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DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

Monthly DNA

22 Jul, 2022

35 Min Read

15th PRESIDENT OF INDIA

GS-II : Indian Polity President

15th PRESIDENT OF INDIA

Droupadi Murmu won the 2022 Presidential election after defeating the joint Opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha. She will take oath as the 15th President of India on July 25.

She is the first Adivasi and second woman to become the nation’s First Citizen and the Supreme Commander of India’s Armed Forces.

About Droupadi Murmur

  • She is born into a Santhal family in 1958. She was the first girl in Uparbeda, (one of the seven revenue villages in Uparbeda panchayat) in Odisha’s backward Mayurbhanj district, to go to college at the Ramadevi Women’s University in Bhubaneswar.
  • She was elected twice in the Odisha Assembly and served as a Minister from 2000 to 2004, in Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s BJD-BJP lead coalition government.
  • She also served as a vice-president of the BJP’s Scheduled Tribes Morcha.

Governor of Jharkhand

Murmu was sworn in as the first woman Governor of Jharkhand in 2015.

How is the President elected in India?

  • The President of India is elected through an electoral college system, where the votes are given by national and state lawmakers.
  • Elections are conducted and overseen by the Election Commission of India.
  • The President's electoral college is made up of all the elected members of the upper and lower house of Parliament, and also the elected member of the legislative assemblies of the state and union territories.

The procedure of the election

  • Before the voting, there is a nomination stage, where the candidate intending to stand in the election, files the nomination along with the signed list of 50 proposers and the 50 seconders.
  • These proposers and the seconders can be anyone among the total members of the electoral college from the state and the national level.
  • An elector cannot propose or second the nomination of more than one candidate.

Article related to the President

  • Article 54: It talks about the election of the President.
  • Article 55: The manner of election of the President.
  • Article 56: Term of office of the President.
  • Article 57: Eligibility for re-election.
  • Article 58: Qualification required for the election of the President.

Value of vote and vote calculation

  • Vote cast by each MP or MLA is not calculated as one vote and doesn’t have the same value.
  • The fixed value of each vote by an MP of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha is 700.
  • The total value of each vote of MLA differs from state to state based on a calculation that factors in its population vis-à-vis the number of members in its legislative assembly.
  • Currently, the population of the state is taken from the figure of the 1971 census and this will change when the figure of the census taken after the year 2026 is republished.
  • Value of each MLA vote is determined by dividing the population of the state by the number of MLA in the legislative assembly and the quotient achieved is further divided by 1000
  • Uttar Pradesh has the highest vote value for each of its MLA which is 208 and the value of one MLA vote in Maharashtra is 175.

What is required to secure a victory?

  • A nominated candidate secures the victory through a system of bagging a specific quota of votes. While counting the Election Commission total up all the valid votes cast by the electoral college through paper ballots and to win, the candidate must secure 50% of the total votes cast +1.
  • The voters of the electoral college write the names of the candidates on the ballot paper in the order of preference.
  • The presidential election is held by the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote and the voting is by secret ballot.

Who does not take part in the Presidential election?

  • Nominated Members of the Rajya Sabha (12)
  • Nominated Members of the State Legislative Assemblies
  • Members of Legislative Councils (Both elected and nominated) in bicameral legislatures
  • Nominated Members of the union territories of Delhi and Puducherry

What is the qualification of the President’s office?

  • He should be an Indian Citizen.
  • His age should be a minimum of 35 years.
  • He should qualify the conditions to be an elected member of the Lok Sabha.
  • He should not hold any office of profit under the central government, state government, or any public authority.

Can the Indian president be impeached?

  • Article 61 say that the President can be removed from his office before the expiry of his term only on the grounds of a violation of the Constitution.
  • However, the Constitution does not clearly define the meaning of the ‘violation of the Constitution.
  • The impeachment process can be started from any house of the parliament by leveling charges against the President.
  • The notice bearing the charges against the President must be signed by at least a quarter of the members of the house.
  • The resolution to impeach the president must be passed by a special majority which is two-thirds in the originating house.
  • Next it is sent to the other house for consideration. The other house acts as the investigating house. A select committee is formed to investigate the charges which are labeled against the President.

During the process, the President of India has the right to defend himself through authorized counsel. He can choose to defend himself or appoint any person or the lawyer or any Attorney General of India to do so.

Source: The Hindu

TELE LAW SERVICE

GS-II : Governance Judicial reforms

TELE LAW SERVICE

Was launched in 2017, the Tele-Law program of the Department of Justice is an effective and reliable e-interface and pre-litigation mechanism which aims to connect needy and marginalized persons, in need of legal advice, through Para Legal Volunteers (PLVs) with Panel Lawyers via video conferencing or telephonic facilities available at Common Service Centres situated at the Panchayat level.

The Union Minister of Law and Justice announced that from this year, Tele-law service was being made free of cost for the citizens in the country.

Feature of tele law service:

  • Accessibility: It is made accessible to citizens of India via video conferencing or telephonic facilities available at the common service center.
  • Affordability: It is provided free of cost to those persons entitled to free legal aid under section 12 of the Legal Service Authorities Act 1987, with a nominal fee of RS.30.
  • Frontline functionaries: Para-legal volunteers have been stationed to act as intermediaries, bridging the gap between common people and the tele law service, and also creating public awareness about the tele-law.
  • Real-time data: A dedicated tele law dashboard has been developed to capture real-time data on the nature of cases registered and advice enabled.

Significance of tele service:

  • This service aims to reach out to the needy, especially the marginalized and disadvantaged section of the society
  • It enables anyone to seek legal advice without wasting precious time and money.
  • It is available in 22 official languages.

Legal matters in which advice can be taken through Tele-Law service are:

  • Dowry, family dispute, divorce, protection from domestic violence.
  • Sexual harassment, sexual abuse, eve teasing at the workplace.
  • Maintenance of women, children, and senior citizens.
  • Rights regarding property and land.
  • Equal wages for males and females.
  • Maternity benefits and prevention of foeticide.
  • Prohibition of child marriage, protection of children from sexual assault, prevention of child labour, and implementation of the right to education.
  • Arrest – (F.I.R)/ process of registering the First Information Report.
  • Common service center

    It is an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY).

    • CSCs are the access points for the delivery of various electronic services to villages in India, thereby contributing to a digitally and financially inclusive society.
    • Common service centers are positioned as change agents, promoting rural entrepreneurship and building rural capacities and livelihoods.
    • They are also enablers of community participation and collective action for engendering social change through a bottom-up approach with a key focus mainly on the rural citizen.

Source: PIB

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY

GS-III : S&T R&D

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY

As per a study by the United States of America, due to climate change, one-third of all animal and plant species on the planet could face extinction by 2070.

Environmentalists consider synthetic biology or ‘synbio’ as a potential tool to preserve biodiversity and restore the natural ecosystem.

In the case of India, a draft foresight paper on synthetic biology released by the Department of Biotechnology has stressed the need for a national policy that can consolidate India’s stand on the issue.

What is synthetic biology?

  • Synthetic biology combines biotechnological tools with ideas from engineering, computer sciences, and design thinking, and uses them to build new biological systems.
  • Synthetic biology is a field of science that involves redesigning organisms for useful purposes by engineering them to have new abilities.
  • The term ‘synthetic biology’ was first used by Barbara Hobomin in the year 1980, to describe the bacteria that had been genetically engineered or modified by using recombinant DNA technology.
  • Synthetic biology refers to the science of using genetic sequencing, editing, and modification to create unnatural organisms or organic molecules that can function in the living systems.
  • Synthetic biology enables scientists to design and synthesize new sequences of DNA from scratch.
  • The term was used to describe the synthesis of unnatural organic molecules that function in the living systems.

More broadly in this sense, the term has been used with reference to efforts to redesign life.

What is the difference between synthetic biology and gene editing?

  • Synthetic biology is similar to another approach called "genome editing" because both involve changing an organism's genetic code but these two approaches are different based on how the change is made.
  • In synthetic biology, scientists typically stitch together long stretches of DNA and insert them into an organism's genome whereas, In genome editing, scientists typically use tools to make smaller changes to the organism's own DNA
  • Synthesized pieces of DNA could be genes that are found in other organisms or they could be entirely novel and the Genome editing tools can also be used to delete or add small stretches of DNA in the genome.

What is the use of synthetic biology?

What is the use of synthetic biology?

  • This technology is mainly used in the production of sustainable food for eg: Rice modified to produce beta-carotene, a nutrient usually associated with carrots, that prevents vitamin A deficiency. (Vitamin A deficiency causes blindness in 250,000 - 500,000 children every year and greatly increases a child's risk of death from infectious diseases.)
  • It can help in developing synthetic organisms for vaccination to create natural products in a lab such as vanillin, the organic compound extracted from vanilla seeds, which can now be grown in yeasts with additional plant genomes.
  • In the pharmaceutical industry, synthetic biology can be used to make natural compounds such as artemisinin used for the treatment of malaria and Car T cell therapy for cancer treatment.
  • It is starting to be used in the fashion industry as well; some companies are exploring the possibility of dyeing jeans without producing hazardous waste.
  • Then there are companies using it to deliver fixed nitrogen to plants instead of using fertilizers, engineering microbes to create food additives or brew proteins.
  • Microorganisms are harnessed for bioremediation to clean pollutants from our water, soil, and air.
  • An interesting application of synthetic biology is its usage for the capture of carbon dioxide from industrial emissions.

This synthetic biology technology would help us resolve some of society’s most imperative problems from infectious disease to drug development to the sustainability

Concerns related to the synthetic biology

Economic concerns:

  • It can create a huge surge in the economy causing a shift towards biotechnology-based economies.
  • This will mostly affect the rural economy and low-income tropical countries.
  • Natural products are usually grown and harvested in low-income countries and this could be displaced by advancements in synthetic biology.

Environmental concerns:

  • When a new species is created or when a species is intensely modified, the activity of species and their coexistence with other organisms is mostly unpredictable.

Ethical Concerns:

  • The scientists would go in and edit the genes of human embryos, removing genetic material that codes for harmful or fatal diseases, creating genetically modified humans, and genetically engineering humans could accidentally give rise to new social inequalities.

Way forward

To achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, there is a need to think innovatively and synthetic biology could full fill the SDG target. The need of the hour is to ecological balance and cut down pollution and plastic waste from our industrial processes and day-to-day activities.

Source: The Indian Express

TARANGA HILL-AMBAJI-ABU ROAD

GS-III : Economic Issues Infrastructure

TARANGA HILL-AMBAJI-ABU ROAD

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the construction of the Taranga Hill-Ambaji- Abu Road new rail line which is to be constructed by the Ministry of Railways at an estimated cost of Rs 2798.16 crore. The total length of the new rail line will be 116.65 km and is expected to be completed by 2026-27

The route will go via Rajasthan's Sirohi district, as well as Gujarat's Banaskantha and Mahesana districts.

Significance of the project

  • It would enhance connectivity and improve mobility leading to the overall socio-economic development of that region.?
  • As it connects the important pilgrimage sites and hence, it will facilitate easy travel for millions of devotees.
  • It would also provide faster movement of agricultural and local goods, further it will enhance the connectivity between Gujarat and Rajasthan.?
  • It would provide the alternative route for the existing Ahmedabad-Abu Road railway line.

Important pilgrim site

  • Ambaji is a famous pilgrimage temple site which is located in Gujarat and is included in 51 Shaktipeeths.
  • It attracts millions of devotees from Gujarat as well as other parts of the country and abroad every year. Hence, this rail line will provide easy travel for these millions of devotees.
  • Further, the devotees would visit the Ajitnath Jain temple (one of the 24 holy Jain Tirthankaras) at Taranga Hill and would also be greatly benefitted from this rail connectivity.

Source: PIB

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