11 dead after inhaling toxic gas in Ludhiana

11 people died due to a gas leak in the Giaspura area of Ludhiana, Punjab, while four people fell ill and were hospitalised. Hydrogen Sulphide gas, have been detected and it is being ascertained how this gas might have led to the incident.

Hydrogen sulphide is so toxic that even one breath of it taken inside can kill a person. Probably some acidic waste was thrown into sewer which reacted with methane, carbon monoxide and other sewerage gases to produce hydrogen sulphide

Hydrogen Sulphide:

• Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) is a colourless chalcogen hydride gas with a characteristic foul odour.
• It is very poisonous, corrosive, and flammable.
• The gas can irritate the eyes, nose, throat, and lungs.
• Too much H2S can halt the breathing centre in the brain, which can cause death.
• It dissolves in water and oil, and it may be released when these liquids are heated, depressurized, or agitated. Because it is heavier than air, it may settle in low spots.
• It occurs in volcanic gases, natural gas, and in some sources of well water.

Uses

• Hydrogen sulphide is used primarily to produce sulfuric acid and sulphur.
• It is also used to create a variety of inorganic sulphides used to create pesticides, leather, dyes, and pharmaceuticals.
• Hydrogen sulphide is used to produce heavy water for nuclear power plants.

Production

• Hydrogen sulfide is often produced from the microbial breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen gas, such as in swamps and sewers. This process is commonly known as anaerobic digestion.
• It occurs naturally in crude oil, natural gas, and hot springs.
• H2S also occurs in ****volcanic gases, natural gas and in some sources of well water.
• The human body ****also produces small amounts of H2S and uses it as a signalling molecule.

neurotoxins

• Neurotoxins are poisonous substances which can directly affect the nervous system. Neurotoxicity occurs when exposure to natural or man-made toxic substances alters the normal activity of the nervous system.
• These substances can eventually disrupt or even kill neurons or nerve cells, which are important for transmitting and processing signals in the brain and other parts of the nervous system.
• They directly attack the respiratory tract of the body, thereby overpowering the oxygen concentration of the body and then the nervous system as well
• Methane, hydrogen sulphide, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are common neurotoxic gases. While methane and carbon monoxide are odourless gases, hydrogen sulphide has a pungent odour and in higher concentration it can be fatal for humans

To remove gases such as hydrogen sulphide from wastewater, chemical oxidation is done, where oxidants such as hydrogen peroxide are added to the wastewater.

IRDAI asks insurance firms to lay down social media rules

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has asked insurance companies to lay down social media guidelines for their employees to ensure that no unverified or confidential information related to the organisation is disseminated to the public through these platforms.

The Information and Cyber Security Guidelines, issued by the IRDAI to all insurers, have a specific section on ‘Acceptable usage of social media’ — which states that the employees should be refrained from disseminating any unverified and confidential information on “any Blogs/Chat forums/Discussion forums/Messenger sites/Social networking sites”.

Media forums should not be used to report a complaint

IRDAI:

• It is an autonomous and statutory body established under the IRDA Act 1999.
• It is the apex body that supervises and regulates the insurance sector in India.
• Objective: To protect the interests of policyholders, to regulate, promote and ensure orderly growth of the insurance industry in India.
• Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Finance
• Head Office: Hyderabad.
• Composition: IRDAI is a 10-member body a Chairman, five full-time members, and four part-time members appointed by the Government of India.
• Functions:
  • To have a fair regulation of the insurance industry while ensuring financial soundness of the applicable laws and regulations.
  • Frame regulations periodically so that there is no ambiguity in the insurance industry.
  • Registering and regulating insurance companies;
  • Protecting policyholders'' interests;
  • Licensing and establishing norms for insurance intermediaries;
  • Promoting professional organizations in insurance;
  • Regulating and overseeing premium rates and terms of non-life insurance covers;
  • Specifying financial reporting norms of insurance companies;
  • Regulating investment of policyholders'' funds by insurance companies;
  • Ensuring the maintenance of solvency margin by insurance companies;
  • Ensuring insurance coverage in rural areas and of vulnerable sections of society.

Deja vu: The speculation and the science behind the experience

• Deja vu is literally a person’s subjective experience of repeating a particular set of events, activities, thoughts and feelings, even though that has never in reality occurred before
• In 1876, Emile Boirac, a French philosopher and researcher, coined the term, which means “already seen.”
• Around 90 percent of the population has experienced deja vu and the frequency of it decreases as we age.

What Causes?

• Phenomenon could have to do with an area in the middle of the brain called the thalamus. All information such as hearing, taste, touch etc. must pass through the thalamus to the brain’s cerebral cortex (the outermost layer) for further interpretation and processing.
• And if the speed of those interactions is a bit different, it then feels to us as if we’re experiencing the present, as though we remember it. So what our brain has done is literally confused the present with the past
• According to the dual processing theory, when there is a slight delay in the brain while processing one of these inputs, it interprets the experience as two separate events, giving you the feeling of familiarity.

Deja vu as a symptom of stress

• The brain works better when it is rested and energized. When you are under excessive stress, or worrying a lot, the brain gets tired. So what can happen is the pattern of our brain activity changes a bit. Given those changes, it is not uncommon to experience deja vu

ED acts against Byju’s; Indore court fines Shah Rukh Khan over firm’s ad

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday (April 29) carried out searches on premises linked to edtech firm Byju’s . The searches came in connection with alleged foreign exchange violations by the firm the agency is probing.

Byju’s has allegedly remitted abroad over Rs 9,700 crore of the Rs 28,000 crore it received as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) since 2011, and suspected irregularities in this are being probed.

The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Indore in Madhya Pradesh on April 26 issued an order against a Byju staffer and actor Shah Rukh Khan for alleged “fraudulent behaviour” and “unfair trade practice” on the complaint of a woman who enrolled for coaching to become an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, PTI reported.

Directorate of Enforcement (ED)

• The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) is a multi-disciplinary organization mandated with investigation of offences of money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws.
  • It functions under the Department of Revenue of the Ministry of Finance.
• As a premier financial investigation agency of the Government of India, the Enforcement Directorate functions in strict compliance with the Constitution and Laws of India.

Genesis of ED

• The origin of this Directorate goes back to 1 May, 1956, when an ‘Enforcement Unit’ was formed in the Department of Economic Affairs for handling Exchange Control Laws violations under Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA), 1947.
  • It was headquartered in Delhi, headed by a Legal Service Officer as the Director of Enforcement.
  • It had two branches – at Bombay and Calcutta.
• In the year 1957, this Unit was renamed as ‘Enforcement Directorate’, and another branch was opened at Madras (now Chennai).
• In 1960, the administrative control of the Directorate was transferred from the Department of Economic Affairs to the Department of Revenue.
• With the passage of time, FERA 1947 was repealed and replaced by FERA, 1973.
  • With the onset of the process of economic liberalisation, FERA, 1973, which was a regulatory law, was repealed and in its place, a new law viz. the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) came into operation w.e.f. 1 June 2000.
• Further, in tune with the International Anti Money Laundering regime, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) was enacted and ED was entrusted with its enforcement w.e.f. 1 July 2005.

Structure of ED

• Hierarchy: The Directorate of Enforcement, with its headquarters at New Delhi, is headed by the Director of Enforcement.
  • There are five regional offices at Mumbai, Chennai, Chandigarh, Kolkata and Delhi headed by Special Directors of Enforcement.
  • The Directorate has 10 Zonal offices each of which is headed by a Deputy Director and 11 sub Zonal Offices each of which is headed by an Assistant Director.
• Recruitment: Recruitment of the officers is done directly and by drawing officers from other investigation agencies.
  • It comprises officers of IRS (Indian Revenue Services), IPS (Indian Police Services) and IAS (Indian Administrative Services) such as Income Tax officer, Excise officer, Customs officer, and police.
• Tenure: In November 2021, the President of India promulgated two ordinances allowing the Centre to extend the tenures of the directors of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate from two years to up to five years.
  • The Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946 (for ED) and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) Act, 2003 (for CV Commissioners) have been amended to give the government the power to keep the two chiefs in their posts for one year after they have completed their two-year terms.
  • The chiefs of the Central agencies currently have a fixed two-year tenure, but can now be given three annual extensions.
  • However, no further extension can be granted after the completion of a period of five years in total including the period mentioned in the initial appointment.

Statutory Functions of ED

The statutory functions of the Directorate include enforcement of following Acts:

• COFEPOSA: Under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (COFEPOSA), this Directorate is empowered to sponsor cases of preventive detention with regard to contraventions of FEMA.
• Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA): It is a civil law enacted to consolidate and amend the laws relating to facilitate external trade and payments and to promote the orderly development and maintenance of foreign exchange market in India.
  • ED has been given the responsibility to conduct investigation into suspected contraventions of foreign exchange laws and regulations, to adjudicate and impose penalties on those adjudged to have contravened the law.
• Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA): Following the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) India enacted PMLA.
  • The ED has been entrusted with the responsibility of executing the provisions of PMLA by conducting investigation to trace the assets derived from proceeds of crime, to provisionally attach the property and to ensure prosecution of the offenders and confiscation of the property by the Special court.
• Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA): Lately, with the increase in the number of cases relating to economic offenders taking shelter in foreign countries, the Government of India introduced the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA) and ED is entrusted with its enforcement.
  • This law was enacted to deter economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts.
  • Under this law, the ED is mandated to attach the properties of the fugitive economic offenders who have escaped from India warranting arrest and provide for the confiscation of their properties to the Central Government.

Supreme Court rules it can directly grant divorce to couples under Article 142

A constitution or five-judge bench of the Supreme Court held that it can exercise its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to directly grant a decree of divorce to consenting parties

Getting a divorce under the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA)

• Under Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the procedure to obtain a divorce by mutual consent is laid down. Section 13B (1) states that both parties can file a petition for dissolution of their marriage by presenting a decree of divorce to the district court.
• Both parties seeking divorce have to wait between 6 to 18 months from the date on which they presented their petition to obtain the divorce decree. The six-month period is given so that the parties have ample time to withdraw their plea.
• However, if there is no possibility of reconciliation, it would be meaningless to prolong the agony of the parties to the marriage

Currently, If the parties wish to opt for a divorce more expeditiously, they can approach the Supreme Court under Article 142 for the dissolution of their marriage.

Article 142

• Article 142 provides discretionary power to the Supreme Court as it states that the SC in the exercise of its jurisdiction may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it.
• In the early years of the evolution of Article 142, the general public and the lawyers both lauded the SC for its efforts to bring complete justice to various deprived sections of society or to protect the environment.
  • The Cleansing of Taj Mahal and justice to many undertrials is a result of the invocation of this article only.
• Cases of Judicial Overreach:
  • In recent years, there have been several judgments of the Supreme Court wherein it has been foraying into areas which had long been forbidden to the judiciary by reason of the doctrine of ‘separation of powers’, which is part of the basic structure of the Constitution. One such example is:
    • The ban on the sale of alcohol along national and state highways: While the notification by the central government prohibited liquor stores along National Highways only, the Supreme Court put in place a ban on a distance of 500 metres by invoking Article 142.
    • Additionally, and in the absence of any similar notification by any of the State governments, the court extended the ban to State highways as well.
    • Such judgments have created uncertainty about the discretion vested in the court to invoke Article 142 where even fundamental rights of individuals are being ignored.