17th Nov Current Affairs News Analysis | Prelims & Mains 2020

• The judge, who leads a three-member Bench, withdrew from hearing the case.
• As a lawyer he represented some of the parties involved in the case.

 SUPREME COURT JUDGES

QUALIFICATIONS OF JUDGES

A person to be appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court should have the following qualifications:

• He should be a citizen of India.
• He should have been a judge of a High Court (or high courts in succession) for five years
• He should have been an advocate of a High Court (or High Courts in succession) for ten years
• He should be a distinguished jurist in the opinion of the President.

TENURE OF JUDGES

The Constitution has not fixed the tenure of a judge of the Supreme Court. However, it makes the following three provisions in this regard:

• He holds office until he attains the age of 65 years.
• Any question regarding his age is to be determined by such authority and in such manner as provided by Parliament.
• He can resign his office by writing to the President.
• He can be removed from his office by the President on the recommendation of the Parliament.

REMOVAL CRITERIA

• Retirement on completion of 65 years.
• Resignation
• Impeachment
• Grounds for removal: proven misbehavior, incapacity

KOCHI-MANGALURU PIPELINE

• The 444-km-long natural gas pipeline was launched in 2009 at an estimated cost of ₹2,915 crore and was to be commissioned in 2014.

‘TESTING IS ON’

• The most difficult stretch across the Chandragiri river in Kasaragod district ;  testing was completed.
• Within this week itself, gas will reach Mangaluru through the 444-km pipeline.
• The pipeline is charged up to Kannur now and has been live up to Koottanad in Palakkad district, 90 km north of Kochi, since June 2019.
• The first phase of the project was commissioned in August 2013 in the Kochi metropolitan area.
• The industrial supplies and domestic supplies from February 2016 are by Adani Gas.

BENEFICIARIES

• Koottanad is the main junction of the project. From here, the line bifurcates to Mangaluru and Bengaluru.
• With the commissioning of the pipeline, gas demand in Kerala will touch 80-90 million cubic metres per annum from 60 million cubic metres now.

• Apart from huge environmental gains, the State can gain monetarily as it can get up to ₹1,000 crore by way of taxes alone.

ACADEMIC MIGRATION

SOURCES : THE HINDU

• COVID-19 is likely to pull those figures down even further.

• However, 90 per cent of institutions reported that students have deferred enrolment by a year.
• It means that many may be hoping to resume their plans to study in the U.S. next year.

CHINA HAS BIGGER SHARE

• Only China, with 35 per cent, holds a bigger share of the international population in American institutions.

• In fact, this is the sharpest decline since the 5 per cent fall in 2005-06.
• The 2020-21 drop is likely to be steeper still, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• A survey of fall enrolment at 700 institutions showed that 20 per cent of their international students are studying online this year.
• There is no data split available by country of origin for the 2020 enrolments.

ADMISSIONS DEFERRED

• The total number of international students — including those studying online — dipped 16 per cent.

• The number of new international students who are in the U.S. and able to attend physical classes has slumped 72 per cent.
• The institutions surveyed said 40,000 of their students had deferred fall admission to a future semester.

• The vaccine will not be widely available for months, probably not until spring.
• Moderna is the second company to report preliminary data on an apparently successful vaccine.
• Pfizer, in collaboration with BioNTech, was the first, reporting a week ago that its vaccine was more than 90% effective.

LONGER SHELF LIFE

• Moderna also said its vaccine has a longer shelf life under refrigeration and at room temperature than previously reported.

• Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, developed its vaccine in collaboration with researchers from the Vaccine Research Center, part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
• The company announced on October 22 that it had completed enrolment of its 30,000-person study.
• 25,650 participants had already received two shots.

KEY POINTS

• The notification specifies imposing a 26% cap on FDI under government route for uploading/streaming of news and current affairs through digital media.

• This will be about the shareholding pattern along with the “names and addresses of its directors/shareholders”.
• These details have to be submitted within a month.
• The firms which have more than 26% of FDI have been instructed to take steps to bring down the figure before October 15, 2021.