- Mixed reactions in northeast to centre’s move to fence India Myanmar border
- The Home Minister announced that the centre would fence the Indian Myanmar border to facilitate better surveillance.
- While the Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur have welcomed the decision their Mizoram and Nagaland counterparts are against putting up a barbed wire fence along the 1643 km border between the two countries.
- Manipur Chief Minister Nongthomban Biren Was the first two demand a barbed wire fencing along the border with Myanmar. He appealed to the centre in September 2023 to scrap the free movement regime agreement between the two countries that allows border residents to travel up to 16 kilometres in each other’s territory without any visa.
- The FMR was established in 2018 as part of India’s Act East policy, promoting cross-border movement up to 16 km without a visa. Individuals residing at the border need a one-year border pass for stays lasting up to two weeks in the neighbouring country.
2. Tripura board allows Kokborok in Roman script in examinations
- The Tripura Board of secondary education has given in and allowed the students to write exam papers in the Roman alphabet of the Kokborok language.
- There has been widespread protest by students belonging to the indigenous communities, tribal forums and political parties in the state.
- Both Bangla and Roman scripts will be accepted for writing the language.
- Kokborok, also known as Tripuri, is an indigenous Tibeto-Burman language spoken primarily in the Indian state of Tripura and neighbouring areas of Bangladesh. The language was officially recognized in 1979, and it is spoken as the first language by many of Tripura’s tribal communities.
3. Uttarakhand assembly passes uniform civil code
- The Uttarakhand assembly passed the uniform civil code despite the opposition’s demand that the bill be handed over to the House select committee first.
- The Assembly had become the first Legislature in independent India to pass a bill that imposes common rules for all communities except scheduled tribes on marriage, divorce, inheritances and relevant relationships.
- The bill is based on a draft submitted by a committee formed by the Uttarakhand government under the chairmanship of retired Supreme Court Judge Justice Ranjan Prakash Desai.
- A Uniform Civil Code means that all sections of the society irrespective of their religion shall be treated equally according to a national civil code, which shall be applicable to all uniformly. They cover areas like- Marriage, divorce, maintenance, inheritance, adoption and succession of the property. It is envisaged in article 44 of the constitution.
4. Can’t treat scheduled casts as homogeneous group observes CJI led bench
- A seven judge constitution bench headed by the Chief Justice of India observed that scheduled castes cannot be treated as a homogeneous group for granting reservation as some may have advanced in society while other continue to remain particularly underprivileged.
- The Constitution bench is examining the question whether individual states could identify and sub classify backward classes within the scheduled cast category in order to give them more preference in reservation.
- The court said that the diverse groups clubbed together in the presidential list under article 341 of the constitution as scheduled costs cannot be treated alike.
- Article 341 of the Indian Constitution authorises the President to declare certain castes and classes as Scheduled Castes in a state or a union territory. It also states that the Parliament can include or exclude any caste or tribe from the list.
5. Despite post pandemic growth Maldives at high risk of debt distress, warns IMF
- The Maldives remains at high risk of debt distress the International Monetary Fund has warned.
- The overall fiscal deficits and public debt are projected to stay elevated and the Maldives remains at high risk of external and overall debt distress.
- The president of Maldives recently told Parliament that his government would adopt reform policy to improve the country’s finances and bring debt and fiscal conditions to sustainable standards.
- Maldives’ total debt is set to remain high at over 115% of GDP.
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- Interactive Benchmarking tool created to help countries identify the challenges and opportunities in Trade Logistics – Logistics Performance Index released by World Bank. India’s position 38th rank out of 139 Countries.
