• NEWS:Govt., Opposition call for changing collegium system
• GS-2 POLITY AND GOVERNANCEIndian Constitution— Evolution
• ISSUE:
• The Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman, chaired a meeting of Rajya Sabha floor leaders
• building ground for another intervention by Parliament in judicial appointments.
• The NJAC Bill ratiffied by 16 Assemblies and assented to by the President in December 2014 was struck down by the Supreme Court in October 2015
• NJAC
  • In August 2014, Parliament passed the Constitution (99^th Amendment) Act, 2014 along with the NJAC Act, 2014, providing for the creation of an independent commission to appoint judges to the Supreme Court and high courts to replace the collegium system.
• In 2015, the Supreme Court declared both the 99^th Constitutional Amendment, 2014 and the NJAC Act, 2014 as unconstitutional and null and void.
• Composition of NJAC:
  • The Chief Justice of India as the ex officio Chairperson
  • Two senior-most Supreme Court Judges as ex officio members
  • The Union Minister of Law and Justice as ex officio member
  • Two eminent persons from civil society (to be nominated by a committee consisting of the Chief Justice of India, Prime Minister of India and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha; one of the eminent persons to be nominated from SC/ST/OBC/minorities or women)

• Collegium System:
  • In the collegium system, a group of the senior-most judges makes appointments to the higher judiciary and this system has been operational for nearly three decades.
• The Supreme Court Collegium is a five-member body, which is headed by the incumbent Chief Justice of India (CJI) and comprises the four other senior most judges of the court at that time.
  • A High Court collegium is led by the incumbent Chief Justice and two other senior most judges of that court.
• The government can also raise objections and seek clarifications regarding the collegium’s choices, but if the collegium reiterates the same names, the government is bound to appoint them as judges.

Constitutional Provisions related to the Appointment of Judges

• Articles 124(2) and 217 of the Constitution deal with the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts.
  • The appointments are made by the President, who is required to hold consultations with “such of the judges of the Supreme Court and of the High Courts” as he may think is needed.
• But the Constitution does not lay down any process for making these appointments.
• Difference between Collegium System and NJAC (Appointment):NJAC:
  • The Chief Justice of India and Chief Justices of the high courts were to be recommended by the NJAC based on seniority while SC and HC judges were to be recommended on the basis of ability, merit, and “other criteria specified in the regulations”.
  • The Act empowered any two members of the NJAC to veto a recommendation if they did not agree with it.

NEWS:EV, phone battery components to be duty-free

GS-2 GOVERNANCEGovernment Policies and Interventions for Development in various sectors and Issues arising out of their Design and Implementation

CONTEXT:

• Union Finance Minister announced there would be no import duties on 35 capital goods used to make electric vehicle (EV) batteries and 28 items used to make mobile phone batteries to boost domestic manufacturing.
• the Minister said Customs tariff rationalisation in Budget 2025 was aimed at boosting domestic production, enhancing export competitiveness by reducing duties on raw materials, and making domestic products cost-effective

 Electric Vehicles

        Electric vehicles are a type of vehicle that use one or more electric motors for propulsion, instead of a traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) that burns gasoline or diesel

• Types of Electric Vehicles:
  • Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs): Solely rely on battery power for propulsion and produce zero tailpipe emissions.
  • Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs): Combine an electric motor with a gasoline engine. They can be charged externally and run on battery power for a limited range, then switch to the gasoline engine for longer journeys.
  • Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs): Use both an electric motor and a gasoline engine, but the battery cannot be charged directly by plugging in.
    • The battery is charged by the gasoline engine or through regenerative braking.

NEWS:Easing FPI threshold can induce capital inflow, say experts

GS-3 ECONOMYMobilization of Resources, Growth, Development and Employment.

CONTEXT:

• SEBI’s decision to raise the limit for granular disclosures to ₹50,000 cr. ‘balances regulatory oversight with market attractiveness
• may increase capital inflows amid relentless selling by foreign portfolio investors (FPI) and ease the compliance burden on genuine investors, according to experts.
• This means foreign portfolio investors, who invest more than ₹50,000 crore in Indian stocks, will have to disclose details of benecial ownership and returns of FPIs among other details of the investing entities.

Foreign Portfolio Investors?

• Foreign portfolio investment (FPI) consists of securities and other financial assets passively held by foreign investors. It does not provide the investor with direct ownership of financial assets and is relatively liquid depending on the volatility of the market.
  • Examples of FPIs include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange traded funds, American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), and Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs).
• FPI is part of a country’s capital account and is shown on its Balance of Payments (BOP)
  • The BOP measures the amount of money flowing from one country to other countries over one monetary year.
• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) brought new FPI Regulations, 2019, replacing the erstwhile FPI Regulations of 2014.
• FPI is often referred to as “hot money” because of its tendency to flee at the first signs of trouble in an economy. FPI is more liquid, volatile and therefore riskier than FDI

NEWS:Russia, Ukraine have agreed to end military action in Black Sea

GS-2 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONIndia and its Neighborhood- Relations.

CONTEXT:

• Russia and Ukraine agreed on Tuesday to halt military strikes in the Black Sea and on energy sites during talks brokered by the U.S.
• which offered as a first concrete incentive to Moscow to ease pressure on agricultural exports
• U.S. to also look for ways to enforce a ban on strikes on energy infra in the two countries

Black Sea

• Black Sea is a marginal Mediterranean Sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia
• Important cities along the coast include Istanbul, Odessa, Varna, Samsun, Sochi, Sevastopol, Constanța, Trabzon, Novorossiysk, Burgas, Batumi, etc.
• Countries bordering Black Sea:
  1. Bulgaria
  2. Georgia
  3. Romania
  4. Russia
  5. Turkey
  6. Ukraine
• It ultimately drains into the Mediterranean Sea, via the Turkish Straits & the Aegean Sea.
• The Bosporus Strait connects it to the small Sea of Marmara which in turn is connected to the Aegean Sea via the Strait of the Dardanelles.
• To the north, the Black Sea is connected to the Sea of Azov by the Kerch Strait.
• There is a significant absence of oxygen in the water.
• MAINS QUESTION

Independent judiciary is a basic structure but it could not be a supreme authority in INDIA as parliament is there .