QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 25 August 2017

Solution: a.
Many Indian products, including from agricultural and pharmaceutical sectors, face difficulties in getting access to the Chinese market. India’s goods trade deficit with China has widened at a rapid pace — from just $1.1 billion in 2003-04 to a whopping $51.1 billion in the last fiscal.
• China’s ‘Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures’ hurt Indian farm products exports to that country.
• Chinese authorities have also decided to look into India’s request to remove the ‘curbs’ on Indian pharmaceutical companies/products — especially those having the approval of American, European and Japanese regulators.
• Beijing would also soon take a call on removing the difficulties faced by the Indian IT sector in getting greater market access in China.
• Commerce Minister told the Rajya Sabha on August 9 that: “Anti-dumping duty (ADD) is in force on 93 products concerning imports from China,” covering many broad product groups. The decision to impose ADD on the 93 products “were taken over a course of previous five years”.

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/china-to-tackle-trade-deficit-with-india/article19554292.ece;
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Solution: a.
The specially-built ship completed the NSR crossing in just six-and-a-half days setting a new record. It took just 19 days for the entire voyage (from Norway to South Korea), around 30% faster than going by Suez. Rising Arctic temperatures are boosting commercial shipping across this route.
• The NSR or Northern Sea Route (http://www.barentsinfo.org/Contents/Transport-and-communications/Northern-Sea-Route) is a shipping lane officially defined by Russian legislation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean specifically running along the Russian Arctic coast from Murmansk on the Barents Sea, along Siberia, to the Bering Strait and Far East.
• Statement ‘b’ refers to the Northwest Passage; Statement ‘c’ is not associated with Arctic shipping routes; Statement ‘d’ refers to the Northeast Passage (this includes the NSR; see image for better understanding);
• Environmentalists are worried that increased traffic in this inhospitable region could have potentially significant effects. As well as the risk of accident or spillage, there are worries that some of the ships that will sail along this route will be powering their engines with heavier, dirtier marine fuels. The black carbon that they produce could be very damaging to snow and ice in the region, increasing the melting.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41037071;
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Solution: b.
Section 377 of Indian Penal Code was struck down by the Delhi High Court in July 2009 (popularly known as the ‘Naz Foundation case’). However, overruling this judgment, the Supreme Court in 2014 upheld Section 377 IPC in what is popularly referred to as the Kaushal judgment. Now, the Constitution Bench which gave its verdict recently on the right to privacy also dealt with the issue of Section 377:
• The 2014 judgment’s view that “a miniscule fraction of the country’s population constitutes lesbians, gays, bisexuals or transgenders” was not a sustainable basis to deny the right to privacy, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud observed in his judgment.
• “The test of popular acceptance does not furnish a valid basis to disregard rights which are conferred with the sanctity of constitutional protection. Discrete and insular minorities face grave dangers of discrimination for the simple reason that their views, beliefs or way of life does not accord with the ‘mainstream’. Yet in a democratic Constitution founded on the rule of law, their rights are as sacred as those conferred on other citizens to protect their freedoms and liberties,” he observed.
• Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, in his separate judgment, seconded Justice Chandrachud, while observing that the “majoritarian concept” does not apply to constitutional rights. “Courts are often called upon to take what may be categorised as a non-majoritarian view… One’s sexual orientation is undoubtedly an attribute of privacy,” Justice Kaul added.
• The judgment stopped short of overruling the SC’s previous (2014) order. It is for a five-judge bench, which is looking at the curative petition, to take a final call.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/sc-rips-apart-its-2014-ruling-on-section-377/article19556613.ece;
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http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/lgbt-community-cheerful-after-right-to-privacy-ruling/article19555773.ece

Solution: d.
Over 40 years after the Supreme Court’s darkest hour when it said citizens have no right to life and liberty during the Emergency period, a nine-judge Bench condemned the decision in the infamous ADM Jabalpur case, or better known as the habeas corpus case, as “seriously flawed.”
• The habeas corpus judgment in 1976 upheld the Congress government’s move to unlawfully detain citizens, including political rivals, during the Emergency years.
• Of the five judges on that Bench, only Justice H.R. Khanna dissented with the majority opinion of then Chief Justice of India A.N. Ray, Justices M.H. Beg, Y.V. Chandrachud and P.N. Bhagwati. Justice Khanna’s dissent cost him the chief justiceship. He was superceded by Justice Beg, following which Justice Khanna resigned.
• On Thursday, for the first time in Supreme Court’s history, a nine-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar, officially condemned the Supreme Court’s majority opinion in the habeas corpus case.
• The judgment, authored by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, who, incidentally, is the son of Justice Y.V. Chandrachud, “expressly overruled” the 1976 majority judgment and removed a long-pending taint on the court’s history as a people’s champion.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/sc-overrules-emergency-era-habeas-corpus-verdict/article19555894.ece;
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Solution: b.
• The government’s proclivity to litigate crowds private citizens out from accessing justice. At least two of the PM’s speeches mentioned this undesirable trait. In the first, he referred to the government as a litigant. In the second, he mentioned the phenomenon of two government departments litigating against each other.
• There was a National Litigation Policy (NLP) in 2010. Its aim is to transform Government into an Efficient and Responsible litigant. There were platitudes in plenty, but nothing to pin down. A specific LIMBS (Legal Information Management & Briefing System) is better than a vague Litigation Policy.
• As part of the e-Governance initiative, the government has started working on putting in place this online system of managing and monitoring all court cases in which Government of India is a party. This means that once fed, information relating to all court/tribunal cases being handled by the various Ministries/Departments and other organs of the Government of India will be available on a single web-based online application. Also, this application caters to a wide range of requirements for various departments and administrative authorities for effective monitoring of court matters.
• This will not only help to introduce transparency but also a sense of ownership among various stakeholders during the life cycle of a court case. Among others, it will help authorities to take ‘data driven decision making’ and to evaluate performance of various stake holders and to conduct legal audit.
http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/out-on-several-limbs-4810603/;
From 2016: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=146572;
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