GUJARAT
- All EVMs in Gujarat assembly elections to have paper trail.
- Gujarat is set to become the first state to witness use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with paper trail in all polling booths during the assembly elections slated to be held in December.
- The Supreme Court told the Election Commission on Thursday that there was no harm in employing these machines if the requisite numbers had been procured.
- EVMs with voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) have so far been used only randomly in select polling booths including in the last round of assembly polls.
Gk byte – VVPAT
- Voter-verifiable paper audit trail(VVPAT) or verifiable paper record(VPR) is a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballotless voting system. A VVPAT is intended as an independent verification system for voting machines designed to allow voters to verify that their vote was cast correctly, to detect possible election fraud or malfunction, and to provide a means to audit the stored electronic results.It contains name of the candidate (for whom vote has been casted) and symbol of the party/ individual candidate.
INTERNATIONAL
- Italy passes bill to make torture illegal
- Italian lawmakers have finally passed a bill making torture a crime under national law, after years of parliamentary back-and-forth.
- Rome signed the UN Convention Against Torture in 1984 but had never transferred it into national legislation.
NATIONAL
- “JIGYASA” – Student-Scientist connect programme launched
- Jigyasa, a student- scientist connect programme was officially launched in the national capital.
- Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has joined hands with Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) to implement this programme.
- The focus is on connecting school students and scientists so as to extend student’s classroom learning with that of a very well planned research laboratory based learning.
· The new hydrocarbon policy opens more exploration
- The recently unveiled Open Acreage Licensing Policy and the National Data Repository together are a significant and welcome step towards opening up the hydrocarbon exploration and production industry in India. By placing greater discretion in the hands of explorers and operators, the Licensing Policy attempts to address a major drawback in the New Exploration Licensing Policy, which forced energy explorers to bid for blocks chosen by the government.
- Companies can now apply for particular areas they deem to be attractive to invest in, and the Centre will put those areas up for bids. This is more attractive for prospective operators because in the past, the blocks chosen by the government often were large swathes of land or sea in which only a small fraction had hydrocarbon reserves.
- By offering companies the freedom to choose exactly the areas they want to explore, and their size, the government has a better chance to woo serious energy investors in an effort to help achieve a more cohesive framework of the country’s energy security. Tied to this is the National Data Repository, which is envisaged as a centralised database of geological and hydrocarbon information that will be available to all.
- Besides allowing potential investors to make informed decisions, this will open up a new sector in India. There are a number of companies around the world that make it their business to simply explore hydrocarbon basins and sell the information they gather. The new initiative seeks to incentivise such prospectors.
- Concern is whether India can attract enough investment to meet the government’s objective of reducing oil imports by 10% by 2022, especially given the past experience investors have had with large projects such as KG-D6. There are after all proven reserves in other parts of the world, such as the Gulf of Mexico, that could still keep investor appetite for Indian acreage weak.
- No-detention policy in school may be scrapped from next academic year: Union minister
ð The HRD Ministry has decided to remove the no-detention policy for students from the next academic year. Under the Right to Education Act, no child will be detained or held back in any class or expelled till the completion of elementary education covering classes 1 to 8.
ð Rationale The government’s decision comes after it had received several complaints regarding the deterioration of the quality of basic education in the country. In addition, the States have been asking for the withdrawal of the no-detention policy from the Right to Education Act 2009.
ð As per the critics, the policy has resulted in remarkable improvement in enrolments but has brought down the academic standards. Background No-Detention Policy Under this policy, the students up to class VIII are automatically promoted to the next class without being held back even if they do not get a passing grade.
Gk byte – No Dentention Policy
ð The policy was implemented as part of the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) under the RTE Act to ensure all-round development of students. The concept of CCE which was imported from the West lays emphasis on evaluating a child through the year, and not just based on performance in one or two term exams.
ð The basic objective behind the no-detention policy was to prevent dropouts. The no detention policy in the RTE does not mean the abolition of assessment rather it calls for a replacement of the traditional system of evaluation with a continuous and comprehensive assessment that is not threatening. The policy also intends to free the students from the pressure and fear of examination and give them a stress-free academic environment and childhood.
· New anti-hijacking law with tougher punishment comes into force
- A tough new anti-hijacking law that prescribes capital punishment for perpetrators in the event of the death of “any person” has come into force following a government notification.
- The 2016 Anti-Hijacking Act replaces a 1982-vintage law, under which hijackers could be tried for the death penalty only in the event of the death of hostages, such as flight crew, passengers, and security personnel.
- Under the new law, the perpetrators can be tried for the death penalty for causing the death of “security personnel on board” or “ground support staff” as well.
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