 A very good evening to all of our friends and welcome to the Hindu News Analysis of Shankar IAS Academy for the date 17th January 2021. The list of the relevant news articles taken for today's discussion from 5 different editions of the Hindu newspaper along with their page numbers are given here for your reference. Also the handwritten notes in the PDF format and time stampings for all the news articles taken for today's discussion is given in the description box and also in the comment section for the best interest of the viewers. Let us now start with our first news article. First let us take up this article from the FAQ column. It talks about the term judicial review. See this is a very important term and many questions revolving around this term that is judicial review can arrive in our problems as well as main exams. So let us discuss this article and also understand the term judicial review. We know that recently the Supreme Court state the three farm laws that have been the bone of contention between the government and the farmer groups. It also appointed a four member committee to look deeper into this issue. However, one more controversy that has erupted because of this staying of farm laws by the Supreme Court is can the court of law issue an order for the entering suspension of a law which was passed by the legislature. In this regard, the Attorney General of India made a plea that laws made by the legislature should not be stayed because these laws are already assumed to be in line with the constitution. That is, there is a presumption of constitutionality in favor of these laws. However, the Supreme Court came up with an explanation and distinction to justify its stay order. It said that the Supreme Court has no power to stay alone, but it has got the power to stay the implementation of a law. Going further, the Supreme Court also cited a previous example of the Maratha Reservation case. Here the Supreme Court had stayed the implementation of the 2018 Maharashtra law which was also known as the socially and educationally backward classes act of 2018 which granted reservation to the Marathas in education and jobs. Here the Supreme Court been said that admissions to educational institutions for 2020-21 and also the appointments to post under the government shall be made without reference to the reservation provided under the relevant legislation that is the SCBC Act of 2018. Here if you see, the Supreme Court bench has only stayed the implementation of the law and not the law per se. However, the bench also said that such a law can be stayed if it appears that the law has violated constitution or if it is contrary to any law laid by the Supreme Court. And in the Maratha Reservation case, the Supreme Court stayed the law because the court violated 50 percentage ceiling which was mentioned in the Indra Savani case of 1992 which was also known as the Mandal verdict. And in this regard, the Supreme Court also said that the Maharashtra government had not shown any extraordinary situation to justify the exceeding of this limit. Here when we talk about the justification of exceeding limit by the government, we should know that the Bombay High Court in one of its previous orders had said that 50% cap on total reservations imposed by the Supreme Court could be exceeded in exceptional circumstances. Now let us come to the present scenario. See the Supreme Court while staying the implementation of the three farm laws said that this team may a switch or reduce the hurt feelings of the farmers and encourage them to come to the negotiating table. So now let us see what are the powers of the Indian judiciary with regard to the laws passed by the legislature. See the constitution of India gives the Indian law courts a special power called judicial review. See judicial review refers to the power of the judiciary to interpret the constitution and to declare any such law or order of the legislature or executive void if it finds them in conflict with the constitution of India. We should know that both the Supreme Court and the high courts exercise the power of judicial review, but the final power to determine the constitutional validity of any law is in the hands of the Supreme Court of India and judicial review can be conducted in respect of all central and state laws and also the orders and ordinances of the executive as well as the constitutional amendments. Now what are the grounds under which the courts can exercise judicial review? Firstly, the courts can strike down a law on the ground that they are ultra-wires of the constitution. That is their provisions violate the very basic doctrine of the constitution. Secondly, if it violates the fundamental rights which are guaranteed by the constitution. And thirdly, if a state legislature passes a law in which a central law already exists outside the legislative limits. However, the state orders given by the Supreme Court benches are not taken lightly by the constitutional benches or legal scholars. The general argument is that a law shall not be stayed unless there are compelling reasons such as an obvious lack of constitutional validity or if the legislative body concerned lacks the jurisdiction to enact that particular law. And we should know that even legal scholars frown upon such state orders. The basic reason is that such state orders go against the principle of separation of powers that our constitution envisages. Also, the courts are expected to challenge a law made by the legislature only at the time of final adjudication and not during the initial stages. The second reason is that there is a presumption that every law enacted by any legislature is constitutional and valid. So here the burden lies on those challenging the validity of the law to prove that it is not. So therefore, the courts should be extra careful when hearing petitions seeking a stay order of the concerned law. Now let us look at the instances where the High Court interfered at the initial stages itself, but the constitutional benches did not support that view. See in 1984, the Supreme Court set aside an interim stay granted by a High Court against the operation of a municipal tax. And in 2013, it removed the stay on some provisions of and regulations and other cigarettes and other tobacco products prohibition of advertisement and regulation of trade and commerce, production, supply and distribution act of 2003, that is the court by act of 2003. And in this case, the Supreme Court constitutional bench held that the working of a law cannot be disrupted by passing an interim order and interim order must be issued only when the court is fully convinced that the particular provisions of the law is unconstitutional or when other factors like the balance of convenience, irreparable injury and public interest are in the favor of passing the interim order. And the author of this editorial also talks about a precedent set by the constitutional bench of Supreme Court for this in its earlier cases. While upholding the validity of the Section 45 S of the Reserve Bank of India Act, which imposed restrictions on unincorporated bodies which are accepting public deposits, the Supreme Court criticized interim orders passed by some of the High Courts that state this provision. So this is all about this FAQ column. In this discussion, we saw about judicial review and the areas where the Supreme Court and High Courts had interfered in order to apply this judicial review. With this, let us move on to the next news. Now let us take up this news article which talks about trans fats and the recent caps imposed on it by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, or FSSAI. So in this context, let us know about trans fats and then we will discuss the editorial in detail. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. First, let us know about trans fats and its harmful effects. See all kinds of natural fats and oils contain a combination of mono unsaturated, then polyunsaturated and saturated fatty acids, or trans fats. Among them, the first two categories, that is the mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids are considered to be healthy fats. And this is because they are a major source of energy. They help in absorbing vitamins and minerals and also in building cell membranes and sheets around the nerves. Please note, these fats flow freely in contrast to saturated fatty acids, which is the reason saturated fatty acids are considered to be harmful for our body. This is because they cloak the arteries, which can result in various diseases like hypertension, heart attack and other cardiovascular diseases. Now talking about trans fats, they come in both natural and artificial forms. Naturally formed trans fats are found in small quantities in meat, milk and also in milk products. Whereas the artificial trans fats or industrial trans fats are those that are found in fried foods and also in commercial baked and processed foods. And know that they are created by a process called hydrogenation, which means adding hydrogen to unsaturated liquid vegetable oils and also by heating the oil at high temperatures to make them more solid. See trans fats are largely present in partially hydrogenated fats or oils or simply pHOs like the margarine, bakery shortening and they are also found in vanaspati which is used in the preparation of sweets and deep fried foods. And know that trans fats are said to be harmful since they cause adverse health effects particularly for the heart as it increases the bad cholesterol like VLDLC and LDLC and lowers the good cholesterol that is HDLC in the body. And in addition to this, it causes obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and also some types of cancers. Now coming back to the article, see on December 2020, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India brought down the permitted limit for using trans fats in oils and fats to 3% for the year 2021 and 2% for 2022. So this cap applies to edible refined oils, vanaspati, margarine, bakery shortening vegetable fat spreads and also mixed fat spreads. Please note, previously the permitted limit for trans fats was 5% and this recent cap was a result of an amendment to the Food Safety and Standards regulations because cardiovascular diseases were found to be the leading causes of death globally. As per the World Health Organization, over 5 lakh people with cardiovascular diseases die globally every year due to the consumption of industrially processed trans fatty acids. And as per the estimation of FSSAI, about 77,000 deaths take place annually in India due to this. So with this detail, let us now move on to see the response of various nations in this regard. See by the year 1980, the focus on threats posed by non-communicable diseases started gaining attention. Following this, Denmark became the first country to ban trans fatty acids in 2003. In the next 5 years, Chile and Switzerland banned trans fatty acids too. And during this same period, several states in the United States implemented local bans. In the year 2018, the World Health Organization called for the elimination of industrially produced trans fatty acids by 2023. And for this purpose, it brought out a step-by-step guide called Replace That Aid Countries in Framing Policies. And this measure gave rise to an accelerated action by the member states and other stakeholders. In its 2020 report, WHO remarked that so far 58 countries had introduced law to protect around 3.2 billion people from trans fatty acids by the end of 2021. But know that, still more than 100 countries are yet to take proper responsive action. See 11 out of the 15 countries that account for 2-thirds of the deaths linked to trans fats are yet to take serious action. And they include Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Iran, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan and Republic of Korea. Now let us see India's actions against trans fatty acids. See India's action coincided with the setting up of FSSAI, which is an autonomous body established under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. And though it came into existence in 2006, its functioning picked up by 2011-12. And its measures include imposing cap on trans fats in oil and fats of 10 percentage in 2011 followed by a 5 percentage in 2015. In India, the civil society organizations are pushing in for a cap of 3 percentage for 2021 and 2 percentage for 2022 to be imposed on trans fats on all foods. And a regulation for it is expected soon. However, there will be many challenges when this will be implemented. So the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India needs to play an important role in pursuing the local governments to improve surveillance, inspection of food premises, sampling of food products, then regular training of officers and also the upgradation of food labs which were some of the concerns raised by a parliamentary panel on the regulator's ineffectiveness on these issues. So this is all about trans fats and their effects. Now with this information, let us move on to the next news. Now this news article talks about the centre's denial of a right to information request seeking the details and reports of a meeting held by the Niti Aayok Committee of CMs for the transformation of Indian agriculture. See, this committee was formed with a mandate to suggest structural reforms in agriculture. So in this context, let us know about the right to information active 2005 and its recent amendment in 2019. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. See the right to information act of 2005 mandates timely response to citizen requests regarding government information. Under this act, public authorities are required to make disclosures on various aspects of the structure and functioning including the disclosure on their organisation, functions and structure then on the powers and duties of its officers and employees and also its financial details. So this act includes information in the form of documents, files or electronic records which are under the control of the public authority. See the intent behind the enactment of this act is to promote transparency and accountability in the working of public authorities. See the public authorities include bodies of self-government established under the constitution or under any law or government notification. Say for example, ministries, public sector undertakings and also regulators include public authorities. It also includes any entity owned, controlled or substantially financed and NGOs that are substantially financed directly or indirectly by government provided funds. And know that this act establishes a three-tier structure for enforcing the right to information for which the public authorities designate some of their officers as public information officers or PIOs. Now coming to the RTI Amendment Act of 2019 it primarily emits section 13 and 16 of the Right to Information Act of 2005. See when you take section 13 of the original act it sets the term for the Central Information Commissioner and other information commissioners at five years or until the age of 65 which is earlier. Similarly, section 16 sets the terms for state-level Chief Information Commissioners and Information Commissioners at five years or 65 years of age whichever is earlier. Now in this regard the new amendment proposes a change in this. It says that the appointment for both will be for such term as may be prescribed by the central government. So this means now the central government has got the power to fix the terms for Chief Information Commissioners and other Information Commissioners at central and state levels. Also under section 13 it is mentioned that the salaries, allowances and the terms of services of the Central Chief Information Commissioner shall be the same as that of Chief Election Commissioner and the salaries, allowances and the terms of service of other central information commissioners shall be same as that of an Election Commissioner. Likewise under section 16 the original act prescribes salaries, allowances and the Terms of Services of the State Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioners as the same as that of an Election Commissioner and Chief Secretary of this State respectively. Now in relation to this, the amendment seeks to alter it by proposing that the salaries, allowances and other Terms of Services of both Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners at both the Central and State levels shall be such as may be prescribed by the Central Government. So here also the Central Government Now a reference to the amendments made to the provisions of the RTI Act of 2005 is given here for your reference. Please go through it. Now coming back to the news article, in response to the RTI request, a report was submitted but Niti Aayog refused to provide the information as it has to be placed before the 6th Governing Council meeting of Niti Aayog for appraisal of State Chief Ministers and Governors of Union Territories who are the constituent members of the Governing Council. So in this discussion we saw about RTI and its amendments. With this let us move on to the next news article. Now have a look at this question. It is based on this news article which mentions that the winter migratory birds have started coming to the Harike wetland while traversing through the Central Asian flyway. See the routes followed by migratory birds on the journey between the breeding places and wintering places are known as flyways. One of them that is crossing Asia is the Central Asian flyway. In this context we should know what is a wetland? See generally wetlands are areas where water is the primary factor controlling the environment and also the associated plant and animal life. They occur where the water table is at or near the surface of the land or where the land is covered by water. Thus according to the definition of rams are convention on wetlands, wetlands are areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water such areas whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary with water that is static or flowing and having fresh, brackish or salt water. The areas of marine water the depth of which at low tides does not exceed six meters is also a wetland another convention. Thus it includes flood plains, rivers and lakes and coastal areas such as salt marshes, mangroves, intertidal mud flats and seagrass beds and also coral reefs and human-made wetlands such as dams, reservoirs, rice paddy fields and wastewater treatment ponds and lagoons. But here we should remember the definition of wetlands under the wetlands conservation and management rules 2017 of India. Under it wetland does not include river channels, paddy fields, human-made water bodies or tanks which are specifically constructed for drinking purposes and also structures specifically constructed for aquaculture, salt production, recreation and irrigation purposes. Now let us see about Harike wetland. See it includes the Harike lake and Harike wildlife sanctuary. It is situated in Punjab and this wetland falls in three districts namely Tantaran, Kapurtala and Ferozpur and know that the wetland is at the confluence of the Bees Sathlej river and it is the biggest watershed of Punjab. The Harike wildlife century is the largest wetland in Northern India and when we talk about this wetland it is a shallow water reservoir with 13 islands and know that it is a refugee for a large number of resident and migratory birds. So in this regard it has a rich biodiversity with vast concentration of migratory waterfalls or water birds. It is an important site for breeding, wintering and staging of birds and it supports over 2 lakh annity day that is ducks, geese and swans etc during their migration. The lake is particularly famous for diving ducks such as the crusted pocad, common pocad and also the tufted ducks. And according to this news article the prominent birds include the Eurasian coot, grey-lac goose, bar-headed goose, gadwall and also the northern chauvelier and know that the main fish fauna which can be found in the lake is hilsa. So we can say that the sanctuary is a bird watchers' paradise and because of its importance it was accorded as one of the Ramsar sites in India in the year 1990 for its conservation development and preservation of its ecosystem. Now what are the major threats to this wetland? See it includes encroachments on the wetland habitat, widespread infestation of water hyacinth weed which is slowly chocking the ecosystem and reducing the available surface area. And threats also include siltation and the resultant fallen, the volume of water, then drainage of untreated and toxic industrial influence into the system from big cities like Luthiana etc. Then illegal fishing and poaching of birds are also a threat to the system. Now with this information have a look at this question. A wetland in India has the following characteristics. It is at the confluence of two rivers. It is the largest wetland in northern India. It is an important site for breeding, wintering and staging birds. And finally it is a Ramsar site of wetland of international importance. Which one of the following wetlands has all the above characteristics? See in this question even if you don't know about all the characteristics you can answer this question with statement to itself. That is it is the largest wetland in northern India. The character answer is option C Harikeh wetland. And from the other options you can see that Ashtamudi wetland is in Kerala that is in south India. Then Dipur bilis in Assam which is in northeastern India. And Chilika Lagoon is in Odisha which is in the eastern India. And note that all of these are designated as Ramsar sites. So the correct answer is option C Harikeh wetland. Now with this information let us move on to the next news. Now have a look at this question. It is based on this news article which talks about the national investigation agency summoning around 40 persons to be examined as witnesses in a fresh case registered against the 6-4 justice. See this 6-4 justice is said to be a foreign-based group that advocates secessionist and pro-Khalistani activities in India. Here the notices have been issued under the section 160 of CRPC and under various sections of the Indian Penal Court and unlawful activities prevention act of 1967. So in this regard know that the NIA had registered a case against the 6-4 justice on December 15 because it has come to the notice that large amounts of funds being collected by Khalistani terrorist outfits are being sent through NGOs to pro-Khalistani elements based in India. So in this context let us have a brief understanding of National Investigation Agency. See NIA is the Central Counter Terrorism Low Enforcement Agency in the country and it was created in 2008 after the Mumbai terror attack in the same year. It was constituted under the National Investigation Agency Act of 2008 and it is the central agency to investigate and prosecute offenses such as the offenses which affect the sovereignty, security and integrity of India, then security of state, friendly relations with foreign states etc. Also cases involving atomic and nuclear facilities are dealt by the National Investigation Agency and crimes such as smuggling in high-quality counterfeit Indian currency are also dealt by NIA. Then the NIA can investigate terror cases across the country without having to get the permission from the states. Now that NIA functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs and the agency is headquartered at New Delhi and it has 8 regional offices across India. The main objective of NIA is to execute in-depth professional investigation of scheduled offenses using the latest scientific methods of investigation. In this regard we should know what are scheduled offenses. See the schedule to the act specifies a list of offenses which are to be investigated and prosecuted by the National Investigation Agency. And these include offenses under the acts such as the Atomic Energy Act of 1962 and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967. So with this information have a look at this question. Consider the following statements with regard to the National Investigation Agency. The first statement reads it was formed after the 2002 Parliament attack. See this statement is incorrect. As you have seen NIA was formed after the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The second statement reads it works directly under the administrative control of the Prime Minister's office. See this statement is also incorrect. We have seen that it works under the Ministry of Home Affairs. So in this question we are supposed to identify the correct statement or statements. Since both the statements are incorrect the correct answer for this question is option D neither one nor two. With this we have analyzed all the relevant news articles taken for today's discussion. Next let us move on to the practice questions discussion section based on today's news analysis. See today we have two main questions. Please write your answers and applaud it in the comment section. Our feedback will be given in a reasonable time frame. So friends with this we have come to the end of analysis of all the news articles taken for today's discussion and also the discussion of practice questions. If you like this video please press the like button, comment, share and do subscribe to Shankar Iyer's Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service preparation. Thank you.