DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

23 MARCH 2022 – CA

No.	Topic Name	Prelims/Mains
1.	DETAILS OF THE NATIONAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY	Prelims & Mains
2.	ABOUT THE J&K DELIMIATION COMMISSION	Prelims & Mains
3.	ABOUT THE PILLAR OF SHAME IN HONG KONG	Prelims & Mains
4.	DETAILS OF THE TOKENISATION	Prelims Specific

 

1 – DETAILS OF THE NATIONAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY:

GS II

Topic – Statutory and Non-Statutory Bodies

• About:
• The Central Counter Terrorism Law Enforcement Agency is in charge of it.
• It has the authority to prosecute terror-related crimes across state lines without the need for special authorisation from the states.
• The National Investigation Agency was established in 2008 under the National Investigation Agency Act. Ministry of Home Affairs is the governing body.
• Jurisdiction:
• If a case has been registered for the offences listed in the NIA Act’s schedule, a State Government may request that the Central Government take over the investigation to the NIA.
• The Central Government can also instruct the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take over the investigation of any scheduled offense anywhere in India.
• Composition:
• The NIA is made up of officers from the Indian Police Service and the Indian Revenue Service.
• NIA Special Courts:
• The Central Government of India has notified numerous Special Courts for the trial of charges filed at various NIA police stations under Sections 11 and 22 of the NIA Act 2008.
• The Central Government decides on any question of these courts’ jurisdiction.
• On the proposal of the Chief Justice of the High Court having jurisdiction in that region, the Central Government appoints a judge to preside over these.
• The Supreme Court of India has also been given the authority to transfer cases from one special court to another special court within or outside the state if it is in the best interests of justice in light of the conditions in that state.
• For the trial of any offense, the NIA Special Courts have all the powers of a court of sessions under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
• A Special Court judgment, sentence, or order that is not an interlocutory order may be appealed to the High Court on both facts and law.
• State governments have also been given the authority to appoint one or more special courts in their respective jurisdictions.
• Source – The Hindu

2 – ABOUT THE J&K DELIMITATION COMMISSION:

GS II

Topic – Indian Constitution

• The Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission (chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai) has issued the following recommendations:
• Increase the number of seats in the Jammu division by six and one in the Kashmir division by one.
• Scheduled Caste (SC) and Schedule Tribe (ST) communities would be given 16 seats.
• Implications:
• J&K’s Legislative Assembly will now have 90 members, up from 87 before the Centre decided to abolish J&K’s unique constitutional status.
• These suggestions are based on the following:
• The Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission has stated that its final report will be based on the 2011 Census, as well as geography, difficult terrain, communication, and convenience for the ongoing delimitation exercise.
• A timeline of the delimitation exercise in J&K:
• A Delimitation Committee carried out the first delimitation exercise in 1951, carving up 25 assembly constituencies in the then-state.
• On the basis of the 1981 Census, the first full-fledged Delimitation Commission was established in 1981, and its proposals were delivered in 1995. There has been no delimitation since then.
• The Delimitation Commission was established in 2020 to carry out the exercise based on the 2011 Census, with the objective of adding seven more seats to the Union Territory and granting reservations to SC and ST communities.
• The total number of seats in Jammu and Kashmir would now be increased from 83 to 90. This is in addition to the 24 seats in the Assembly that have been set aside for areas of PoK and must remain empty.
• What exactly is delimitation, and why is it so important?
• The Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission was established by the Centre on March 6, 2018 to redraw the union territory’s Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies in accordance with the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 and Delimitation Act, 2002, which were passed by the Centre in August 2019 along with other J&K-specific Bills.
• Delimitation is the process of determining the borders or limits of territorial constituencies in a state with a legislative assembly.
• Who is responsible for carrying out the exercise:
• A powerful commission is in charge of delimitation. The Delimitation Commission or Boundary Commission is their official name.
• These bodies are so strong that their decisions have the force of law and cannot be overturned in a court of law.
• The Commission is made up of the following members:
• The Delimitation Commission will be chaired by a current or retired Supreme Court judge, with the Chief Election Commissioner or an Election Commissioner selected by the CEC and the State Election Commissioner acting as ex-officio members, according to the Delimitation Commission Act of 2002.
• Provisions of the Constitution:
• After each Census, Parliament enacts a Delimitation Act under Article 82.
• Every Census, under Article 170, states are divided into territorial constituencies based on the Delimitation Act.
• Source – The Hindu

3 – ABOUT THE PILLAR OF SHAME IN HONG KONG:

Prelims Specific Topic:

• About the Pillar of Shame:
• Danish artist Jens Galschiot created The Pillar of Shame, a frightening eight-metre tall sculpture depicting linked people with hollowed eyes and wide mouths — an agonizing mass of humanity — as an homage to the victims of China’s crackdown in Tiananmen Square in June 1989.
• What exactly is the problem now:
• The statue has been on display at Hong Kong University (HKU) since 1997, immediately after one of Hong Kong’s annual June vigils in Victoria Park, where tens of thousands of people gathered to commemorate the anniversary.
• The vigil was symbolic of Hong Kong’s unique status under the “one country, two systems” paradigm, which afforded it liberties not available on the mainland, where June 4 commemorations are prohibited.
• The vigil was not held for the first time in June of this year, with police cordoning off the site.
• If the end of the vigil was a hint that one of Hong Kong’s unique freedoms was eroding, the removal of the statue has now been added to the list.

• Source – The Hindu

4 – DETAILS OF THE TOKENISATION:

Prelims Specific Topic:

• What is RBI’s Tokenization, and how does it work:
• Tokenization is the process of replacing actual card details with a unique alternate code known as a ‘token,’ which is unique for each card, token requestor (i.e. the entity that accepts a customer’s request for tokenization of a card and passes it on to the card network to issue a corresponding token), and identified device.
• The merchant, the merchant’s acquirer, the card payment network, the token requestor, the issuer, and the client are usually involved in a tokenized card transaction.
• An entity other than those listed may, however, take part in the transaction.
• Its goal is to improve the payment system’s safety and security.
• The Reserve Bank has previously allowed ‘tokenization’ services on cardholders’ mobile phones and tablets, in which a unique alternate code is issued for transaction purposes.
• In 2019, the RBI announced “Tokenization – Card Transactions” rules, allowing approved card networks to provide card tokenization services to any token requestor, subject to certain criteria.
• Prior to the recent circular, the feature was only available for interested cardholders’ mobile phones and tablets.
• Because the real card details are not shared with the merchant during transaction processing, a tokenized card transaction is deemed safer.
• Source – The Hindu