EC announces schedule for presidential elections

• The term of office of Shri Ram Nath Kovind, President of India, is ending on 24th July, 2022.
• As per Article 62 of the Constitution of India, an election to fill the vacancy caused by the expiration of the term of office of the outgoing President is required to be completed before the expiration of the term.
• Article 324 of the Constitution read with the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952, and the Presidential and Vice – Presidential Elections Rules, 1974 vests the superintendence, direction and control of the conduct of election to the office of the President of India in the Election Commission of India.
• As per the Article 54 of the Constitution of India, the President is elected by the members of the Electoral College consisting of:
  • elected members of both Houses of Parliament, and
  • elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of all States including National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union Territory of Puducherry
• Nominated members of Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha and the Assemblies, and members of state Legislative Councils, are not part of the electoral college.
• Article 55 (3) of the Constitution provides that the election shall be held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote and the voting at such election shall be by secret ballot.
• The votes are weighted, their value determined by the population of each state as per Census 1971.

Extra chromosome in 1 in 500 men, disease risk higher

• This puts them at increased risk of diseases such as type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis and thrombosis.
• Sex chromosomes determine our biological sex. Men typically have one X and one Y chromosome, while women have two Xs. However, some men also have XXY or XYY.
• By linking genetic data to routine health records, the team found that men with XXY have much higher chances of reproductive problems, including a three-fold higher risk of delayed puberty and a four-fold higher risk of being childless. These men also had significantly lower blood concentrations of testosterone. Men with XYY appeared to have a normal reproductive function.

Proud Boys Charged With Seditious Conspiracy in Capitol Riot

• The Proud Boys is an American far-right, neo-fascist, and exclusively male organization that promotes and engages in political violence in the United States.
• Formed in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential polls, the Proud Boys are a far-right extremist group, as classified by the FBI. The group was created by Gavin McInnes, Vice Media co-founder and former commentator.
• Five leaders of the group, including its former chairman, were federally indicted on seditious conspiracy charges in June 2022, for their alleged roles in the 2021 United States Capitol attack.

Rate of TDS on virtual digital assets shall be 1 per cent

• The clarification from the Income Tax comes at a time when some media reports mentioned that the TDS rate for virtual digital assets has been dropped to 0.1% from 1% as announced earlier in the budget.
• The 1% TDS will be applicable from July 1.
• The Centre had set a 30% taxation on the gains from the cryptocurrency assets.

Centre issues ‘Guidelines on Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022’

• The guidelines seek to ensure that consumers are not being fooled with unsubstantiated claims, exaggerated promises, misinformation and false claims.
• Such advertisements violates various rights of consumers such as right to be informed, right to choose and right to be safeguarded against potentially unsafe products and services.
• In exercise of the powers conferred by section 18 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, to CCPA, the Guidelines were notified. Misleading advertisement has already been defined under section 2(28) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
• The present guidelines define “bait advertisement”, “surrogate advertisement” and clearly provides what constitutes as “free claim advertisements”.
• CCPA can impose penalty of upto 10 lakh rupees on manufacturers, advertisers and endorsers for any misleading advertisements. For subsequent contraventions, CCPA may impose a penalty of upto 50 lakh rupees.
• The Authority can prohibit the endorser of a misleading advertisement from making any endorsement for upto 1 year and for subsequent contravention, prohibition can extend upto 3 years.

Equivalence status by the European Commission to Central Counter Parties (CCPs) supervised by IFSCA

• On 1 October 2020, the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) became the unified regulator for all financial services and financial products in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC).
• Thereafter, IFSCA notified the IFSCA (Market Infrastructure Institutions) Regulations, 2021 on April 16, 2021 and since that date are applicable to CCPs established and operating in the IFSC.
• The European Commission (EC) has concluded that the legal and supervisory arrangements in respect of CCPs authorised by IFSCA provide for effective supervision and ongoing enforcement, and comply with the requirements laid down by European Commission in this regard and accorded equivalence status to CCPs supervised by the IFSCA.
• Accordingly, in terms of the requirements laid down in European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), the EC on June 08, 2022 has accorded equivalence status to the following CCPs operating in IFSC under the supervision of IFSCA:
  • NSE IFSC Clearing Corporation Limited and
  • India International Clearing Corporation Limited

Union Cabinet approved an MoU between NIES, Japan and ARIES, India a Professional Body for joint research on air quality and climate change.

• No such MoUs were signed by the ARIES, Nainital in the similar areas of research with any other foreign bodies in the past.
• Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) is an Autonomous Research Institute established under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
• ARIES is a centre of excellence for research in Astronomy & Astrophysics and Atmospheric Sciences. It carries out research on air pollution and climate change on earth, formation and evolution of sun, stars and galaxies.
• The National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) is Japan''s only research institute that undertakes a broad range of environmental research in an interdisciplinary and comprehensive manner.

The Network Planning Group Held Its 20th Meeting

• It was chaired by the Special Secretary, Logistics Division, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and saw active participation from member ministries/departments including MoRTH, MoCA, MoR, MoPSW, MoP, DoT and Niti Ayog.
• The forum saw senior officials from these ministries deliberate on various agendas on logistic capacities and PM GatiShakti.
• Prime Minister launched PM GatiShakti NMP for multi-modal connectivity on 13th October, 2021. Implementation framework includes Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGOS), Network Planning Group (NPG) and Technical Support Unit (TSU) with required technical competencies.
• NPG consists of heads of the network planning wing of respective infrastructure ministries and it will assist the Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGOS), which is headed by the cabinet secretary. EGOS consists of secretaries of 18 ministries as members and Head of Logistics Division, under the DPIIT, as member convenor.
• NPG will clear the projects as all infrastructure projects would have to come here.