Many consular camps in Canada cancelled: India

Holding Canadian Authorities responsible for failing to provide "adequate security" to Indian diplomats and consular staff, India said it was cancelling several consular camps it had planned to help citizens of Indian origin with their documentation requirements. 

The decision comes days after violent clashes broke out between pro-Khalistani groups that targeted a temple complex and the Indian-origin community at a consular camp organised by Indian diplomats in the Canadian city of Brampton. 

The incident, which has led to a further escalation of tensions between India and Canada, was condemned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who called the "cowardly attempts" to intimidate Indian diplomats "appalling" and slammed the attack on the Hindu Sabha Temple. 

Bengaluru's first digital population clock to be inaugurated today

Bengaluru city's first digital population clock, which will display real-time estimates of the population of Karnataka and the country, will be inaugurated at the Institute for Social and Economic Change. 

The population clock, a project jointly taken up by ISEC and the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, would update the estimated Karnataka's population every minute 10 seconds and the country's population every two seconds. 

It has been set up at the entrance of ISEC with the objective of creating awareness about the population growth of the country and providing authentic data for researchers and scholars. 

All or any

That the Constitution has an economic philosophy rooted in socialist principles, mainly embodied in its Directive Principles of State Policy, is well understood. 

However, a question that has often arisen for judicial review concerns how far the state's obligation to subserve the common good and prevent the concentration of wealth and means of production can be allowed to go against the fundamental rights of individuals. 

The state's obligation to ensure that the ownership and control of "material resources of the community are so distributed as to subserve the common good" and to prevent the working of the economic system to the common detriment is found in Articles 39(b) and (c). 

All eyes on Baku and the climate finance goal

The new Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) will be a key determinant of COP29 (also touted as a 'finance COP') turning out to be successful. 

The foundation of climate finance actions is unequivocally centred on addressing the "needs and priorities of developing countries", as mandated in Article 9 of the Paris Agreement. 

NCQG is set to be finalised at COP29 and will shape the future of climate finance. COP29 is being held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from November 11 to 22, 2024. 

Can the state acquire all private property?

Article 39(b) provides that 'ownership and control of material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good. 

In the State of Karnataka versus Ranganatha Reddy (1977), Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer wrote a separate 'afterword' interpreting the phrase 'material resource of the community' contained in Article 39(b). 

He held that it embraces all national wealth, not merely natural resources, and all the private and public sources of meeting material needs. 

The current majority opinion (for seven judges including the CJI) held the interpretation of V.R. Krishna lyer, that every privately-owned property could be used by the state as a 'material resource' to 'subserve the common good', as a rigid economic ideology that advocates greater governmental control over private resources. 

Are CSR contributions to agriculture properly tracked?

Nearly 47% of the population depends on agriculture for employment, and the fraction of India's labour force in agriculture is significantly higher than the global average of 25%. 

According to an outlook report prepared by a CSR platform last year, 23% of companies surveyed had "environment and sustainability" as their CSR priority area. 

There is an important problem that hinders CSR's potential in agriculture: there is currently no way to fully determine the extent of funding going into these projects consistently and distinctively and to categorise them based on targeted sectors of CSR activities. 

'Rules cannot change midway through public services recruitment'

A five-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud held that the eligibility criteria, or the "rules of the game", for the selection of candidates to public services could not be changed midway once the recruitment commenced. 

"Eligibility criteria for being placed in the select list, notified at the commencement of the recruitment process, cannot be changed midway through the recruitment process unless the extant rules so permit, or the advertisement, which is not contrary to the extant rules, so permits," Justice Manoj Misra, who authored the judgment, concluded. 

The Constitution Bench held that the laws, rules and procedures governing recruitments to public services, both of the Union and the States, must be governed by the overarching principles of the fundamental rights of equality and non-discrimination. 

Air quality commission doubles fine on farmers for stubble burning

Following multiple raps by the Supreme Court for inadequately addressing stubble burning, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), based here and charged with addressing air pollution in the Delhi capital region and surrounding States, has doubled the fines applicable to farmers caught indulging in it, according to an order passed. 

Nodal or supervisory officers appointed by State governments in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, NCR areas of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh were "empowered" to impose and collect Environmental Compensation from farmers causing air pollution by stubble burning, as per "revised rates," the order notes. 

Removing bran on millets reduces the benefits of eating them: study

Removing the bran from millets results in decreasing the protein, dietary fibre, fat, mineral and phytate content in them while increasing the carbohydrates and amylose content, a recent paper in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Springer has shown. 

This could squander away the benefits of eating millet. 

The article, Impact of de-branning on the nutritional, cooking, and microstructural characteristics of five Indian small millets, by Shanmugam Shobana et al makes a case for consuming millets as whole grain without de-branning. 

"De-husked millets are nutritious and should be promoted in Indian diets to improve diet quality, de- branned millets are nutritionally inferior, and can increase the glycemic load of Indian diets," the authors say. 

India should be part of RCEP, CPTPP: NITI Aayog CEO B.V.R Subrahmanyam

India should be a part of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, NITI Aayog CEO B.V.R. Subrahmanyam said. 

India pulled out of the RCEP in 2019 after entering negotiations in 2013. 

The RCEP bloc comprises 10 ASEAN group members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam) and six FTA partners China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. 

"India is one of few countries which are not a part of large trade agreements. India should be a part of RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) and CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) and become a member," Mr Subrahmanyam said at an Assocham event.