Addapedia Odisha | Daily Current Affairs | 13 December 2023 | Download PDF

• A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the power of the President to abrogate special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
• This was done under Article 370 of the Constitution,leading to the reorganization of the full fledged State to two Union Territories and the removal of its privileges.

About special status of J&K

• On 5th August 2019, the President of India in the exercise of the powers conferred by Article 370(1) of the Constitution issued the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019.
• Through this, the Government of India has made modifications to Article 370 itself (not revoked it).
• The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019 has replaced the Presidential Order of 1954.
• Subsequently, the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019, passed by Parliament divides the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two new Union Territories (UTs): Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh.
• This was further challenged in the supreme court.

Important articles:-

• Article 370 under Part XXI empowers Jammu & Kashmir to have its own constitution. 
• It grants autonomous status to J&K. 
• It restricts Parliament’s legislative powers in respect of J&K. 
• Article 35A, incorporated into the Constitution in 1954, provides special rights and privileges to the citizens of the state. 
• Article 35A gives the Jammu & Kashmir Legislature full discretionary power to decide who the ‘permanent residents’ of the state are. 

Recently,the Patna High Court has nullified a forced marriage, commonly referred to as “pakadwa vivah,” which occurred a decade ago.

About

• It is a traditional practice in the state of Bihar.
• In ‘Pakadwa Vivah’, neither the consent of the boy nor the girl is taken for marriage. Boys are taken hostage by kidnapping or coaxing and then married to a girl as per customs and traditions. 
• In this, the wishes of the boy and girl, who become bride and groom, have no importance

• A documentary on Oscar award winning lyricist Subhash Chandrabose has won an award at 12th Mumbai Shorts International Film Festival. 
• He is famous for the ‘Naatu Naatu’ song from the Telugu movie RRR

Key points

• • The documentary, produced and directed by senior journalist Chilkuri Sushil Rao was given a special mention award at the festival
• Mr. Chandrabose won the Oscar for Best Original Song at the 95th Academy Awards.

• Web browsers is an application that people use to send and receive messages via the internet. 
• In other words, the browser is a program that runs on your device, with its purpose being to fetch information in different formats from the internet and show it on the device. 
• It also does the reverse, receiving your input (say, a click), translating it to code, and transmitting it to some other machine across the internet.

• Tata Power EV Charging Solutions Ltd. and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL) have signed a memorandum of understanding(MoU) 
• It is to roll out fast and ultrafast electric vehicle(EV) charging points across the country.

Key points

• Tata Power would install more than 500 EV charging points across multiple IOCL retail outlets to help alleviate range anxiety for EV owners travelling betwen cities.
• This will contribute to accessibility and inclusivity for a sustainable electric mobility future

• A paper published by scientists and researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc),Bengaluru highlighted that natural vegetation on nearly 12,850 sq. km of land in the Cauvery basin was lost in the 50 years from 1965 to 2016. 

Key points

• Karnataka has lost much more than any other State in the basin. 
• It accounts for three fourths of the lost cover, while Tamil Nadu’s share is around one fifth.
• The natural vegetation cover went down by around 46%
• The quantum of reduction of dense vegetation was 35%  and that of degraded vegetation, 63% 
• Areas that suffered adverse changes in the extent of forest cover include the Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary, Bandipur National Park, Nagarhole National Park and the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary. 

• Vishnu Deo Sai has been chosen as new Chhattisgarh CM
• He will be the first tribal leader to hold the post. 
• He is also the first to hail from a region beyond the Other Backward Class dominated central plains in Chhattisgarh’s 23year old history.

• Writer Mahasweta Sahu has been selected for the 16th ‘Timepass Booker Puraskar’ for her short story manuscript “Octopusra Atma”
• Also, Saral Kumar Das will be conferred “Timepass Bahibandhu Samman” for his dedication to promote Odia literature and books.
• The prize will be presented during a literary festival and the winning manuscript will be published as a book.

• Kisan Congress, the farmers’ wing of the Congress party, will launch a month-long “Mandi Chalo Abhiyan” (march to mandi campaign)
• The farmers across the state will participate in the campaign to press their 17-point charter of demands.

Key points

• The Kisan Congress demanded an increase in paddy procurement price to Rs 2930 per quintal and ensured payment of minimum support price to them.
• payment of Rs 600 per quintal as bonus is their another demand
• Their other demands include procurement of paddy discolored due to untimely rain, installation of CCTV cameras in every procurement center, preventing the rice millers from entering the mandis for any reasons other than procurement of paddy, increasing farm input subsidy by one and a half times, payment of compensation of Rs 25,000 to the farmers sustaining crop loss, waiver of crop loan and special incentives to the farmers.

• The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has decided to extend the services of two special trains
• This is done in view of demands from public and to clear additional rush in regular trains
• The three trains will be 
• Puri-Patna Weekly Special
• Patna-Puri Weekly Special
• Bhubaneswar-Dhanbad Daily Special

• Hindalco Industries has planned to significantly expand its manufacturing capacity of fine quality aluminium foil.
• This will be used in rechargeable batteries to serve the rapidly growing market for electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage systems. 

Key points

• The company is investing Rs.800 crore to build a new plant near Sambalpur in Odisha that will initially produce 25,000 tonnes of the resilient product which forms the backbone of Lithium-ion and Sodium-ion cells.
• The factory will be located alongside a 25 MW solar power plant, and can access additional solar energy from a 400 KV National Grid connection

• The Odisha Government will provide bus service from all district headquarters to Puri town soon
• The buses will ply between the district headquarters and Puri via Bhubaneswar under the LAccMI scheme of the government.
• This is to facilitate the transportation of the devotees across the state to Puri for darshan of the deities.

Think: LAccMI scheme

( Already discussed in previous Addapedia)

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