Panel to hear appeals on social media posts
- The government has proposed a new panel that will have the power to overturn the decisions related to content moderation and takedown reached by social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, following appeals by users.
- As per the draft of the proposed amendments to the IT Rules, 2021, the Centre will constitute one or more “grievance appellate committees” to deal with appeals by users against the decision of the grievance officer appointed by the social media intermediary.
- The amendments state that any person aggrieved by an order of the grievance officer appointed by a social media network may appeal to the grievance appellate committee within 30 days of receipt of communication from grievance officer.
- “The Grievance Appellate Committee shall deal with such appeal expeditiously and shall make an endeavour to dispose of the appeal finally within 30 calendar days from the date of receipt of the appeal,” it states.
- It further adds that, “Every order passed by the Grievance Appellate Committee shall be complied with by the intermediary concerned”.
- The committee will consist of a chairperson and other members appointed by the Central government.
A critical juncture
- Recently, the Centre said it has released States’ outstanding GST compensation dues of almost ₹87,000 crore.
- The move marks a shift in stance as just a month earlier, the Finance Ministry had signalled that States’ dues worth over ₹78,000 crore, pending for the last four months of 2021-22, will be released ‘as and when’ adequate GST compensation cess collections accrue.
- By May 31, the Centre said there was about ₹25,000 crore in the GST compensation fund and forked out the balance from its own coffers to be adjusted from future GST cess levies on sin goods, such as cars.
- The stated intent for this changed strategy makes eminent sense — to help States manage their resources and ensure spending, particularly of the capital variety to pump prime the economy, happens smoothly through 2022-23.
- States have been anxious about revenue inflows once the five-year GST compensation window expires this month.
- The gesture to remit dues without waiting for cess accruals will also help cool the temperature of the Centre-States’ fiscal parleys, that flared up afresh after some tangential remarks from the apex court on the nature of the GST Council’s recommendations.
- For consumers, this could mean a further extension in the levy of GST compensation cess beyond March 2026 — by when borrowings made over the past two years to bridge shortfalls in cess collections, were to be repaid.
- The other important implication is that over April and May, the gap between revenues and the assured level promised to States under the GST compensation compact has narrowed to less than ₹5,000 crore a month, from over ₹19,600 crore averaged in the previous four months.
- The record GST collection of over ₹1.67 lakh crore in April helped, no doubt, and although May revenues have fallen 15.9% to ₹1.41 lakh crore, sustaining this two-month average could ease fiscal worries for both the Centre and the States. The Government, which had termed April revenues (for transactions in March) a reflection of a ‘faster’ recovery, suggested that the financial year end boosted those inflows, seeking to explain the dip in May.
Crude Oil production in India
No respite for people booked under UAPA
- The Supreme Court’s freeze on sedition proceedings under the colonial Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code seems to have not yet made a ripple on the ground for persons who have also been charged under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) of 1967 in the same case or separately.
- The effect of the apex court’s May 11 order to keep in abeyance the use of the colonial provision of Section 124A has not transformed into bail for journalist Siddique Kappan and activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, who also face charges under the UAPA.
- The Supreme Court, while suspending criminal trials and court proceedings under Section 124A, had made it clear that adjudication with respect to other sections of law, if any, would proceed if the court concerned was “of the opinion that no prejudice would be caused to the accused”.
- The Home Ministry is reported to have said in Parliament last year that nearly 53% of persons arrested under the UAPA in 2018, 2019 and 2020 were below the age of 30.
- An amendment made in 2019 has made the Act even more powerful.
- Now it can designate individuals, and not just associations, as ‘terrorists’. The Supreme Court’s judgment in National Investigation Agency versus Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali in 2019 has also made bail in a UAPA case a virtually insurmountable task.
- The judgment has confirmed the “high burden” placed by Section 43D(5) of UAPA on an accused to demonstrate that the prosecution’s charges against him were not based on “reasonable grounds”.
- It has held that a trial court could reject bail on finding that the relevant material produced by the investigating agency was “indicative of the fact that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation is prima facie true”.
- So, as far as persons facing both Section 124A and UAPA charges in the same case or variously, the suspension of the Section 124A, though a great relief, would hardly lead to freedom. Continued incarceration under the post¬colonial UAPA may be their reality.
- This is when the almost non¬existent chance of bail under UAPA seems to violate the principle of the SC’s own 1977 judgment in State Of Rajasthan vs Balchand, which had held that bail, and not jail, should be the norm.
India, Israel seek links on futuristic defence tech
- Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his visiting Israeli counterpart Benny Gantz on Thursday discussed partnerships within the government¬to-government framework, military training, and technological cooperation with a focus on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and defensive capabilities.
- A Letter of Intent on enhancing cooperation in the field of futuristic defence technologies was also exchanged between the two Ministers, a Defence Ministry statement said.
- The Ministers also discussed a cooperation agreement signed between the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Israel’s Directorate for Defence R&D. The Ministers declared their intention to further develop defence cooperation in a manner that harnesses Israel’s “technological advance and operational experience”, together with India’s “extraordinary development and production capabilities”, the statement said.
Liquid mirror telescope in Devasthal sees first light
- The four¬metre International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) saw the first light recently, gazing out from its vantage on Devasthal, a hill in Uttarakhand, into the deep sky.
- The telescope, staring at the sky overhead, will make sky surveys possible and obtain images that can help observe transient phenomena such as supernovae and record the presence of space debris or meteorites — basically, watch the skies.
- The telescope has been built by a collaboration of scientists from Canada, Belgium and India. It is located at an altitude of 2,450 metres on the Devasthal Observatory campus of the Aryabhata Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) in Nainital district, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
- A large pool of mercury placed in a vessel is spun around so fast that it curves into a parabolic shape. Since mercury is reflective, this shape helps in focusing the reflected light.
- A thin sheet of mylar protects the mercury from the wind.
- The first image made by the telescope consisted of several stars and a galaxy, NGC 4274, which is 45 million light years away. The telescope, having a primary mirror that is liquid, cannot be turned and pointed in any direction.
- It “stares” at the zenith and watches the sky as the earth rotates, thereby giving a view of different objects. This property can be used to scan and survey the sky, observe transients and moving objects such as meteorites. It will work in tandem with the existing 3.6¬metre Devasthal Optical Telescope.
- Once it starts making observations, the telescope will collect gigabytes of data, which will need to be analysed using artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI and ML) tools.
- “In a night’s observation, it will make thousands of images which cannot be analysed by just looking at them. We will need to develop and train AI and ML tools to do this,” says Dipankar Banerjee, Director of the ARIES Observatory.
- With the monsoon expected soon in the area, the real observations may start only in October, after the rains, according to Dr. Banerjee.
Trade deficit widened to a record $23.33 bn last month
- India’s merchandise trade deficit widened to a record $23.33 billion in May, as exports grew 15.5% to $37.3 billion while imports jumped 56.1% to $60.62 billion, preliminary data from the Commerce and Industry Ministry show.
- The previous highest monthly trade deficit was November’s $22.91 billion. Goods exports shrank 7.2% from April’s $40.19 billion, resulting in the trade deficit for the first two months of 2022¬23 widening to $41.73 billion. The figure for April¬May 2021 was $21.82 billion.
- While petroleum exports, which surged 52.7% from May 2021, electronics (41.5%) and readymade textile garments (22.9%), led the export growth, the overall growth rate almost halved to an 8.1% pace once petroleum exports were excluded.
- May’s 15.5% pace was also the slowest in 15 months.
- This is the third month in a row that merchandise imports have crossed $60 billion, thanks to elevated commodity and oil prices amid the festering Russia¬Ukraine conflict. Gold imports shot up almost ninefold year-on year to cross $5.8 billion. ‘Growth to moderate’
- “With base effects catching up, the pace of growth of goods exports and then later, imports, is likely to moderate, while remaining high in absolute terms as commodity prices are seeing a renewed uptick,” said ICRA chief economist Aditi Nayar. “
- Petroleum imports almost doubled to $18.1 billion while coal imports more than doubled from May 2021 levels to $5.33 billion.
Retailers flag ‘under recoveries’ on petrol, diesel sales: Puri
With fuel prices remaining unchanged for almost two months despite a rise in costs, oil companies have started detailing under¬recoveries, or losses, which are as high as ₹17.1 per litre on petrol and ₹20.4 on diesel
Saudiled OPEC backs bigger output boost
Major oil producers led by Saudi Arabia and Russia decided to open taps wider than expected amid soaring prices and hard on the heels of an EU ban on Russian oil imports.
Analysts had expected OPEC+ producers to stick to their policy of modest output increases. However, pressure has been rising for the 23¬strong cartel to boost output and seek to stabilise prices, which have surged since Russia invaded Ukraine.
“The meeting highlighted the importance of stable and balanced markets,” OPEC said in a statement, adding they will add 6,48,000 barrels per day to the market in July.
