CIVILS WEEKLY

  THE CONSTITUTION (SCHEDULED CASTES) ORDER (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2021 The Lok Sabha passed The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2021 that seeks to put seven castes under one nomenclature of “Devendrakula Vellalars” with some exceptions for some of the castes in certain districts of Tamil Nadu. About: The castes include Devendrakulathan, Kadaiyan, Kalladi, Kudumban, Pallan, Pannadi and Vathiriyan. The State government had earlier accepted a recommendation of a committee to reclassify the seven sub sects under the generic name ‘Devendrakula Velalar’ and forwarded it to the Centre. The change in nomenclature was a long pending demand of the community and did not involve either the deletion or addition of any community in its ambit. The reason why a whole new addition was not made to the Scheduled Castes list was to ensure that old caste certificates issued to these communities under the old name not be rejected. MMDR AMENDMENT BILL Lok Sabha passed the Mines and Mi...

  OVER 60% OBC, SC POSTS VACANT IN IIMS More than half of the faculty positions reserved for the OBCs in Central institutions of higher education are vacant while about 40% of those reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Tribes also remain unfilled, Education Minister told the Lok Sabha. About: The situation is particularly acute in the elite Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), where more than 60% of SC and OBC reserved positions are vacant, while almost 80% of positions reserved for the STs have not been filled. This means that out of 24 positions reserved for the STs, only five have been filled. For the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), data has only been provided for non-faculty positions. Both the IITs and the IIMs have been lobbying for exemption from such faculty quota requirements. Within the Central Universities, vacancies were higher at the level of professors. Less than 1% of the 1,062 professors in Central universities are from the ST communities. Despite the hi...

  GANDHI’S DANDI MARCH On the 91st anniversary of the historic salt march led by Mahatma Gandhi from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off a symbolic 386-kilometre ‘Dandi march’, following the same route. About: The 24-day march from March 12 to April 5, 1930 was a tax resistance campaign against the British salt monopoly. The march marked the inauguration of the civil disobedience movement. Gandhi reached Dandi on April 5. The following day, early morning he proceeded along with the other marchers to the sea, where he picked up lumps of natural salt lying in a small pit. The following month Gandhi proceeded to Dharasana salt works from where he was arrested and taken to the Yerawada Central Jail. STATE ELECTION COMMISSIONERS The Supreme Court held that independent persons and not bureaucrats should be appointed State Election Commissioners. About: It said that giving government employees the additional charge of State Election Commissioners...

  QUAD PM Modi will attend the first Quad Summit on March 12, 2021. About: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join U.S. President Joseph Biden, Australian PM Scott Morrison and Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga for a virtual summit of the Quadrilateral Framework (Quad)— the first time leaders of the Indo-Pacific grouping are meeting. Access to COVID-19 vaccines, cooperation on technology, and climate change are on the top of the agenda in the summit. The Quad meeting, that China has referred to as an “Indo-Pacific NATO”, will be watched most closely for signals on how the grouping will deal with the challenge from Beijing’s recent moves in the Pacific as well as at the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh. India, the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines, that has already shipped out more than 48 million doses worldwide, is expected to request Quad investment to scale up its outreach further. INDIA – JAPAN SPACE TIES Indian and Japanese space agencies reviewed cooperation in earth observati...