Category Politics & Parliaments

The Union Cabinet on Dec 28, 2018 approved amendments to strengthen the POSCO Act and included death penalty for aggravated sexual assault on children, besides providing stringent punishments for other crimes against those aged below 18. The Protection of Children from sexual offences (Amendment) Bill, POSCO, 2019 was passed by Parliament on Aug 1, 2019. It seeks to enhance punishment for sexual offences against children, with a provision of death penalty.

Sections 14 and 15 of the POCSO Act, 2012 are also proposed to be amended to address the menace of the child pornography. It is proposed to levy fine for not destroying or deleting or reporting the pornographic material involving a child, the statement said. The offender can be further penalized with jail term or fine or both for transmitting propagating administrating such material in any manner except for the purpose of reporting as may be prescribed and for use as evidence in court. “Penal provisions have been made more stringent for storing/possessing any pornographic material in any form involving a child for commercial purpose,” the official statement said.

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Tension between India and China escalated over the disputed Doklam on June 16, 2017, When Chinese troops tried to extend a border road through the Doklam area. Indian troops objected to it and the stand-off continued for a couple of months till Aug 28. The stand-off was resolved following mutual withdrawal of troops. The Indian Army is planning to institutionalise the key war committee that was created during the Doklam stand-off. Doklam is an area with a narrow plateau and a valley lying on the Bhutan-China border, near India. An area of strategic importance to all three countries, Doklam in Western Bhutan is disputed between China and Bhutan. India supports Bhutan’s claim.

The Bhutanese government told China that “the construction of the road inside Bhutanese territory is a direct violation of the agreements and affects the process of demarcating the boundary between our two countries.” On June 30, the Ministry of External Affairs said: “Such construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India.”

The Chinese government released a map to accuse India of trespassing into its territory, and in a detailed statement in the first week of August, it said “India has no right to interfere in or impede the boundary talks between China and Bhutan.”

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The Goods and Services Tax, which came into effect on July 1, 2017, is an indirect tax levied on the supply of goods and services across the country. Simply put, it is one uniform indirect tax for the entire country. A comprehensive tax, it has done away with cascading taxes and consolidated Central and State levies. Under the GST, the customer is in a position to source from any supplier and the latter is in a position to access markets across the country.

GST would be levied on the basis of the destination principle. Exports would be zero-rated, and imports would attract tax in the same manner as domestic goods and services. In addition to the IGST in respect of supply of goods, an additional tax of up to 1% has been proposed to be levied by the central government. The revenue from this tax is to be assigned to the origin states. This tax is proposed to be levied for the first two years or a longer period, as recommended by the GST Council.

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For the first time, the annual budget for the Union Government was presented on February 1, 2017, a month earlier than usual, by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Lok Sabha. Also, the 92-years-old tradition of presenting the Railway budget ahead of the general budget was discontinued and the Railway budget was merged into the general budget. The decision was taken as part of the government’s budgetary reforms. According to a NITI Aayog report, as the size of the Railway budget had shrunken compared to the general budget, a separate Railway budget was not required.

 This was the largest allocation in the history of Indian Railways. This was a historic moment for the Indian Railways. In the budget of 2017, Jaitley paid special attention to passenger safety, development works, cleanliness and finance and accounting reforms. At the same time, in an unprecedented initiative, Jaitley also proposed listing of railway subsidiaries like IRCTC, IRCON and IRFC in the market.

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The past decade witnessed several protests by the people for a variety of reasons.

2011: When anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare began a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar on April 5, 2011, it led to the resignation of Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar from the group of ministers charged with reviewing the draft Jan Lokpal Bill.

2017: On January 8, 2017, the people of Tamil Nadu erupted in protest against a Supreme Court ban on Jallikattu following complaints of animal cruelty. Contending that the traditional bull-taming sport is quintessential to their cultural identity, people from all walks of life converged near Chennai’s Marina to express solidarity with the protesters. The protests gained momentum and soon spread all over the state. The Tamil Nadu government legalized Jallikattu on January 23, 2017.

2018: Thousand of farmers across the country began their march to Parliament on Nov. 30, 2018 to highlight the worsening agrarian crisis. They wanted their demands – better crop prices, drought relief and loan waivers- discussed in the winter session that year.

2019: Protests continue to rage in the country following the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in December 2019 and the proposed pan-India NRC.

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In September 2016, India inked a deal with France’s Dassault Aviation for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets as an estimated cost of Rs 59,000 crore or 7.8 billion. The original plan of the previous UPA govt was to buy 126 jets of which 18 would be in flyaway condition and the rest would be assembled in India by the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL). However, the deal fell through. In order to upgrade the ageing fleet of the IAF, the Modi government entered into the new deal for jets with India-specific enhancements. Besides, an offset clause was added under which France would invest 30% of the 7.8 billion in India’s military aerospace research programmes and 20% into local production of Rafale components. Ever since, questions were raised about the cost agreed upon for the aircraft, violation of procurement procedures, and the choice of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence Ltd as an offset partner over the experienced HAL. However, in December 2019, the Supreme Court dismissed all petitions alleging irregularities in the deal. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh received the first of the 36 jets at a ceremony in Paris on October 8, 2019.

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