SC rules electoral bonds
scheme unconstitutional
·
In a landmark and unanimous judgment of five
judge bench of SC ruled the Electoral bond scheme unconstitutional .
What is an
electoral bond scheme ?
·
In
2017 the government passed the Electoral bond Scheme in Parliament .
The salient features of this bill was
Ø
Political parties were allowed to issue bonds
for their funding .
Ø
Any citizen of India could buy the bonds which
were issued in denominations of One thousand. ten thousand , one lakh , ten
lakh and one crore .
Ø
SBI was given authority to issue bonds by
political parties .
Ø
The
electoral bond bears anonymity as parties were allowed not to make
public buyers name and amount of the bond issued to a buyer .
Ø
Legally registered political parties which got
at least 1% of its votes in the last elections could issue the bond .
Ø
The BJP government of that time had reasoned that the Electoral Bond Scheme
will help curbing black money in
financing political parties .
SC Judgement
●
5 Judge
SC bench struck down the scheme , terming the mode of funding “ “
unconstitutional and manifestly arbitrary
“
●
Violation
of Right to Information – SC said the Act violated the right to
information about political funding under 19 (1) ( a) of the constitution .
●
Electoral
bond promotes corruption – SC further said that compete non disclosure
to the source of political funding through electoral bonds promoted corruption
, and quid pro quo to the with the ruling party to introduce a policy change or
bagging for a license .
●
SC ordered immediate stopping of electoral bond sales .
●
ECI to
publish information – SBI will have to submit full details of electoral
bonds since April 12 , 2019 to the election commission of India by March
6 ,2024 . Election commission of India ( ECI ) will have to publish the entire
information given by SBI on its website by March 13 .
Opinion of Political Parties :
·
The Congress
lauded SC decision telling that it it was used as ‘ Black Scheme
conversion scheme by Modi govt ‘
·
BJP said that it ‘ respects ‘ SC Judgement but
instead the Scheme had a ‘ laudable objective of bringing transparency to poll
funding “ .
Modi visits Qatar days
after release of eight naval officers
·
PM
Modi visited Qatar after completing his engagements in UAE . PM met
Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Muhammad bin Abulrahman
bin Jasim Al Thani .
·
PM Narendra Modi has invited the ruler of
Qatar ,the Sheikh Tamim Al Thani to
visit India ., Briefing Media Personals Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra
said Prime Minister Modi “ expressed his
deep gratitude to his highness , the Amir , for the release of eight Indian
nationals of Al Dahra company “ .
·
Qatar is an important energy supplier to India ,
Recently the two countries seized a deal of 78 billion dollars to supply
Liquified Natural Gas to India . Qatar has around 8 lakh Indian Nationals .
·
Eight Navy
Personnel who were in jail on espionage charges were released days before PM
Modi’s journey started for Qatar .
India
rejected FTA demand for data exclusivity , says officials
·
India has rejected the demand for “ data
exclusivity “ as part of ongoing discussion with the European Free Trade
Agreement ( EFTA ) , the Commerce
secretary said .
·
Data Exclusivity pertains to a clause in the
agreement that puts a minimum six year embargo on clinical trial data generated
during the testing and development of drugs .Thus , manufacturers interested in
making a copycat product would have to generate the data on their own ,
which is an expensive proposition .
·
This could also apply to drugs that are not
patented in India .
·
India’s generic drug industry has over the years
made affordable versions of expensive drugs and has become a large global
supplier .
Global meet urges India to
augment pulses production to meet nutritional needs
·
The Global Pulses Conference has been organized in New Delhi from 15 to 16 th
February .
·
The two day conference is Jointly organized by
National Agricultural Cooperation for Marketing Federation ( NAFED ) and Global
Pulse Confederation. ( GPC ) .
·
Pulse Producers , Processors and traders has
urged India to augment production of pulses to meet Nutritional requirements .
·
Pulse Production currently is 270 lakh tonnes .
India still is not self sufficient in
pulses .In 2023 India imported about 29 lakh tonnes of Pulses .India aims to be
self sufficient in pulses by 2027 .
·
Pulses are known as the ‘ Wonder Diet ‘ of India
, and the aim is to make it the Wonder diet of world , said one of the
participants .
Swamy seeks probe into
‘Axis Bank ‘ froud
·
BJP
leader Subramaniam Swamy has moved Delhi High Court seeking investigation into
alleged fraud committed by Axis Bank to make “ undue profits “ through sale and purchase of shares of MaxLife
Insurance .
·
The court has listed the case for PIL for March
13 .
·
The petition alleged that the Axis Bank made
undue profits totalling ₹4000
crore from sale and purchase of equity shares of Max Life .
Ajit Pawar faction the real
NCP , says Maharashtra speaker ; rejects all petitions for disqualification
·
Maharashtra speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday
denied all demands of disqualification of MLAs from Ajit Pawar group over
charges of defecation .
·
Speaker ruled that the NCP group led by Ajit
Pawar was the “ legitimate Political
entity “
·
Currently 53 of initial NCP has 41 members from Ajit Pawar faction and
12 from Sharad Pawar group . If more
than two third members of a political party forms a new political party then
they can not be disqualified under defection .
Will contest Lok Sabha
Polls independently , says Farooq
·
National Conference President Dr Farouq Abdullah , a member of INDIA bloc has told
that his party will contest LoK Sabha Polls in Jammu and Kashmir on his
own.
·
TMC and
AAP have already said that they will fight Lok Sabha Polls on their own from
West Bengal and Punjab respectively
World
Israeli
forces storm main hospital in southern Gaza
·
Israeli forces stormed the main hospitals of
Southern Gaza in Khan Younis .Several got wounded in this .
Hamas
vows to tetallinate as Israeli air strike kills 10 Lebanese civilians in a day
·
The civilian
death toll from two Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon has reached 10 .
·
Israel said that it killed a senior commander with Hezbollah and his
deputy .Hezbillah has confirmed three of its fighters were killed .Elezbillah
has vowed to retaliate on Wednesday’s strike .
Ukraine reinforces
critical ‘ frontline ‘ town in Avdiivka
·
Ukraine has sent its soldiers to the embattled
town of AVdiivka , which is currently surrounded from three sides by Russian
forces.
·
The Ukrainian military said the situation to be
“ extremely critical “ .
·
The announcement of reinforcement came as a
Ukrainian strike on Russia city Belgorod killed 6 and wounded another 17 .
·
Currently heavy fighting is going on in Avdiivka
, the key city is on the verge of falling to Russian hands .
UK
economy slips in technical ‘ recession ‘ in 2023 ; Sunak faces flak
·
UK’s GDP growth in the fourth quarter declined
by .3% . In the third quarter GDP had declined by .1% . In 2023 UK GDP grew by .1% over previous
year . “ Growing the Economy “ was one of the five promises of Rishi Sunak .
Sunak is being criticized by opposition parties over stagnant economic
situation .
