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In an effort to ensure timely disposal of criminal cases, the Ministry of Home Affairs’ e-prosecution portal has added a new feature that will fix accountability on government lawyers.
The system will send alerts to senior officers whenever a public prosecutor seeks a stay in a criminal case more than twice, a senior government official said.
The e-prosecution module is part of the Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) that links and enables seamless transfer of data and information among different pillars of the criminal justice system — such as courts, police, jails and forensic science labs — from one platform.
The module has been implemented in 751 prosecution districts, and software configuration for the remaining 153 districts is on.
Earlier, the main pillars of the ICJS were developed independently in the form of the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System.
This system connects over 16,000 police stations and has a database of 28.98 crore police records that can only be accessed by law enforcement agencies and the judiciary.
The MHA has been emphasising on investigations based on forensics to improve the conviction rate. Meanwhile, the National Informatics Centre is in the process of integrating the module directly with e-courts.
If a public prosecutor demands adjournment, the system generates alerts. The issue will be flagged to the stakeholders immediately. The senior officers will be alerted and measures can be taken so that the trial is not delayed.
The Ministry also tracks investigations into sexual assault cases in the country every two months through its analytics tool — the Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences.
States
Jivhala loan scheme offers aid for life-term inmates of Yerwada jail (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Welfare Schemes)
There wasn’t a day that passed by without worry for Usha Kokade with her teenage daughter having to use the public toilet in Pune’s Dhule basti. Relief came when the 47-year-old house help started living with her sister after her husband was arrested on charges of murder in October 2015. For the first time in her life, the house came with a toilet.
However, she wanted for her family to live in a house of her own. What helped this dream was the Uddhav Thackeray led government’s initiative last May — Jivhala, a credit scheme that offers a loan of ₹50,000 to a felon serving a life sentence at Yerwada Central jail in Pune. Sanjay, Ms. Kokade’s husband, was one such inmate.
Ms. Kokade applied for the loan offered by the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank with 7% interest rate; 1% of the interest earned by the bank will go to the Prisoner Welfare Fund.
This one-of-a kind mortgage requires no guarantor or collateral. With this money, she was able to build a small kaccha house with an attached toilet/bathroom.
For Datta Pansare, a peon at a small firm in Amravati and the sole bread winner of a family of four, the loan was what helped him out of unexpected financial constraints. Sanctioned for his brother Navrath, the loan helped him manage the medical expenses of his elderly parents.
In such ways, the loan has benefited a number of prisoners and their families. “Most of the convicts who are serving life imprisonment are the sole breadwinners of the family.
When such prisoners have to stay in prison for a long time, their entire family faces a lot of problems such as depression, sense of guilt, loss of sensitivity and the feeling that the person who went to prison has failed in family duty.
In such a situation, the inmate can apply for this loan to support his family from jail,” Shahu Darade, Mahrashtra Prison Department spokesperson.
The scheme that was launched on May 1, 2022, has helped 18 prisoners fund their children’s education, pay medical bills or lawyers’ fees.
The Prison Superintendent does all the paperwork and makes an application on behalf of the prisoner concerned. Bank officials visit the family to verify details. Then, the money is transferred to the inmate’s account. He repays the loan with what he earns in prison.
Editorial
A reminder about unfettered constitutional posts (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Two recent comments of the Supreme Court of India will have direct bearing on the concept of the independence of various constitutional authorities in India.
In a hearing of the ‘Sena versus Sena’ case, the Court expressed its “serious concern” over the active role being played by Governors in State politics, observing that Governors becoming part of political processes is disconcerting.
And, earlier, taking an important step in ensuring independence of the Election Commission of India, the Court divested the executive of its sole discretion in appointing the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners (ECs) by forming a committee to suggest suitable names to man these constitutional posts.
A democracy requires a system of checks and balances to prevent the arbitrary use of power by the elected government of the day.
India’s democracy provides for various constitutional authorities such as the Public Service Commission, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), the ECI, the Finance Commission and the National Commissions for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Backward Classes (BC), etc.
The Constituent Assembly of India had recognised the need for such independent institutions to regulate sectors of national importance without any executive interference.
It is necessary that such constitutional bodies are provided with complete independence to enable them to function without fear or favour and in the larger interests of the nation.
It is towards this concept of clothing them with independence that the Constitution provides for the manner in which individuals heading these institutions are to be appointed.
An essential attribute of independence is about not being influenced by any vested interest and the ability to withstand pressure from the executive.
While empowering the President of India to appoint all constitutional authorities, the Constitution-makers had kept in mind those institutions whose independence is of paramount importance to the country and the manner in which the independence of these authorities could be safeguarded from the whims of the executive. A study of various provisions in the Constitution regarding India’s constitutional authorities is revealing.
PM grooves to Bihu beats in Assam (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 1, Art and Culture)
Exactly 24 hours after creating two world records, more than 11,200 Bihu performers did an embellished encore.
The repeat performance was not just for the formal handing over of the certificates of record by a representative of the Guinness World Records.
It was for the special guests to whom the certificates were given — Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma — at the Sarusajai Stadium in Guwahati.
The first record created was for “the largest Bihu performance at a single venue” by 11,298 performers — women dancers in colourful mekhela chadors and male drummers, gogona or jaw harp and pepa or buffalo hornpipe players.
The second was for the largest dhol recital by 3,000 drummers at the same venue. “The record-breaking Bihu performance was aimed at taking our indigenous cultures to the world stage.
The occasion has been made special by the presence of Narendra Modi dangoria (honorific equivalent to ji),” Mr. Sarma said. Mr. Modi did not just groove from the dais, clapping to the drumbeats. He moved around the venue in a modified battery-operated vehicle and interacted with some Bihu dancers.
Bihu is a symbol of unity and of the synchronicity between human beings and nature,” he said, extolling Assam for the gamosa (woven scarf towel), unique silken attires, cuisine, and organic farm produce, some of which have received geographic indications.
News
NISAR satellite to map Himalayas’ seismic zones (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
A forthcoming satellite, NISAR, jointly developed the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the U.S. will map the most earthquake-prone regions in the Himalayas with unprecedented regularity.
The data this will generate can potentially give advance warning of land subsidence, as recently observed in Joshimath, Uttarakhand, as well point to places that are at greatest risk from earthquakes.
The NISAR satellite, expected to cost approximately $900 million (with ISRO contributing about one-tenth) will use two frequency bands: the L-band and S-band to image the seismically active Himalayan region that will, every 12 days, create a “deformation map”, said Prakash Chauhan, Director, ISRO-National Remote Sensing Centre at a seminar here this week.
The geoscience community can use this to determine the how strain is building up in various parts of the Himalayas.
These two frequency bands will together provide high-resolution, all-weather data from the satellite that is expected to follow a sun-synchronous orbit and will be launched in January 2024.
Scientists from the Geological Survey of India in 2021 published a “strain map” of the Himalayas based on data from 1,252 GPS stations along the Himalayas.
While satellite imagery to study deformation in land is already employed, the frequency at which observations are taken and the clarity of the images are critical, V.K. Gahalaut, of the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI).
With a frequency of 12 days and the ability to be able to provide images even under cloudy conditions, NISAR would be a valuable tool to study deformation patterns, such as in Joshimath.
Business
Textile, apparel exports decline 14% (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Textile and apparel exports contracted 14% in 2022-2023 compared with the previous year. At $41.3 billion exports in 2021-2022, textiles and apparel constituted 9.79% of total goods exports. However, in 2022-2023, the segment recorded exports of $35.5 billion and constituted just 7.95% of goods exports.
While apparel exports grew 1.1% last financial year ($16.1 billion) compared with the previous year ($16.01 billion), textile exports shrank 23.3% to $19.3 billion last fiscal. Meanwhile import of yarn, fabrics and made-ups rose 26.7%.
According to Siddhartha Rajagopal, executive director of Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council, “It was an exceptional (bad) year for cotton textiles.
However, in March 2023, cotton textile exports crossed $1 billion, which is giving hope. It is an encouraging sign and the hope [is that] the momentum will be maintained.”
Mr. Rajagopal said a couple of factors that affected exports this year were the huge inventory that was with the international buyers and the high cotton prices in India last year.
The inventory with buyers had affected orders to countries such as Bangladesh too. Now, the buyers are resuming sourcing for their needs.
Industry sources here added that there should be a stable raw material policy - be it for cotton or manmade fibres. There should not be any restriction on raw materials.
Naren Goenka, chairman of Apparel Export Promotion Council, said in a press release that India had ramped up its global apparel exports in 2022-2023 despite the Russia-Ukraine war, sluggish demand in major garment importing countries, stiff competition by other major apparel manufacturing countries, and volatility in raw material prices in the beginning of the year.