MINISTRY OF INFORMATION & BROADCASTING
Ministry of I&B blocks 16 YouTube news channels for spreading disinformation related to India’s national security, foreign relations and public order ( APR 25, 2022 )
Utilizing the emergency powers under the IT Rules, 2021, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, 2021, vide two separate orders on 22.04.2022, issued directions for blocking of sixteen (16) YouTube based news channels and one (1) Facebook account.
The blocked social media accounts include six Pakistan based and ten India based YouTube news channels, having a cumulative viewership of over 68 crore. It was observed that these channels were used to spread fake news over social media on matters related to national security, India’s foreign relations, communal harmony in the country, and public order. None of the digital news publishers had furnished information to the Ministry as required under rule 18 of the IT Rules, 2021.
MINISTRY OF FINANCE
Importer in Kandla Heroin Case arrested by DRI ( APR 25, 2022 )
Based on intelligence developed jointly with officers of Gujarat ATS , the Officers of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) are currently examining a consignment, imported by an Uttarakhand based firm at Kandla Port. The consignment arrived at Kandla Port from Bander Abbas port, Iran. The consignment, imported in 17 containers (10,318 bags), has gross weight of 394 MT and was declared as “gypsum powder”. So far, 205.6 kg of heroin, valued at Rs. 1439 crores in illicit market, has been recovered. The detailed examination of the consignment is still undergoing at the port.
On the basis of enquiry done so far, DRI has arrested the said importer under the provisions of NDPS Act, 1985 and he has been produced before the Hon’ble Court of Special Duty Magistrate, Amritsar on 24.04.2022. The Court has granted transit remand to enable the DRI officers to produce the importer before the jurisdictional Court at Bhuj.
Further investigation in the case is under progress.
SUPREME COURT
Supreme Court to list pleas challenging Article 370 after summer vacation ( APR 25, 2022 )
The Supreme Court will hear a batch of petitions - challenging the law used to scrap Article 370 - after the summer holidays. Article 370, which gave special powers to Jammu and Kashmir, was scrapped in 2019 by the government as J&K was split into two union territories.
In 2019, several petitions challenging the Centre's decision to abrogate provisions of the Article and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which splits J-K into two Union Territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh -- were referred to a Constitution Bench headed by Justice N V Ramana in 2019 by the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi.
GEOPOLITICS
EU President Ursula von der Leyen addresses Raisina Dialogue in India ( APR 25, 2022 )
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that strengthening and energising its partnership with India is a priority in the upcoming decades, noting that the core principles that underpin peace and security across the world are at stake.
Highlighting the fact that for the European Union, strengthening and energising its partnership with India is a priority in the upcoming decades, she said, "Both the economies thrive in the world of common rules in a fair competition. We share the same interest and safe trading routes, seamless supply chains, and a free-and open Indo-Pacific."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, European Commission President and other dignitaries were present at the inaugural session of Raisina Dialogue 2022.
WORLD AFFAIRS
Supreme Court ( USA ) rejects World Bank coal case ( APR 25, 2022 )
The Supreme Court today turned down an appeal from a fishing community to review its lawsuit that seeks to hold an arm of the World Bank liable for environmental damage from a coal-fired power plant in India. Justices declined to take up the Indian villagers’ request to hear Budha Ismail Jam v. International Finance Corp., in which lower courts found that the IFC was shielded from the lawsuit under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which protects international corporations from being challenged in American courts for their conduct overseas.
Budha Ismail Jam and other residents of a fishing village on India’s Gujarat coast originally sued the IFC, which is part of the World Bank, in 2015. The challengers argued that the international bank had funded the Tata Mundra coal-fired power plant without ensuring that the facility would comply with environmental standards. As a result, the villagers alleged, the plant polluted nearby water, decimating their fishing catches. They also complained of respiratory problems from years of breathing the plant’s airborne ash.
WORD OF THE DAY
The Raisina Dialogue, which started in 2016, is India's premier conference on geopolitics and geo economics committed to addressing the most challenging issues facing the global community. The conference is organised by MEA in collaboration with the Observer Research Foundation (ORF).
The Raisina Dialogue 2022, based on the theme "Terranova- Impassioned, Impatient, Imperilled", will be modelled along six thematic pillars --
- Rethinking Democracy: trade, technology and ideology;
- End of Multilateralism: a networked global order;
- Water Caucuses: turbulent tides in the Indo-Pacific;
- Communities Inc: first responders to health, development, and planet;
- Achieving Green Transitions: common imperative, diverging realities;
- Samson vs Goliath: the persistent and relentless technology wars.
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