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Daily News Analysis : 5 May, 2019

NewSpace- 2^nd business arm of Department of Space

·         The Department of Space (DoS) has registered its second commercial entity, NewSpace India Ltd. (NSIL), in Bengaluru.

·         DoS already has a commercial venture, Antrix Corporation Limited, which was set up in September 1992 to market the products and services of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001

·         Food and beverages giant PepsiCo dragged potato farmers to court for allegedly growing its registered potato variety used to make ‘Lays’ chips. Four small farmers from Sabarkantha district were sued ₹1.05 crore each, although they cite a law allowing them to grow and sell even registered plant varieties. Faced with growing social media outrage, boycott calls from farmers groups and condemnation from major political parties, the company finally agreed to withdraw cases after talks with the Gujarat government.

·         When was the variety introduced?

PepsiCo introduced the FC5 variety of potato that it uses to make its popular ‘Lays’ potato chips to India in 2009. The potato variety is grown by approximately 12,000 farmers who are a part of the company’s collaborative farming programme, wherein the company sells seeds to farmers and has an exclusive contract to buy back their produce. In 2016, the company registered the variety under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001 (PPV&FRA).

·         Finding that farmers who were not part of its collaborative farming programme were also growing and selling potatoes of this variety in Gujarat, PepsiCo filed rights infringement cases under the Act against some farmers in Sabarkantha, Banaskantha and Aravalli districts in 2018 and 2019. Farmers allege that the company hired a private detective agency to pose as potential buyers, take secret video footage and collect samples from farmers’ fields without disclosing its real intent.

·         Both PepsiCo and the farmers cite the same Act to support their opposing positions.

·         The PPV&FRA was enacted in 2001 to comply with the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Trade­ Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPR).

·         PepsiCo based its suits on Section 64 of the Act dealing with infringements of the registered breeder’s rights and subsequent penalties. The farmers’ legal case depended on Section 39 of the Act, which allows the cultivator to “save, use, sow, resow, exchange, share or sell his farm produce including seed of a variety protected under this Act” with the sole exception of branded seed.

·         Over the last decade, more than 3,600 plant varieties have been registered under the Act, with more than half of the registration certificates going to farmers themselves. This was the first case of infringement of rights under the Act, according to the central agency set up to implement the Act.

Daily News Analysis : 3 May, 2019

Microbots

·         These robots are the size of a speck of dust. Thousands fit side by side on a single silicon wafer similar to those used for computer chips, and they pull themselves free and start crawling.

·         Possible Uses :

Ø  They could crawl into cellphone batteries and clean and rejuvenate them.

Ø  They might be a boon to neural scientists, burrowing into the brain to measure nerve signals.

Ø  Millions of them in a petri dish could be used to test ideas in networking and communications.

·         Working : There are layers of platinum and titanium on a silicon wafer. When an electrical voltage is applied, the platinum contracts while the titanium remains rigid, and the flat surface bends. The bending became the motor that moves the limbs of the robots, each about 100 atoms thick powers the robots by shining lasers on tiny solar panels on their backs. The robots run on a fraction of a volt and consume only 10 billionths of a watt.

·         Challenges : For robots injected into the brain, lasers would not work as the power source. The scientists contemplate that magnetic fields might be an alternative. The scientist wants to make other robots swim rather than crawl because for tiny machines, swimming can be arduous as water becomes viscous, like honey.

Daily News Analysis : 1 May, 2019

Madras HC curbs L­G role in Puducherry

·         The Madras High Court has ruled that the Lieutenant­-Governor (L­G) of Puducherry could not interfere with the day­-to-­day administration of the Union Territory when an elected government was in place.

·         Authoring a 150 ­page judgement, Justice R. Mahadevan said: “The Central government as well as the Administrator [the term used in the Constitution to refer to the L­G] should be true to the concept of democratic principles. Otherwise, the constitutional scheme of the country of being democratic and republic would be defeated.”

·         The judge made it clear that government secretaries were bound to take instructions from the Ministers and the Council of Ministers, headed by the Chief Minister

·         The Madras High Court pointed out the significant differences in the powers conferred on the legislatures of Puducherry and Delhi under Articles 239A and 239AA of the Constitution.

·         The Judge said though Article 239AA imposes several restrictions on the legislature of Delhi, no such restrictions had been imposed explicitly in the case of Puducherry under Article 239A. The above Article symbolises the supremacy of the Legislature above the Administrator in case of the Union Territory of Puducherry.

·         Referring to the provisions of the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963, the Judge said Section 44 of the Act states that there shall be a Council of Ministers in each Union Territory to aid and advice the Administrator who shall act in his/her discretion only in so far as any special responsibilities were concerned. However, the Act does not specify the ‘special responsibilities’ in relation to which the L­G could apply his/her discretion.

NSEL ­FTIL merger: SC sets aside govt.’s decision

·         The Supreme Court declared the government’s amalgamation of the over ₹5,600 crore scam­hit National Spot Exchange Ltd. (NSEL) with Financial Technologies India Ltd. (FTIL), now known as 63 Moons Technologies Ltd., as a violation of both the Constitution and the Companies Act.

·         A Bench of Justices Rohinton Nariman and Vineet Saran held that the Centre’s amalgamation order of February 12, 2016 was ultra vires Section 396 of the Companies Act and contrary to Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution.

·         Section 396 of the Companies Act, 1956, deals with compulsory amalgamation of companies by a Central Government order when it becomes essential in the public interest.

·         The judgement held that there was complete non­ application of mind by the authority assessing compensation to the rights and interests of the shareholders and creditors of FTIL under Section 396(3) of the Companies Act”.

·         The Court held that the assessment order did not provide any compensation to either the shareholders or creditors of FTIL for the economic loss caused by the amalgamation is breach of Section 396(3), which is an important condition precedent to the passing of the final amalgamation order.