THE HINDU 26/11/22 BY: SANJAY KUMAR SAH

 1 :-GOVERNMENT FORMS PANEL TO LOOK INTO "MGNREGA'S" EFFICACY:-

                 Pg no. 1 GS 3 

 • Poorer States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar haven’t been able to use the scheme optimally to alleviate poverty, while economically betteroff States like Kerala use it as an asset creation tool, say officials

• The Central government has constituted a committee to review the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme, especially to assess the programme’s efficacy as a poverty alleviation tool

. • The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was passed in 2005, and the scheme guarantees 100 days of unskilled work per year for every rural household that wants it. Currently, 15.51 crore active workers are enrolled in the scheme. About MGNREGA 

•The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), also known as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) is Indian legislation enacted on August 25, 2005.

 •The MGNREGA provides a legal guarantee for one hundred days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage.

 •The Ministry of Rural Development (MRD), Govt of India is monitoring the entire implementation of this scheme in association with state governments.

 •This act was introduced with an aim of improving the purchasing power of the rural people, primarily semi or un-skilled work to people living below poverty line in rural India.

2:-STATES ASK CENTRE TO REIN IN RELIANCE ON SURCHARGES, CESS WHILE RAISING REVENUE;-

                         Pg no. 1 GS 2,3

 • Several States, including some governed by the BJP, on Friday urged the Centre to rein in its reliance on raising revenues through cesses and surcharges that reduce their share in the divisible pool of taxes.

 • They also sought greater fiscal support to help revive the economy and reiterated demands for extending the Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation period.

 • Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan noted that the share of cesses and surcharges had grown from 10.4% of gross tax revenue in 2011-12 to 26.7% in 2021-22. “This has deprived the States of their legitimate share of revenue collected by the Union Government. I exhort the Union Government to merge the cesses and surcharges into the basic rates of tax so that the States receive their legitimate share in devolution,” he submitted.

 Article 270 of the Constitution allows cess to be excluded from the purview of the divisible pool of taxes that the Union government must share with the States. The states’ share of central taxes has been hovering in the range of 29- 32 per cent since financial year 2020-21 (FY21), when it should have been 41 per cent in line with the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission. Cess? Different from the usual taxes and duties like excise and personal income tax, a Cess is imposed as an additional tax besides the existing tax (tax on tax) with a purpose of raising funds for a specific task.

3:- SUPREME COURT SEEKS GOVERNMENT'S VIEW ON ALLOWING SAME-SEX MARRIAGE:-

       • The Supreme Court on Friday sought the government’s response to pleas to allow solemnisation of same-sex marriage under the Special Marriage Act.

 • The Special Marriage Act of 1954 provides a civil form of marriage for couples who cannot marry under their personal law.

 • enior advocates Mukul Rohatgi, Neeraj Kishan Kaul, Menaka Guruswamy and advocate Arundhati Katju argued that this was a sequel to the 2018 Constitution Bench judgment in the Navtej Johar case in which homosexuality was decriminalised. “A plethora of living issues arise out of this case… Your Lordships have also upheld privacy as a constitutional right in the Puttaswamy case,” Mr. Rohatgi said.

 • The petitioners said the 1954 Act should grant same-sex couples the same protection it allowed inter-caste and inter-faith couples who want to marry. 

What is Special Marriage Act of 1954?

 The SMA is a law which allows solemnization of marriages without going through any religious customs or rituals. People from different castes or religions or states get married under SMA in which marriage is solemnized by way of registration.

 •The prime purpose of the Act was to address Inter-religious marriages and to establish marriage as a secular institution bereft of all religious formalities, which required registration alone.

4:- COP -27 AND THE AMBIGUITY ABOUT RESPONSIBILITY::-

       This year, at COP27 in Egypt, a dizzying array of topics was on the table for discussion —

 from the more familiar emissions reductions to the more detailed rules to govern carbon markets. But of significance to developing countries, India included, are the stories to do with climate finance.

 • As developing countries have rising energy needs and vulnerable populations, they need financial support for low-carbon transformations, building resilience to inevitable climate impacts, and other steep challenges, important among these being loss and damage (L and D) from climate-induced impacts. Possibly the biggest headline after COP27 was the establishment of a new L and D fund.

 • But it excludes mention of historic responsibility and the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR). What is more, there is no clear indication that the fund will be paid for by developed countries. 

• In 2009, developed countries had promised developing countries $100 billion in climate finance annually by 2020, which still remains unmet. 

• With the new L and D fund, the line between victim and perpetrator has been blurred. But given that all the practical mechanisms of the fund are yet to be decided, it will be interesting to see if developing countries can, in future negotiations, redraw the lines of responsibility, and perhaps even liability.

5:- THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA DESERVE BETTER:-

GS 2

 • The Constitution of India was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949 for ‘We the people of India’. After being unnoticed for long, the day began to be celebrated as Constitution Day since 2015. This day is indeed a historic day for the nation, with the framing of a Constitution for the governance of independent India.

 • For example, if we pose a question about the level of awareness about the Constitution among ‘we the people’, the answer may not be encouraging. It is understandable if unlettered people are not aware of the Constitution. But the situation is not much different among the educated sections either, despite the fact that the Constitution is an integral part of our life.

 • The Constitution is a holistic doctrine. Rights bring responsibilities with them. There is a chapter on Fundamental Duties in Part IVA of the Constitution.

 • Article 15 says: “The state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.” How beautiful this sentence would have read had “The state” been replaced by society.

 • Unfortunately, there is hardly any focus on the Constitution at the school level, not to speak of tertiary education. The Constitution should get due recognition across the educational system. Celebrating November 26 as Constitution Day is fine, but we should not restrict ourselves to symbolism. We should look at the substantive issues dealt with by the Constitution, thereby enriching our life.

 • Our ancient texts teach us that Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, which means the entire humanity, is one large family. Every man is related to every other person. We should first learn to treat fellow Indians as a fraternity. We will know this only if we care to open the first page of the Constitution. For this we need a copy of the Constitution. And it costs less than a movie ticket these days.

6:- INDIANS RECEIVED THE BIGGEST SHARE OF U.K. WORK VISAS :-

         REPORT:- PAGE 11, GS-2

• Indian nationals received the largest number — 39% — of the total workrelated visas granted by the United Kingdom for the year ending September 2022, an announcement from the British government has said. Of the total 1,45,258 work-related visas issued by the U.K., Indians received 56,042, a jump of 90% in comparison to the pre-pandemic figure of 29,552 in 2019.

 • Apart from India, the Philippines, Nigeria, and the United States were among the other top visa-seeking nations seeking work visas.

 • The sharp rise in the demand for the work visas is being explained by the postpandemic recovery, which has settled in most of the major economies across the world.

 • Indians also featured in the top three nationalities that were granted ‘Skilled Worker’ visas from the U.K. The other two nations that received similar visas were the United States and South Africa.

7:- ANGER GROWS IN CHINA OVER TIGHTENING COVID LOCKDOWNS.

    Pg no. 11 GS 2 

 • More cities in China imposed partial lockdowns on Friday as COVID-19 cases soared to the highest since the pandemic, bringing fresh restrictions for a weary Chinese public. 

• The National Health Commission on Friday reported 32,695 cases, beating Thursday’s record, which was itself the highest number since April when Shanghai was under a two month-long lockdown

. • Beijing, reported 1,860 of those cases, and on Friday resembled a ghost town with an increasing number of residential complexes locked down. Offices have been told to close, most schools have shifted to virtual learning, and e-commerce apps struggled to fulfill orders for groceries, bringing back memories of the early days of the pandemic in 2020.