Current Affairs

1. RECENTLY, THE UNION MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INAUGURATED ‘NAUSENA BHAWAN’, THE FIRST HEADQUARTER BUILDING OF THE INDIAN NAVY, IN NEW DELHI –

• Previously, the Navy operated from 13 different locations, necessitating a consolidated headquarters.
• The major bases of the Indian Navy are located at Mumbai, Goa, Karwar, Kochi, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata and Port Blair.
• The building has achieved Green Rating IV under the integrated habitability assessment.
• Every year, Indian Navy Day is celebrated on 4th December to respect the Indian Navy’s counter-attack in Operation Trident during the Indo-Pakistan War 1971.

 

2. THE (ECI) HAS, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE HISTORY OF THE LS ELECTIONS, EXTENDED ITS ‘VOTE-FROM-HOME’ FACILITY TO PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES (PWD) AND SENIOR CITIZENS AGED 85 AND ABOVE –

• Eligibility Criteria for Vote-from-Home- Age: Individuals aged 85 and above.
• Persons with Disabilities- Those with a disability of at least 40% as certified by the relevant authority.
• Mediapersons- Individuals covering polling day activities, provided they carry authorization letters from the Election Commission.
• Essential Service Workers- Including personnel from metros, railways, and healthcare.
• Service Voters- Members of the armed forces stationed away from their hometowns, Central Armed Police Forces personnel on duty away from home, and those assigned to poll duties.

 

Process to Avail Vote-from-Home Facility-

• The primary document required is Form 12D, a letter to the Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) explaining the inability to visit the polling station.It can be downloaded from the official website of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
• Alternatively, it can be obtained from the office of the representative district officer of a parliamentary constituency.
• The completed form must be submitted within five days from the date the polling date is announced. Upon submission of the form, a team comprising two polling officials, a videographer, and a security person will visit the eligible voter’s residence.This team will oversee and facilitate the postal ballot voting process.
• The voter will be informed about the scheduled date and approximate time of the team’s visit either via SMS or postal mail.Two attempts will be made to facilitate home voting.
• If the voter is not present during the first visit, a second visit will be scheduled.However, if the voter is absent during the second attempt, no further visits will be made.
• Such individuals will become ineligible to vote both at polling stations and through the home voting scheme in that election cycle.

 

3. SUPREME COURT’S STAY ON GOVT’S FACT CHECK UNIT –

• Supreme Court had stayed the operation of the amended IT rules which introduced Fact Check Unit (FCU) to identify “fake news” on social media.

FCU under Public Information Bureau (PIB)-

• Launch year- 2019, Ministry- Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It is based in the National Media Centre (New Delhi).
• Its mandate is to counter misinformation related to government policies, initiatives, and schemes.
• Its coverage is on matter that does not pertain to the Union Government is not taken up for evaluation or fact-checking by the PIB unit.

 

Why Supreme Court stayed the operation of FCU-

• The petitioners argues that FCU could potentially be misused by the government to control information available to voters, impacting free speech.
• Split verdict- It was delivered by the Bombay High Court about the validity of Rule 3(1)(b)(5) of IT rules 2021, with one judge striking down the rules and another upholding them, a third judge’s decision is pending.
• The Supreme Court stayed the FCU operation until Bombay High Court arrives at a final decision on the challenge to the amended IT rules.