ATF price hiked again by 16.3%, reaches all-time high

• The record increase in ATF prices, combined with the depreciating rupee, is set to increase the cost of operations for airlines, which could lead to an increase in air fares by up to 15%.
• The cost of ATF constitutes up to 50% of the cost of operations for airlines in India that are already struggling due to the high cost environment and lower fares in the country.
• The airline industry had sought respite from high fuel prices through a cut in excise duty on ATF or by bringing jet fuel under GST, that would have brought down prices and also allowed airlines to claim input credit tax on the GST paid.
• While bringing ATF under GST seems unlikely for now, the Aviation Ministry had requested the Finance Ministry to reduce excise duty on jet fuel by 2 percentage points to 9 per cent. The Finance Ministry, however, did not cut any taxes on ATF.
• Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance.

US passes world''s first ''right to repair'' law for digital electronics

• This provides consumers with the right to repair and refurbish their purchased goods. With access to relevant tools and repair manuals, independent repair shops will finally be able to compete with manufacturers.
• The rationale behind the “right to repair” is that the individual who purchases a product must own it completely. This implies that apart from being able to use the product, consumers must be able to repair and modify the product the way they want to.
• Monopoly on repair processes infringes the customer’s’ “right to choose” recognised by the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. Consumer disputes jurisprudence in the country has also partially acknowledged the right to repair.
• In Shamsher Kataria v Honda Siel Cars India Ltd (2017), for instance, the Competition Commission of India ruled that restricting the access of independent automobile repair units to spare parts by way of an end-user license agreement was anti-competitive.

Phase-2 of fortified rice distribution starts

• The pet scheme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, started in October 2021, aims to supply fortified rice to beneficiaries of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman, or PM-POSHAN, scheme.
• fortification means “deliberately increasing the content of essential micronutrients in a food so as to improve the nutritional quality of food and to provide public health benefit with minimal risk to health”.
• Various technologies are available to add micronutrients to regular rice, such as coating, dusting, and ‘extrusion’. ‘Extrusion’ involves the production of fortified rice kernels (FRKs) from a mixture using an ‘extruder’ machine. The fortified rice kernels are blended with regular rice to produce fortified rice.
• Fortification of food is considered to be one of the most suitable methods to combat malnutrition.

Migration in India 2020-2021

• The ‘Migration in India’ report, which is based on first-time collection of additional data during the annual round of Periodic Labour Force Survey for July 2020-June 2021, separates the categories of ‘temporary visitors’ and ‘migrants’.
• ‘Temporary Visitors’ have been defined as the ones who arrived in households after March 2020 and stayed continuously for a period of 15 days or more but less than 6 months.
• ‘Migrants’ have been defined as those, for whom the last usual place of residence, any time in the past, is different from the present place of enumeration.
• After the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, 0.7 per cent of India’s population was recorded as a ‘temporary visitor’ across households during the July 2020-June 2021 period.
• Over 84 % of these 0.7 % ‘temporary visitors’ moved for reasons linked to the pandemic ranging from loss of job, closure of educational institutions and health related reasons.
• The all-India migration rate was 28.9 per cent for July 2020-June 2021, with 26.5 per cent migration rate in rural areas and 34.9 per cent in urban areas.
• Females recorded a higher share of migration rate of 47.9 per cent, with 48 per cent in rural areas and 47.8 per cent in urban areas. The migration rate for males was seen at 10.7 per cent, with 5.9 per cent in rural areas and 22.5 per cent in urban areas.
• Among females, the highest level of migration rate was seen at 86.8 per cent for marriage, while 49.6 per cent of the males migrated due to employment related reasons.

Hate speech, IPC Sec 295A, and how courts have read the law

• India does not have a formal legal framework for dealing with hate speech. However, a cluster of provisions, loosely termed hate speech laws, are invoked. These are primarily laws to deal with offences against religions.
• Provisions in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), primarily Section 295A, define the contours of free speech and its limitations with respect to offences relating to religion.
• Section 295A defines and prescribes a punishment for deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.
• Section 295A is one of the key provisions in the IPC chapter to penalise religious offences.
• The state often invokes Section 295A along with Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code, which penalises promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.

Rangila Rasool case

• Section 295A was brought in 1927. The amendment was a fallout of an acquittal under Section 153A of the IPC by the Lahore High Court in 1927 in Rajpaul v Emperor, popularly known as the Rangila Rasool case.
• Rangila Rasool was a tract — brought out by a Hindu publisher — that had made disparaging remarks about the Prophet’s private life.

The controversy around the Northern Ireland Protocol

• Northern Ireland is the only part of the U.K. that shares a land border with the EU, as the Republic of Ireland (or Ireland) is an EU member-state.
• As long as the U.K. was part of the EU, things were fine. But with Brexit, the U.K. exited the EU’s customs union. This created a problem whose solution needed two seemingly contradictory outcomes: preserving the sanctity of the EU’s single market, as well as that of the U.K.’s domestic market.

Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP):

• NIP’s solution was to avoid a customs check at the actual customs border — on the island of Ireland, between Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland — as this would have violated the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and risked instability in a region. It instead shifted the customs border to that between Northern Ireland and Britain, effectively at Britain’s ports.
• As per the NIP, goods flowing into Northern Ireland would be checked at this ‘sea border’ before entering the island, and Northern Ireland would continue to follow EU rules in product standards.
• The main irritant for the U.K. in the current version of the NIP was the creation of “unacceptable barriers” to trade within the U.K. internal market — between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
• The European Union (EU) has said that the proposed law violates international law and has threatened to take legal action against the U.K. if it goes ahead with the legislation.

Stalin''s letter on Inter-State Council

• Inter-State Council is a mechanism that was constituted “to support Centre-State and Inter-State coordination and cooperation in India”. The Council is basically meant to serve as a forum for discussions among various governments.
• The Inter-State Council was established under Article 263 of the Constitution, which states that the President may constitute such a body if a need is felt for it.
• In 1988, the Sarkaria Commission suggested the Council should exist as a permanent body, and in 1990 it came into existence through a Presidential Order.
• The main functions of the Council are inquiring into and advising on disputes between states, investigating and discussing subjects in which two states or states and the Union have a common interest, and making recommendations for the better coordination of policy and action.
• The Prime Minister is the chairman of the Council, whose members include the Chief Ministers of all states and UTs with legislative assemblies, and Administrators of other UTs.
• Six Ministers of Cabinet rank in the Centre’s Council of Ministers, nominated by the Prime Minister, are also its members.
• Since its constitution in 1990, the body has met only 11 times, although its procedure states it should meet at least three times every year. That there has been no meeting since July 2016.
• The Council was reconstituted in May 2022. The body will now have 10 Union Ministers as permanent invitees, and the standing committee of the Council has been reconstituted with Home Minister Amit Shah as Chairman.

Amrit Mahotsav: Centre plans to release prisoners

• The special remission would be granted to a certain category of prisoners, and they would be released in three phases — August 15, 2022, January 26, 2023 and August 15, 2023.
• The prisoners who would qualify for premature release are women and transgender convicts of ages 50 and above and male convicts of 60 and above who have completed 50% of their total sentence period without counting the period of general remission earned.
• Among others eligible for remission are disabled convicts with 70% disability and more who have completed 50% of their total sentence period, convicted prisoners who have completed two-thirds (66%) of their total sentence and poor prisoners who have completed their sentence but are still in jail due to non-payment of fine imposed on them by waiving off the fine.
• The Ministry said that persons who committed an offence at a young age (18-21) and with no other criminal involvement or case against them and who have completed 50% of their sentence period would also be eligible for the remission.
• Persons convicted with death sentence, life imprisonment or persons convicted under the Terrorist and Disruptive (Prevention) Act, 1985, Prevention of Terrorist Act, 2002, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, Explosives Act, 1908, National Security Act, 1982, Official Secrets Act, 1923, and Anti-Hijacking Act, 2016, would not be eligible.

Govt''s new guidelines banning surrogate ads

• Notified by the Consumer Affairs Ministry, “Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022” apply to ads across all media platforms including television, print and online.
• The guidelines have imposed a complete ban on surrogate advertising.
• Surrogate advertising is the strategy of advertising a product that cannot be advertised openly.
• Advertisers instead create ads that help in building a brand, and often involve popular celebrities – all without naming the actual product that is being indirectly advertised.
• In India, tobacco products and alcohol cannot be advertised openly under laws like the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003, which bans all kinds of direct and indirect advertisements of tobacco products.