4 thousand lived beyond 95 and 1675 beyond a century. Private companies pay no pension to their employees, big concerns retain outstanding employees beyond 60 with or without work and even after their deferred retirement allow certain perks to them, just as the TISCO, Jamshedpur did to its legendary CMD and partner, Russi Mody, until his death on 16 May, last year. Common employees are given a lump sum, when they snap the umbilical cord with their employer.  

Pension is a British practice, introduced in India after the so-called Sepoy Mutiny in 1857 to appease their employees so that they refrain from Swadeshi movement. Hindu and Mughal rulers paid no pension howsoever outstanding their employees might have been. The Raj legalised it by the Pension Act of 1871. The pension amount was static, except for temporary increases in 1921 after the First World War and in 1943, 1944 and 1945 during the Second, to compensate for price rise. The first pay commission was appointed in 1946.

Even now, the chief attraction of eligible youngsters to join government service, despite much lesser pay and perks than in the private sector, is pension which no government froze, or reduced, even in the worst of times since Independence. Pension keeps retired employees hale and hearty and prolongs their lives. If not afflicted by cancer, diabetes, hypertension, dementia, gout and osteoarthritis, many pensioners remain fit and live up to 80 years, or beyond, because of proper health care and modern medicines through the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS). Central dearness allowance has soared beyond 100 per cent over Sixth Pay Commission revision with effect from 2006 and rises every six months with the hike in price indices. No State or UT government raises DA like the Centre; West Bengal with its 7 per cent recent hike, lags behind Central DA by 42 per cent. Senior retirees from the Government of India draw more than 70,000 per month.

The main problem of such pensioners is thus not lack of money but enforced leisure. They worked for seven to eight hours a day for five days a week and were off-duty for 104 Saturdays & Sundays, 28 public holidays and were entitled to 12 casual and 33 days of earned leave. That is, working for a little more than half the year, they earn from January 2006 Rs. 6660 to Rs 80,000 as basic pay per month and half-yearly DA increases. Even after retirement, the CGHS provides them medical care and medicines for a pittance; in serious and emergency cases, they can avail treatment in government hospitals and in empanelled private super-speciality hospitals and nursing homes, both invasive and non-invasive. The ten-to-five office hours hang heavy on them; depression and abrupt loss of power, prestige, pelf and perks hasten death. They vegetate if they do not do any domestic work, render voluntary service, or do some paid work outside the home. Even healthy pensioners become fidgety, irritable and nagging and a nuisance to other family members or kin. They become sentimental and pettifog with their wives particularly. Being disgusted, sons and daughters-in-law pack them off to old-age homes where they slowly fade to death.  

Work is alcohol; positive thinking is a powerful tonic. If the society or government creates some work for pensioners, paid or voluntary, it will take away their boredom and make their retired phase of life meaningful. In the government, they acquired experience and expertise in whatever they did, which few outside can equal or emulate. Society can benefit from these. How many motor mechanics of private companies can be as efficient as retired mechanics of Maruti factories? It holds true in every field of society. As population soars, more efficient people are required to cater to them in every sphere. Option for post-retirement work, free or paid, can be sought before their last day in service and after a cooling-off period, meaningful and relevant work can be offered to them near their homes or habitats. There would be many pensioners who would be willing to work for the society or government free, or on nominal wage or allowance. They will not block legitimate career prospects of serving employees; instead

they can forge a bonhomie and esprit de corps with the serving staff. Work for them can be created by local Panchayats and municipalities, by government institutions as long as they want and remain fit. Getting hefty pension while doing nothing for the society and the government makes them feel guilty. From performers on the stage of the world, they suddenly become onlookers from the ringside and worthless in the eyes of their families and neighbours; this makes them sad and looks for vicarious pleasure in watching sports, movies, plays or plain pornography. There are books and journals they had no time to access and read as cogs in the wheel of the Juggernaut of government. There are hidden talents that could blossom in superannuation. With ample time left to them, much of these could be bequeathed to society and posterity. Charles Lamb delved the pathos in the lives of the retired in the 'Superannuated Man' in Last Essays of Elia (1833):

"I am Retired Leisure. I am to be met within trim gardens. I am already come to be known by my vacant face and careless gesture, perambulating at no fixed pace, nor with any settled purpose. I walk about; not to and from. …I grow into gentility perceptibly…. I have done all that I came into this world to do. I have worked task work, and have the rest of the day to myself." Modern governments can alleviate this pathos by a relevant legislation and giving it effect through local self-government agencies and institutions.