Hand Holding Programme of “Thinking Palette”

6th & 7th September 2020 

 
Daily News Articles

1. Govt. suspends FCRA clearance 

● Under the Foreign Contribution
Regulation Act (FCRA), the Union
Home Ministry has suspended the
licence of the six NGOs this year.

● An FCRA licence is mandatory for a

non-profit organisation to receive
foreign funds.

Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act

(FCRA),
● Foreign funding of voluntary
organizations in India is
regulated under FCRA act and is
implemented by the Ministry of
Home Affairs.
● The Acts ensures that the
recipients of foreign contributions
adhere to the stated purpose for
which such contribution has
been obtained.
● The Ministry of Home Affairs in
2019, has published the Foreign
Contribution (Regulation)
(Second Amendment) Rules,
2019 to further amend the
Foreign Contribution
(Regulation) Rules, 2011.

2. Kesavananda Bharati, a saviour of Constitution 

Context
● The landmark 1973 ruling in which the Supreme Court announced the basic structure
doctrine was in the case of His Holiness Kesavananda Bharati Sripadagalvaru and Ors
v State of Kerala. Kesavananda Bharati, the man who lent his name to this iconic case
as the petitioner, died.

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● The ruling is considered among the most consequential decisions by the Supreme
Court as it set out the “basic structure” of the Constitution that Parliament cannot
amend.
Background
● Kesavananda Bharati, the seer of Edneer Mutt Kerala, challenged the Kerala Land
Reforms (Amendment) Act 1969. Bharati had moved the top court against the land
reforms law passed by the Kerala government with an objective to distribute land
among landless farmers.

● Bharati had contended that the land reforms law by the government was an attempt to
impose restrictions on the management of the mutt’s property, which was the only
source of income for his ashram.

● His petition also challenged three Constitutional amendments -24, 25 and 29 —

passed by the Indira Gandhi government to give Parliament the power to alter
fundamental rights.

● Bharati argued that the three amendments breached his fundamental rights under
Article 25 (right to practice and propagate religion), Article 26 (freedom of religious
denomination, including managing and administering its property) and Article 31 (right
to property).

● While the landmark judgment did not offer individual relief to the seer, the SC ruled that
the “basic structure” of the Constitution was inviolable and could not be amended by
Parliament.

● The “basic structure” doctrine has formed the basis of the Indian judiciary’s power to
review or strike down amendments to the Constitution by Parliament, which are in
conflict with or seek to alter this principle.

The Golak Nath judgment

● The three Constitutional amendments, challenged in the Bharati case, were passed by
the Indira Gandhi government to overcome the apex court’s 1967 judgment in the
Golak Nath case that ruled Parliament could not amend fundamental rights, including
the Right to Property.
● The Golak Nath ruling interpreted Articles 13 and 368 of the Constitution. While Article
13 prohibits Parliament from framing ‘laws’ that violate fundamental rights guaranteed
under Part III of the Constitution, Article 368 empowers Parliament to amend the
Constitution.
● It was held in this case that an amendment under Article 368 can be defined as ‘law’
within the ambit of Article 13.
● Parliament then passed the 24th, 25th and 29th amendments, allowing amendment of
fundamental rights and putting some property issues beyond judicial review.
● The 24th amendment, which was passed in 1971, specifically empowered Parliament
to amend any part of the Constitution. This meant the bar imposed in the Golak Nath

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case under Article 13 would not apply to any constitutional amendment under Article
368. Therefore, Parliament now had the power to amend fundamental rights.

What is the basic structure doctrine?

● The origins of the basic structure doctrine are found in the German Constitution which,
after the Nazi regime, was amended to protect some basic laws. The original Weimar
Constitution, which gave Parliament to amend the Constitution with a two-thirds
majority, was in fact used by Hitler to his advantage to made radical changes.

● Learning from that experience, the new German Constitution introduced substantive
limits on Parliament’s powers to amend certain parts of the Constitution which it
considered ‘basic law’.

● In India, the basic structure doctrine has formed the bedrock of judicial review of all
laws passed by Parliament. No law can impinge on the basic structure. What the basic
structure is, however, has been a continuing deliberation. While parliamentary
democracy, fundamental rights, judicial review, and secularism are all held by courts
as basic structure, the list is not exhaustive.

3. Chandrayaan-3 
● Chandrayaan-3 is likely to be launched in early 2021, following the hard landing of
Chandrayaan-2 last year, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had
mentioned its plans of launching another mission to the moon by the end of 2020.
However, the novel coronavirus pandemic has led to a delay in the launch of
Chandrayaan-3.

● Chandrayaan-3 will be a mission repeat of Chandrayaan-2 and will only include a

lander and a rover similar to that of Chandrayaan-2 and will not have an orbiter.

● Realisation within schedule will make ISRO the world's fourth space agency to conduct
soft lunar landing after the administration of former USSR, NASA and CNSA.
 
4. ‘Neighbour Katta’ (Can be utilised as an example) 
● Amid the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown, teachers at
a hamlet in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district have devised a method of distance
learning to make the local school children study the syllabus and do their homework by
following physical distancing. The initiative has been named as ​‘Neighbour Katta’.

● Under the initiative, the teachers send the list of curricular exercises on the mobile
phones of the students’ parents. And the children have to complete the given tasks
daily during the specified school hours by coming together in small groups by
maintaining social distancing.

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● Each group comprises children of different classes living in the vicinity, so that seniors
can guide the juniors. The photos of the completed homework are then sent in a
WhatsApp group to the teachers.

● Also the list of homework sent through SMS on the phones of their parents as most of
them do not have smartphones.

● The rest of the school time is reserved for activities like jumping, running, learning or
making different sounds to make their study exciting.

● The ‘Neighbor Katta’ initiative has found a place in the ‘30 most inspiring ideas
of change 2020’ organised by Design for Change and the United Nations
Children’s Fund.

5. Project Dolphin (Indian Express) 

● Recently during the Independence Day Speech, the Prime Minister announced the
government’s plan to launch a ​Project Dolphin​. The proposed project is aimed at
saving both river and marine dolphins.

About the project

● Project Dolphin will be on the lines of Project Tiger, which has helped increase the tiger
population. Such an initiative got in-principle approval in last year itself, at the first
meeting of the National Ganga Council (NGC), headed by the Prime Minister.

● Special Conservation program needs to be taken up for ​Gangetic Dolphin​ which is a

National Aquatic Animal and also indicator species for the river Ganga spread over
several states.
● So far, the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), which implements the
government’s flagship scheme Namami Gange, has been taking some initiatives for
saving dolphins. Now, Project Dolphin is expected to be implemented by the Ministry of
Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Gangetic dolphin
● The Gangetic river system is home to a vast
variety of aquatic life, including the Gangetic
dolphin.

● The Gangetic dolphin is one of five species of

river dolphin found around the world. It is found
mainly in the Indian subcontinent, particularly in
Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna and
Karnaphuli-Sangu river systems.

● The construction of dams and barrages, and increasing pollution have led to a decline
in the population of aquatic animals in the rivers in general and of dolphins in
particular.

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● Aquatic life is an indicator of the health of river ecosystems. As the Gangetic dolphin is
at the top of the food chain, protecting the species and its habitat will ensure
conservation of aquatic lives of the river.

NATIONAL AQUATIC ANIMAL:​ On October 5, 2009, the then Prime Minister, while chairing
the maiden meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority, declared the ​Gangetic river
dolphin as the national aquatic animal​. A notification was issued by the Ministry of
Environment and Forests the following year. Now, the National Mission for Clean Ganga
celebrates ​October 5 as National Ganga River Dolphin Day.

6. Start-Up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP)- PIB 

● Start-Up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) is implemented by Deendayal
Antyodaya Yojana –National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), Ministry of Rural
Development, as a sub-scheme since 2016.

● With an objective to support the rural poor come out of poverty, supporting them to set
up enterprises and provide support till the enterprises stabilize, SVEP focuses on
providing self-employment opportunities with financial assistance and training in
business management and soft skills while creating local community cadres for
promotion of enterprises.

● SVEP addresses three major pillars of rural start-ups namely - ​Finances, Incubation
and Skill ecosystems. ​Activities under SVEP are strategically designed to promote
rural enterprises, one of the key areas is to develop a pool of community resource
persons – enterprise promotion (CRP-EP) who are local and support entrepreneurs
setting-up rural enterprises. 
 
7. Business Reform Action Plan- PIB 
Context
● Recently the Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, announced the 4th
edition of Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) ranking of states.

Key highlights
● According to the State Business Reform Action Plan 2020 (State BRAP), Andhra
Pradesh has topped the country in the latest ease of doing business rankings.These
rankings represent the ease of doing business in the State with increased
transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of the government regulatory functions
vis-a-vis the business enterprises.

● The ranks were released by the Department of Industrial Promotion and Internal Trade,
Government of India through a video conference by the Minister for Finance.

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● Ranking of States based on the implementation of Business Reform Action Plan

started in the year 2015. Till date, State Rankings have been released for the years
2015, 2016 and 2017-18.

● The Business Reform Action Plan 2018-19 includes 180 reform points covering 12
business regulatory areas such as Access to Information, Single Window System,
Labour, Environment, etc.

● The larger objective of attracting investments and increasing Ease of Doing Business
in each State was sought to be achieved by introducing an element of healthy
competition through a system of ranking states based on their performance in the
implementation of Business Reform Action Plan.

● State rankings will help attract investments, foster healthy competition and
increase Ease of Doing Business in each State.

● Ease of doing business ranking of states of India is the annual ease of doing
business index of states and union territories of India based on the completion
percentage scores of action items points of annual Business Reforms Action Plan
(BRAP) under the Make in India initiative.

● This ranking of states has been done by World Bank since 2015 and facilitated by
the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, under the Ministry of Commerce
and Industry (India) of Government of India based on the progress of states in
completing annual reform action plan covering 8 key areas which has a number of
points that vary every year.

 
 

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