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WHY IN NEWS?
The Rajya Sabha on Thursday witnessed noisy scenes after the Opposition demanded that all other business be suspended for the day to take up the Manipur issue, while the government had agreed for a “Short Duration Discussion”.
The Opposition’s demand had come under Rule 267, which has emerged as a thorny issue in Parliament sessions recently. No notice given by the Opposition under Rule 267 has been accepted in recent times. In the winter session of Parliament, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar had said he would invoke Rule 267 “on merit”.
On the same day, Congress MPs Manickam Tagore and Hibi Eden moved adjournment motions in the Lok Sabha, citing the need for urgent discussions on the ethnic violence in Manipur.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Chakshu Roy Explains:
In 1952, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha published their respective Rules of Procedure. These Rules laid down the details of how the two Houses would function. They also specified the different procedural mechanisms by which Members of Parliament (MPs) could participate in the functioning of the two legislative chambers. These rules have changed over the last seven decades, but the basic principles remain unchanged.
To raise matters in the House, MPs must inform the presiding officers (the Chairman of Rajya Sabha and the Speaker of Lok Sabha) in advance. This requirement ensures the government can collect information to respond to the MPs.
The government also has its agenda of Bills and budgets. It too is required to give advance information so MPs can prepare themselves for the debate. The secretariat of each House compiles the notices from the government and individual MPs into a list of business for a day in Parliament. And MPs can only discuss a matter that is on the day’s business.
But scheduled business can be set aside by a procedural mechanism called the “adjournment motion”. This Rule in Lok Sabha allows an MP to urge the Speaker to adjourn the House’s business “to discuss a definite matter of urgent public importance”.
The Speaker has to decide whether to allow the MP to move the motion. It results in the House dropping its scheduled list of business to discuss this urgent matter.
The adjournment motion is a form of censure of the government. It originated in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom, and started its journey in India under the rules of the pre-independent bicameral legislature established under the Government of India Act of 1919.
The central assembly and legislative council members could move the adjournment motion in their Houses.
Presiding officers of these Houses allowed adjournment motions because members did not have other procedural devices for raising urgent matters. And since the British administration was not under the legislature’s control, it was one of the few procedural measures for members to express their concerns over a particular serious matter.
After the passage of the Indian Constitution, two changes came about.
First, the Council of Ministers became collectively responsible to Lok Sabha. As a result, in 1952, the adjournment motion found a place in the Lok Sabha Rule Book. Therefore, it was left out of Rajya Sabha.
Second, was the view of Lok Sabha Speakers on the use of adjournment motions by members.
The first Speaker of Lok Sabha called the adjournment motion a “very exceptional thing”. He believed that members should resort to this procedural device when the “occasion is of such a character that something very grave, something which affects the whole country, its safety, its interests and all that is happening, and the House must pay its attention immediately”.
He thought that under the new Constitution, “The conditions now have entirely changed and, therefore, in the new set-up, with the various opportunities and the responsive and responsible character of the Government, we cannot look upon an adjournment motion as a normal device for raising discussion on any important matter.”
General reluctance
Given the availability of other procedural devices in the Rule Book for MPs to raise urgent matters, Lok Sabha Speakers have been reluctant to allow adjournment motions. Most Lok Sabha have spent less than 3% of their time on adjournment motions.
The only exception was the 9th Lok Sabha (1989-91, Speaker Rabi Ray) which spent almost 5% (36 hours) of its time on it. During its short-lived tenure, this Lok Sabha took up eight adjournment motions on subjects like terrorist activities in Punjab, criminalization of politics, and violence triggered by the decision to implement the Mandal Commission report.
Option in Rajya Sabha
As discussed earlier, the Rajya Sabha Rule Book does not provide for an adjournment motion. Over the years, Rajya Sabha MPs have used Rule 267 to suspend Question Hour in the House to raise urgent matters. In 1952, this rule stated, “Any member may, with the consent of the Chairman, move that any rule may be suspended in its application to a particular motion before the Council and if the motion is carried the rule in question shall be suspended for the time being.”
Change in Rule 267
But in 2000, the Rules Committee of Rajya Sabha amended this Rule. The committee comprised then Chairman of Rajya Sabha Krishna Kant and 15 other Rajya Sabha MPs like Dr Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Arun Shourie, M Venkaiah Naidu, Swaraj Kaushal, and Fali Nariman.
The committee observed that MPs were using Rule 267 to “seek discussion either on a matter not listed in the agenda for the particular day or on a subject that has not yet been admitted”. The committee recommended an amendment to tighten Rule 267 only to allow the suspension of a Rule for a matter “related to the business listed before the Council of that day”.
It also added a proviso that if an existing procedure allowed suspending Rules (like suspension of Question Hour), an MP could not use 267. So now 267 can be used only to suspend a Rule, only to take up matters that are already on the list of business.
(Source: Adjournment Motion, Rule 267: Ways to seek urgent discussion in Parliament by Chakshu Roy)
1. MCQ:
The Parliament of India exercises control over the functions of the Council of Ministers through ( UPSC CSE 2017)
1.Adjournment motion
2.Question hour
3.Supplementary questions
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
WHY IN NEWS?
Just days before a Zero FIR was filed in connection to the May 4 incident, in which two Manipuri women were stripped and paraded in the state’s Thoubal district, another Zero FIR was filed at the same police station — pertaining to the alleged abduction, rape and murder of two Kuki-Zomi women. In this case also, it took the authorities more than a month to transfer the complaint to the relevant police station in Imphal East.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
What is a Zero FIR?
When a police station receives a complaint regarding an alleged offence that has been committed in the jurisdiction of another police station, it registers an FIR and then transfers it to the relevant police station for further investigation.
This is called a Zero FIR. No regular FIR number is given. After receiving the Zero FIR, the revenant police station registers a fresh FIR and starts the investigation.
When was the provision of Zero FIR established?
The provision of Zero FIR came up after the recommendation in the report of the Justice Verma Committee, which was constituted to suggest amendments to the Criminal Law in a bid to provide for faster trial and enhanced punishment for criminals accused of committing sexual assault against women, according to a 2020 circular released by the Puducherry government. The committee was set up after the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape case.
“The provision says: “A Zero FIR can be filed in any Police Station by the victim, irrespective of their residence or the place of occurrence of crime,” the circular added.
What is the purpose of a Zero FIR?
The objective of a Zero FIR is to ensure the victim doesn’t have to run from pillar to post to get a police complaint registered. The provision is meant to provide speedy redressal to the victim so that timely action can be taken after the filing of the FIR.
What is an FIR?
The term first information report (FIR) is not defined in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, or in any other law, but in police regulations or rules, information recorded under Section 154 of CrPC is known as First Information Report (FIR).
Section 154 (“Information in cognizable cases”) says that “every information relating to the commission of a cognizable offence, if given orally to an officer in charge of a police station, shall be reduced to writing by him or under his direction, and be read over to the informant; and every such information, whether given in writing or reduced to writing as aforesaid, shall be signed by the person giving it, and the substance thereof shall be entered in a book to be kept by such officer in such form as the State Government may prescribe”.
Also, “a copy of the information as recorded…shall be given forthwith, free of cost, to the informant”. In essence then, there are three important elements of an FIR: (1) the information must relate to the commission of a cognizable offence, (2) it should be given in writing or orally to the head of the police station and, (3) it must be written down and signed by the informant, and its key points should be recorded in a daily diary.
(Source: Manipur violence- What is a Zero FIR and why it is registered)
2. MCQ:
With reference to India, consider the following statements: ( UPSC CSE 2021)
1. Judicial custody means an accused is in the custody of the concerned magistrate and such accused is locked up in police station, not in jail.
2. During judicial custody, the police officer in charge of the case is not allowed to interrogate the suspect without the approval of the court.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
WHY IN NEWS?
After two cheetahs died of suspected septicaemia from festering neck wounds caused by radio collars in Kuno last week, similar injuries have been spotted in at least another three animals — Oban, Elton, and Freddie. This setback for the reintroduction project has baffled many who are used to routinely collaring wild cats for monitoring and research both in India and Africa.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Jay Mazoomdaar Explains:
Problem with collars
Carrying something on the body for long has its downsides. A study published in the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research found a significantly higher presence of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria on the wrists of watch wearers compared to others. (Wristwatches as the Potential Sources of Hospital-Acquired Infections: 2012) Staph getting into blood can lead to sepsis or death.
Pet dogs get acute moist dermatitis or hot spots. Hot spots are often triggered or aggravated by a tick or flea bite, and can worsen rapidly. They are common under collars, and a wet coat makes the condition worse. Tight-fitting collars can cause pressure necrosis — think bedsores — that begins with rapid loss of hair around the neck.
Since the 1970s, satellite telemetry has made it possible to monitor individual birds and animals over continental distances. These tracking devices have become lighter and more sophisticated over time — so much so that there are VHF radio telemeters for even insects today.
Globally, the thumb rule is to keep the weight of a radio collar to less than 3% of the animal’s body weight. The size of the battery is important — a lighter one would need replacement sooner, which cannot be done without sedating the animal. Most modern collars for wild cats weigh around 400 g, which is light enough for cheetahs that typically weigh between 20 kg and 60 kg.
Most paintings and photos of coursing cheetahs from Mughal or British times show the animals were collared like dogs, and possibly also suffered occasional ‘hot spots’ in the neck.
There are records of festering collar-induced injuries in wild cats in India. Wildlife biologist Dr Y V Jhala, the architect of the Cheetah project, recalled two occasions when collars were taken off a tiger and a lion to treat maggot-infested wounds. “Cats can’t clean neck wounds by licking, but such cases are rare,” he said. Yet, multiple cheetahs have developed neck sores in Kuno.
3 possible factors
Three factors could have made the Kuno cheetahs more vulnerable due to collars than other big cats and individuals of the species in Africa.
* Cheetahs, Dr Jhala pointed out, grow a winter coat. “It’s a little more furry compared to the coats of tigers or leopards. It (the coat) would hold more water and take longer to dry,” he said. This ‘wet mat’ effect could weaken the skin over time.
* A 2020 study led by researchers from Swansea University, UK, criticised the 3% collar weight rule for not factoring in “animal athleticism”. Using collar-attached accelerometers, the researchers found that during movement, the forces exerted by collars were generally equivalent to up to five times the collar’s weight for a lion — and a massive 18 times for a cheetah.
In theory, that would make a 400 g collar ‘weigh’ more than 7 kg on a sprinting cheetah — a lot of weight to carry on a wet coat.
* The pathogens that aggravated the wound under the collar could be novel either to the African cheetahs or to Indian conditions. These animals could be vulnerable to certain local pathogens to which Indian tigers and leopards may be immune. Or they could have carried some dormant pathogens that flourished in new conditions, given the animals’ loss of immunity due to stress.
“These are all possibilities, and we may be able to pinpoint the cause only when samples are lab tested,” Dr Rajesh Gopal, head of the Cheetah steering committee, said.
Future is uncertain
Kuno’s challenge right now is to track, immobilise, and check all the cheetahs for neck injuries. But putting all the animals back in Bomas will push the project back by several months.
Most critically, there is no roadmap yet for the next monsoon. “If these cheetahs are re-released with new radio collars, will they have to be captured again before the next monsoon?” wildlife biologist Dr Sanjay Gubbi said.
Dr Tordiffe acknowledged the problem.“It would be irresponsible for us to try and release cheetahs without collars. So this has created quite a serious issue. We have to come up with a solution.”
(Source: Radio collars are killing the cheetahs in Kuno. Here is how — and why by Jay Mazoomdaar)
3. MCQ:
With reference to Indian laws about wildlife protection, consider the following statements : (2022)
1.Wild animals are the sole property of the government.
2.When a wild animal is declared protected, such animal is entitled for equal protection whether it is found in protected areas or outside.
3.Apprehension of a protected wild animal becoming a danger to human life is sufficient ground for its capture or killing.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 2
(b) 2 only
(c) 1 and 3
(d) 3 only
WHY IN NEWS?
Less than two weeks after an Alzheimer’s drug developed by Biogen and Eisai won full approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody donanemab has been shown to significantly slow the progression of the disease if treated early.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Anonna Dutt Explains:
Lecanemab, a monoclonal antibody sold under the name Leqembi, was granted “accelerated” approval this January for its ability to reduce amyloid beta protein plaques in the brain — a defining feature of Alzheimer’s — and got full approval this month after later-stage results demonstrated 27% slowing of cognitive and functional decline over 18 months in comparison to a placebo.
On Monday, data on a 1,736-person trial released by Eli Lilly showed 47% of patients who were started on donanemab in the earliest stages of the disease had no disease progression on some measures after a year, compared with 29% for placebo.
While clinicians have welcomed the new therapies for a condition that has long been without a targeted drug, conversations have begun on the costs and benefits of bringing them to hospitals in India.
“…The modest benefits would likely not be questioned by patients, clinicians, or payers if amyloid antibodies were low-risk, inexpensive, and simple to administer. However, they are none of these,” an editorial published alongside the phase III data on donanemab in the journal JAMA said.
Real-world challenges
Therapy with donanemab would require an early diagnosis, careful selection of patients, screening the eligible among them, and following up with expensive tests while watching for severe adverse events that may lead to death. Those being screened would have to be tested for the APOE4 gene, which has been associated with a higher risk of adverse events.
The JAMA editorial pointed to the need for validated tools and expertise so that the disease may be suspected by primary care physicians and diagnosed through biomarkers in specialty dementia clinics.
It said special and expensive PET scans, the availability of which are limited in clinical settings, would be needed to stage protein abnormality levels in the brain before and during the treatment. “The costs will be substantial, not just for the medication itself, but also for the biomarker and imaging workup,” the editorial said.
Weighing the benefits
The phase 3 study with 1,736 patients, 860 of whom received the infusion every four weeks till the amyloid clumps cleared, showed that donanemab slows down cognitive decline in early Alzheimer’s patients by 35.1% in 76 weeks.
Dr Tordiffe acknowledged the problem.“It would be irresponsible for us to try and release cheetahs without collars. So this has created quite a serious issue. We have to come up with a solution.”
Weighing the benefits
The phase 3 study with 1,736 patients, 860 of whom received the infusion every four weeks till the amyloid clumps cleared, showed that donanemab slows down cognitive decline in early Alzheimer’s patients by 35.1% in 76 weeks.
“The slower decline is measured by tests that look at memory and motor skills, which translate into small daily activities like talking to another person. The therapy slows the progression of the disease, but does not ultimately treat it,” Dr Pravat K Mandal, senior researcher at the National Brain Research Centre, Gurgaon, said.
While the phase 3 trial results of lecanemab and donanemab cannot be compared directly — they used different scales for measuring cognitive decline — Monday’s results suggest that donanemab may have slightly higher adverse events.
Other than infusion-related reactions, the main adverse effect with drugs that clear out amyloid beta proteins is amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA) such as swelling or bleeding in the brain, most of which is asymptomatic. The study showed that 24% participants had ARIA involving brain swelling, and 19.7% involving brain bleeds. The study reported three treatment-related deaths.
Donanemab might still be preferred for the reason that infusion needs to be given every four weeks instead of two weeks with lecanemab. The patients switched over to placebo after there was a certain level of protein clearance in the donanemab study. “This is a welcome difference for patients and payers, limiting infusion-related burdens as well as longer-term costs,” the JAMA editorial said.
Dr Mandal said that given the huge costs, “it is inadvisable to administer the therapy for limited benefits; unless someone has the money and really wants to go for it”. He underlined that the therapy does not cure, which means “the benefits will be for a limited time”.
Dr P K Sethi, neurologist at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, said: “It is a very new drug; we still do not know all the adverse effects it may have. We have to see what happens when the drug is administered to a large number of people. Also, this is high-cost therapy, and we have to do a cost-benefit analysis.”
(Source: Breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s research: weighing benefit against costs by Anonna Dutt)
4. Recently seen in news, Donanemab is related to:
(a) COVID 19
(b) Alzhemier’s drug
(c) Both a and b
(d) Neither a nor b
WHY IN NEWS?
As Europe reels under a heatwave and wildfires, the rising temperatures have also raised fears of spread of viruses generally not found in colder climates. Alert has been sounded about the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), an infection spread by ticks that has a high fatality rate, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The CCHF is endemic to Africa, the Balkan countries, Middle East, and parts of Asia. The first fatality from the disease in Europe was in Spain, in 2016. According to Horizon, which publishes articles about European Union-funded research, “Scientists are now warning that CCHF, which can kill between 10% and 40% of patients, is spreading northward and westward in Europe.”
Cases have so far been reported in Spain, Russia and Turkey, and the UK.
In India, one person succumbed to CCHF last month in Gujarat, the state that reports the majority of the country’s cases of this disease.
What is CCHF?
According to the WHO, “Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a viral haemorrhagic fever usually transmitted by ticks. It can also be contracted through contact with viraemic animal tissues (animal tissue where the virus has entered the bloodstream) during and immediately post-slaughter of animals. CCHF outbreaks constitute a threat to public health services as the virus can lead to epidemics, has a high case fatality ratio (10–40%), potentially results in hospital and health facility outbreaks, and is difficult to prevent and treat.”
The virus is present in the tick family of insects. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), animals such as cattle, goats, sheep and hares “serve as amplifying hosts for the virus. Transmission to humans occurs through contact with infected ticks or animal blood. CCHF can be transmitted from one infected human to another by contact with infectious blood or body fluids”, such as sweat and saliva. The ticks can also be hosted by migratory birds, thus carrying the virus over long distances.
While the disease was first detected among soldiers in the Crimean Peninsula (near the Black Sea) in 1944, in 1969, it was found that an ailment identified in the Congo Basin was caused by the same pathogen. Thus, the disease was named the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever.
What are the symptoms, cure of CCHF?
CCHF symptoms include fever, muscle ache, dizziness, neck pain, backache, headache, sore eyes and sensitivity to light, according to the WHO.
There is no vaccine for the virus in either humans or animals, and treatment generally consists of managing symptoms. According to the WHO, “the antiviral drug ribavirin has been used to treat CCHF infection with apparent benefit.”
Climate change and spread of diseases
As temperature patterns are disrupted, pathogens are thriving in geographies that traditionally had a climate hostile to them. About CCHF, Professor Ali Mirazimi, a virologist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, told Modern Diplomacy, “The ticks are moving up through Europe due to climate change, with longer and drier summers.”
The CDC says climate change contributes to the spread of diseases in multiple ways, including warmer temperatures expanding the habitat of ticks and other insects and giving them more time to reproduce; the habitat offered by water undergoing changes; and animals moving to newer areas and people coming into contact with them.
(Source: Climate change aiding spread of deadly virus in Europe- What is CCHF)
5. With reference to Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, consider the following statements:
1. There is no vaccine for the virus in either humans or animals, and treatment generally consists of managing symptoms.
2. It is generally not found in cold climate regions.
Which of the above statement(s) is/are true?
(a) Only 1
(b) Only 2
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
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