Insights Daily Current Affairs, 10 October 2016
Paper 2 Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
SC widens ambit of Domestic Violence Act
The Supreme Court has widened the scope of the Domestic Violence Act.
What changes have been made?
- The court has ordered striking down of the two words from Section 2(q) of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, which deals with respondents who can be sued and prosecuted under the Act for harassing a married woman in her matrimonial home.
- The court has ordered the deletion of the words “adult male” from the act. Thus, the order has paved the way for prosecution of women and even non-adults for subjecting a woman relative to violence and harassment.
- The order allows a woman to seek legal action against her daughter-in-law and even her minor grandchildren for domestic violence. Earlier, only daughter-in-law could sue her husband and his women relatives. But a domestic violence complaint couldn’t be filed against the daughter-in-law as the accused under the law could only be adult males.
Why the court ordered deletion of the words “adult male” from the statute book?
According to the court, these words violated right to equality under the Constitution and are discriminatory. Also, the court observed that the microscopic difference between male and female, adult and non adult, regard being had to the object sought to be achieved by the 2005 Act, is neither real or substantial, nor does it have any rational relation to the object of the legislation.
Background:
The ruling came on an appeal filed against a judgment of the Bombay High Court in 2014 that had read down the Act to hold that complaints could be filed against the women too. The top court, however, set aside this judgment on the ground that the provision could not be read down.
The domestic violence act came into force in 2005 to protect women from physical, sexual, verbal, emotional and economic abuse at home. Under the act, an offender can be prevented from selling his house or businesses or both to ensure the victim is not left to fend for herself.
Sources: the hindu.
Paper 2 Topic: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
Janani Suraksha Yojana pays dividends: Study
A new study brings in first conclusive evidence of the role played by Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) in reducing ‘socioeconomic disparities’ existing in maternal care.
- According to the study, JSY has led to an enhancement in the utilisation of health services among all groups especially among the poorer and underserved sections in the rural areas, thereby reducing the prevalent disparities in maternal care.
- Three key services of maternal care were used for the analysis: full antenatal care (full ANC), safe delivery, and postnatal care.
Significance of these findings:
The study was conducted using data from two rounds of the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) — conducted in 2004-05 and 2011-12. The IHDS data serves two advantages in this case.
- First, round 1 of IHDS was conducted in 2004-05 when the JSY was not in place and round two was conducted six years after the launch, providing a before-after scenario for comparison.
- Secondly, the IHDS is a longitudinal data set — same households were interviewed in both rounds, which allows to examine changes in maternal care patterns.
Major findings:
- The increase in utilisation of all three maternal healthcare services between the two rounds was remarkably higher among illiterate or less educated and poor women.
- The usage of all three maternal healthcare services by the OBC, Dalit, Adivasis and Muslim women increased between the surveys.
- After the implementation of the JSY, there was generally a narrowing of the gap between the less educated and more educated women and between the poorer and richer women.
- It was found that women in their early twenties were more likely to avail of each of the three maternal health care services as compared to their older women. Also, the incidence of women availing maternal healthcare services decreases with the increase in the number of children they have delivered.
- The study notes that the gap in access to healthcare between the marginalised group of women and those who are financially better-off has declined since the advent of the JSY program. But, inequality in access to maternal care persists.
Background:
High incidence of maternal mortality continue to plague India. As per the latest Lancet series on maternal health, India accounted for 15% of the total maternal deaths in the world in 2015 — second only to Nigeria — with 45,000 women dying during pregnancy or childbirth.
About Janani Suraksha Yojana:
Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) is a safe motherhood intervention under the National Rural Health Mission (NHM). It is being implemented with the objective of reducing maternal and neonatal mortality by promoting institutional delivery among poor pregnant women. The scheme is under implementation in all states and Union Territories (UTs), with a special focus on Low Performing States (LPS). Janani Suraksha Yojana was launched in April 2005 by modifying the National Maternity Benefit Scheme (NMBS).
Sources: the hindu.
Paper 2 Topic: Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.
India’s first international arbitration centre
The Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration (MCIA), India’s first international arbitration centre, was recently inaugurated in Mumbai.
- This is being seen as a major step towards making Mumbai an International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) and providing an arbitration platform for Indian business houses to negotiate commercial disputes.
Key facts:
- The MCIA will be an independent, not-for-profit organisation governed by a council comprising eminent national and international legal luminaries.
- It can resolve disputes between different companies or individual.
- It will have a 12-month timeline to complete arbitration seated in India and a prescribed fee structure as per the size of the disputed contract amount, which will enable both parties to know the cost of arbitral proceedings before they approach MCIA.
Significance of MCIA:
At present, most of the global business disputes involving Indians land in the Singapore or the London arbitration centres. The total outflow of funds to resolve such cases, complete with logistics and other related expenditure, works out to around $ 5 billion, sources said. A centre in India can significantly bring down this cost.
Sources: the hindu.
Paper 2 Topic: Important International institutions, agencies and fora, their structure, mandate.
IMFC Plenary on ‘IMF Institutional Issues’
A plenary session of the International Monetary and Finance Committee (IMFC) on “IMF Institutional Issues” was recently held in Washington.
All about IMFC:
- The IMFC has 24 members, drawn from the pool of 187 governors.
- Its structure mirrors that of the Executive Board and its 24 constituencies. As such, the IMFC represents all the member countries of the Fund.
- The IMFC meets twice a year, during the Spring and Annual Meetings.
- The Committee discusses matters of common concern affecting the global economy and also advises the IMF on the direction its work.
- At the end of the Meetings, the Committee issues a joint communiqué summarizing its views. These communiqués provide guidance for the IMF’s work program during the six months leading up to the next Spring or Annual Meetings.
- There is no formal voting at the IMFC, which operates by consensus.
- The IMFC advises and reports to the IMF Board of Governors on the supervision and management of the international monetary and financial system, including on responses to unfolding events that may disrupt the system.
- It also considers proposals by the Executive Board to amend the Articles of Agreement and advises on any other matters that may be referred to it by the Board of Governors.
- Although the IMFC has no formal decision-making powers, in practice, it has become a key instrument for providing strategic direction to the work and policies of the Fund.
Sources: the hindu.
Paper 2 Topic: Important International institutions, agencies and fora, their structure, mandate.
BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement Operational
BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement has become operational. This arrangement is being seen as a crucial economic mechanism to help BRICS member nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – deal with economic crisis, like balance of payments pressures.
Background:
The Contingent Reserve Arrangement or CRA was declared operational, after being signed more than a year ago, in 2015.
What it does?
The BRICS CRA proposes to provide short-term liquidity support to the members through currency swaps to help mitigating BOP crisis situation, in case such a situation arises.
Benefits:
- The BRICS CRA will help India and other signatory countries to forestall short-term liquidity pressures, provide mutual support and further strengthen financial stability.
- It would also contribute to strengthening the global financial safety net and complement existing international arrangements (from IMF) as an additional line of defence.
- It will ensure equity and inclusiveness by providing a backup safety net arrangement in place that will allow the Government of India to go ahead with its necessary and bold policy decisions without being concerned about the international economic development that may lead to domestic imbalances and worsen BOP position. So far IMF support is the primary safety net that is available to India in case any BOP crisis situation arises.
Sources: the hindu.
Facts for Prelims
First Medipark in India
- Giving a push to local production of hi-end medical equipment, the government has given its nod to HLL Lifecare to sub-lease over 300 acres of land in Chennai to set up the country’s first medical devices manufacturing park.
- The Medipark project will be the first manufacturing cluster in the medical technology sector in the country, envisaged to boost local manufacturing of hi-end products at a significantly lower cost, resulting in affordable healthcare delivery, particular in diagnostic services to a large section of people.
- The proposed Medipark would contribute to development of medical devices and technology sector and allied disciplines in the country, which is still at a nascent stage besides generating employment and give a boost to the government’s “Make in India” campaign.
- The medipark will be developed in phases, spread over seven years for completion and in the first phase, physical infrastructure will be developed while the plots will be leased from the third year onwards.
- The project will also reduce the dependence on imports and create a strong base for the growth of indigenous and domestic industry by providing access to state-of-the-art infrastructure and technology.
