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1. All States can now constitute Foreigners Tribunals (Relevant for GS Prelims & Mains

Paper II; Polity & Governance)

In line of Assam’s National Register of Citizens, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has laid

out specific guidelines to detect, detain and deport foreign nationals staying illegally across

the country.

What are the guidelines?

The MHA has amended the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964, and has empowered district

magistrates in all States and Union Territories to set up tribunals to decide whether a person

staying illegally in India is a foreigner or not. Earlier, the powers to constitute tribunals were

vested only with the Centre.

The tribunals are unique to Assam, to determine if a person staying illegally is a “foreigner”

or not. In other parts, once a ‘foreigner’ has been apprehended by the police for staying

illegally, he or she is produced before a local court under the Passport Act, 1920, or the

Foreigners Act, 1946, with the punishment ranging three months to eight years in jail.

Once the accused have served the sentence, the court orders their deportation, and they are

moved to detention centres till the country of origin accepts them.

What is the change in the new guidelines?

The 1964 order on Constitution of Tribunals said: “The Central Government may by order,

refer the question as to whether a person is not a foreigner within meaning of the Foreigners

Act, 1946 (31 of 1946) to a Tribunal to be constituted for the purpose, for its opinion.”

The amended order issued last week says – “for words Central Government may,’ the words

‘the Central Government or the State Government or the Union Territory administration or

the District Collector or the District Magistrate may’ shall be substituted.”

What is the need for tribunals?

Recently, the MHA sanctioned around 1,000 Tribunals to be set up in Assam in the wake of

publication of the final NRC by July 31. As per directions of the Supreme Court, the Registrar

General of India (RGI) published the final draft list of NRC on July 30 last year to segregate

Indian citizens living in Assam from those who had illegally entered the State from

Bangladesh after March 25, 1971. Nearly 40 lakh people were excluded from Assam’s final

draft published last year. The NRC is a fallout of the Assam Accord, 1985. As many as 36 lakh

of those excluded have filed claims against the exclusion, while four lakh residents haven’t

applied.

The amended Foreigners (Tribunal) Order, 2019 also empowers individuals to approach the

Tribunals. “Earlier only the State administration could move the Tribunal against a suspect,

but with the final NRC about to be published and to give adequate opportunity to those not

included, this has been done. If a person doesn’t find his or her name in the final list, they

could move the Tribunal,” explained a senior government official.

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(Source:https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/all-states-can-now-constitute-

foreigners-tribunals/article27706366.ece)

2. Sportswear giant set to tap Indian firm’s PET project to cut virgin plastic use

(Relevant for GS Prelims; Environment & Biodiversity)

Conversion of Plastic bottles into yarn

Global sportswear giant Adidas aims at eliminating the use of virgin plastics in its products

by 2024 — with a little help from a Maharashtra-based firm — the only one of its kind in the

country to produce yarn out of discarded PET bottles.

At its first factory set up in Nashik five years ago, Polygenta Technology Limited deploys

unique technology to break down used PET (short for Polyethylene Terephthalate) bottles

and convert them into polyester filament yarn.

(Source:https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/sportswear-giant-

set-to-tap-indian-firms-pet-project-to-cut-virgin-plastic-use/article27705975.ece)

3. Why late monsoon is not related to total seasonal rainfall (Relevant for GS Prelims

& Mains Paper I; Geography)

Timing of monsoon is not indicator of amount of rainfall

The onset of the southwest monsoon over Kerala, which happened on June 8, marks the

beginning of the four-month monsoon season over India. It came a week after its normal date

of June 1.

The southwest monsoon brings over 70% of India’s annual rainfall. Though an important

marker for the season, the timing of the onset does not have any bearing on the quality or

amount of rainfall during the season. It is just an event during the progress of the monsoon.

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Onset of monsoon

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands generally start getting monsoon rainfall between May 15

and 20, and the Kerala coast generally begins to have monsoon rainfall sometime in the last

week of May. The onset of the monsoon is announced when certain criteria are fulfilled after

May 10. If at least 60% of the 14 designated meteorological stations in Kerala and

Lakshadweep report at least 2.5 mm rain for two consecutive days after May 10 — and a few

other conditions relating to wind and temperature are also fulfilled — the onset of monsoon

is said to have taken place; if not, it is not declared. The IMD announced that all the conditions

were fulfilled on the morning of June 8.

Progression of monsoon

A delayed onset has the potential to delay the arrival of the monsoon in other parts of the

country as well, especially in south India, most of which starts getting rainfall within days of

it reaching the Kerala coast. However, it does not mean that the monsoon over the entire

country would be delayed.

The northward progression of the monsoon from the Kerala coast depends on a lot of local

factors, including the creation of low pressure areas. It is possible, therefore, that despite the

onset happening late, other parts of the country start getting rains on time.

The IMD has maintained that most of the northern and eastern parts of the country, which

start receiving rainfall only towards the end of June and early July, would have monsoon rain

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on time. But southern and central India, which have normal monsoon arrival dates in the

first, second and third weeks of June, would obviously get delayed rains.

The delay in the onset over the Kerala coast also means that the June rainfall is likely to be

deficient. But the IMD has predicted that some of this deficiency would be made up for in July

and August, and that the overall seasonal rainfall would be around the 96% of the normal

that it has predicted. India as a whole receives about 89 cm of rainfall in a normal monsoon

season.

(Source:https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/fact-check-why-late-monsoon-is-

not-related-to-total-seasonal-rainfall-5772444/)

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