My Science School

Agni-V

On April 19, 2012, India successfully test-fired 5000 km range Agni-V Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, developed by DRDO. Part of the Agni series of missiles, Agni V has been developed as a nuclear deterrent against China. The missile is expected to be inducted into service soon.

Dhanush

On Feb. 23, 2018, the nuclear-capable ‘Dhanush’ ballistic missile with a strike range of 350 km was successfully test-fired from a naval ship off Odisha coast. The surface-to-surface missile is a naval variant of the indigenously-developed ‘Prithvi 3’ missile.

Mission Shakti

On March 27, 2019, India conducted Mission Shakti, a high precision anti-satellite missile test, from the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Island launch complex. The significance of the test carried out by the DRDO is that India has successfully demonstrated its capability to intercept a satellite in outer space. With this test, the country joins an exclusive group of space-faring nations comprising the U.S., Russia and China.

 

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Triple Talaq: 2017

On Aug.22, 2017, the SC ruled that the traditional method of Muslim men instantly divorcing their wives by uttering “talaq” thrice was “unconstitutional” and “arbitrary”. Under the court’s instruction, the Lok Sabha on Dec. 27, 2018, passed the Muslim Women Bill (Triple Talaq) 2018, criminalizing the practice. The offence now attracts a fine and a jail term up to three years for the husband.

Section 377: 2018

In a historic judgment, the Supreme Court on September 6 decriminalized homosexuality with a prayer to the LGBTQ (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) community to forgive history for their “brutal” suppression. A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, further stated that sexual orientation is natural and choice of partner is part of the fundamental right to privacy.

Sabarimala: 2018

On September 28, 2018, the SC lifted the ban that prevented women and girls in the 10-50 age group from entering the famous Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala. It held that this centuries-old Hindu religious practice was illegal and unconstitutional. Subsequently on Nov 14, 2019, the SC referred the Sabarimala issues to a larger, seven-member bench after hearing pleas seeking a review of its decision to allow women of all ages into the temple.

Ayodhya: 2019

On Nov. 9, 2019, the decades-old sensitive Ayodhya land title case came to an end with the SC handling over possession of the disputed 2.77 acre site to the deity Ram Lalla, one of the three litigants in the case, and directed that a Ram temple be built on the site which many Hindus believe was the birth place of Ram. It directed that a trust be formed by the Central government within three months to manage the property and oversee the temple construction. The apex court also directed that 5 acres of land on an alternative site in Ayodhya be provided to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a mosque. It dismissed the plea of Nirmohi Akara seeking control of the entire disputed land. The court also ruled that the demolition of the Babri Masjid which stood at the disputed site in 1992 by kar sevaks was in violation of law.

 

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Indian-American economist Abhijit Banerjee won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics, along with his French-American wife Esther Duflo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Michael Kremer of Harvard University “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.” The three were recognized for their ability to divide the issue of tackling global poverty into smaller subjects. They were awarded medals and the prize money of nine million Swedish krona (approximately Rs 6.7 crore) in Sweden on Dec. 11, 2019. According to the Nobel citation, their extensive research will help in improving the ability to combat global poverty.

Banerjee and his co-workers try to measure the effectiveness of actions (such as government programmes) in improving people's lives. For this, they use randomized controlled trials, similar to clinical trials in medical research. For example, although polio vaccination is freely available in India, many mothers were not bringing their children for the vaccination drives. Banerjee and Prof. Esther Duflo, also from MIT, tried an experiment in Rajasthan, where they gifted a bag of pulses to mothers who vaccinated their children. Soon, the immunization rate went up in the region. In another experiment, they found that learning outcomes improved in schools that were provided with teaching assistants to help students with special needs.

 

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The Government of India on August5, 2019, revoked Article 370 which accorded special status to then state of Jammu and Kashmir. Included in the Indian Constitution on October 17, 1949, Article 370 permitted the state to draft its own Constitution and enjoy special rights. J&K citizens lived under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, ownership of property and fundamental rights. The Central government further bifurcated the state into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh. The Union territory of J&K has a legislature where key subjects such as law and order are with the Centre, while that of Ladakh has no legislature. Following the scrapping of Article 370, an uneasy calm prevailed in the Valley with restrictions on public movement and communication network.

In the case of Jammu and Kashmir, the representatives to the Constituent Assembly requested that only those provisions of the Indian Constitution that corresponded to the original Instrument of Accession should be applied to the State and that the state's constituent assembly, when formed, would decide on the other matters. Government of India agreed to the demands shortly before the above meeting with the other states. Accordingly, the Article 370 was incorporated into the Indian Constitution, which stipulated that the other articles of the Constitution that gave powers to the Central Government would be applied to Jammu and Kashmir only with the concurrence of the State's constituent assembly. This was a "temporary provision" in that its applicability was intended to last till the formulation and adoption of the State's constitution. However, the State's constituent assembly dissolved itself on 25 January 1957 without recommending either abrogation or amendment of the Article 370. Thus, the Article was considered to have become a permanent feature of the Indian constitution, as confirmed by various rulings of the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir, the latest of which was in April 2018.

 

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The National Register for Citizens (NRC) is a register which contains the names of genuine Indian citizenship in the country. NRC was aimed at identifying illegal immigrants who entered and settled in Assam, primarily from Bangladesh, after March 25, 1971 and deporting them to their native country. It was a state-specific exercise to retain the ethnic uniqueness of Assam. The final list of NRC was published on Aug. 31, 2019. A total of 3.29 crore people had applied for the NRC, of which 3.11 crore made it to the final list. Those excluded had to approach the Foreigners’ Tribunals set up across the state for the purpose. The Assam experience has been bad with reports suggesting the exclusion of a large number of genuine residents from the list.

In the meanwhile, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act was passed in Parliament on Dec 12, 2019, leading to widespread protests across the country. It was during a discussion on the Bill that Home Minister Amit Shah had proposed that the NRC be implemented pan-India. According to the CAA, member of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 and facing religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship. The law, however, excludes Muslims. The protesters feel the CAA discriminates against Muslims and violates the right to equality enshrined in the Constitution of India.

 

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The Balakot airstrike took place following days of rising tension between India and Pakistan. The strike was launched on February 26; two weeks after a Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist rammed an explosive-laden car into a CRPF convoy in J&K’s Pulwama. Forty CRPF jawans were killed in the attack. In response, the Indian Air Force bombed Jaish-e-Mohammad’s largest terror camp located in Balakot in Pakistan’s Kyber Pakhtunkhwa. The following day, Pakistan retaliated by attempting to target India’s military installations. In the aerial combat that followed, a Pakistani F-16 fighter aircraft was downed and an Indian MiG-21 Bison piloted by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was shot down. The injured pilot was taken prisoner by Pakistan and was released as a “gesture of peace” two days later, de-escalating tension between the two countries. Subsequently, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was awarded the Vir Chakra, India’s third-highest war time gallantry medal.

 

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The Union Cabinet on Dec 28, 2018 approved amendments to strengthen the POSCO Act and included death penalty for aggravated sexual assault on children, besides providing stringent punishments for other crimes against those aged below 18. The Protection of Children from sexual offences (Amendment) Bill, POSCO, 2019 was passed by Parliament on Aug 1, 2019. It seeks to enhance punishment for sexual offences against children, with a provision of death penalty.

Sections 14 and 15 of the POCSO Act, 2012 are also proposed to be amended to address the menace of the child pornography. It is proposed to levy fine for not destroying or deleting or reporting the pornographic material involving a child, the statement said. The offender can be further penalized with jail term or fine or both for transmitting propagating administrating such material in any manner except for the purpose of reporting as may be prescribed and for use as evidence in court. “Penal provisions have been made more stringent for storing/possessing any pornographic material in any form involving a child for commercial purpose," the official statement said.

 

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Tension between India and China escalated over the disputed Doklam on June 16, 2017, When Chinese troops tried to extend a border road through the Doklam area. Indian troops objected to it and the stand-off continued for a couple of months till Aug 28. The stand-off was resolved following mutual withdrawal of troops. The Indian Army is planning to institutionalise the key war committee that was created during the Doklam stand-off. Doklam is an area with a narrow plateau and a valley lying on the Bhutan-China border, near India. An area of strategic importance to all three countries, Doklam in Western Bhutan is disputed between China and Bhutan. India supports Bhutan’s claim.

The Bhutanese government told China that “the construction of the road inside Bhutanese territory is a direct violation of the agreements and affects the process of demarcating the boundary between our two countries.” On June 30, the Ministry of External Affairs said: “Such construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for India.”

The Chinese government released a map to accuse India of trespassing into its territory, and in a detailed statement in the first week of August, it said “India has no right to interfere in or impede the boundary talks between China and Bhutan.”

 

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The Goods and Services Tax, which came into effect on July 1, 2017, is an indirect tax levied on the supply of goods and services across the country. Simply put, it is one uniform indirect tax for the entire country. A comprehensive tax, it has done away with cascading taxes and consolidated Central and State levies. Under the GST, the customer is in a position to source from any supplier and the latter is in a position to access markets across the country.

GST would be levied on the basis of the destination principle. Exports would be zero-rated, and imports would attract tax in the same manner as domestic goods and services. In addition to the IGST in respect of supply of goods, an additional tax of up to 1% has been proposed to be levied by the central government. The revenue from this tax is to be assigned to the origin states. This tax is proposed to be levied for the first two years or a longer period, as recommended by the GST Council.

 

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For the first time, the annual budget for the Union Government was presented on February 1, 2017, a month earlier than usual, by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Lok Sabha. Also, the 92-years-old tradition of presenting the Railway budget ahead of the general budget was discontinued and the Railway budget was merged into the general budget. The decision was taken as part of the government’s budgetary reforms. According to a NITI Aayog report, as the size of the Railway budget had shrunken compared to the general budget, a separate Railway budget was not required.

 This was the largest allocation in the history of Indian Railways. This was a historic moment for the Indian Railways. In the budget of 2017, Jaitley paid special attention to passenger safety, development works, cleanliness and finance and accounting reforms. At the same time, in an unprecedented initiative, Jaitley also proposed listing of railway subsidiaries like IRCTC, IRCON and IRFC in the market.

 

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The past decade witnessed several protests by the people for a variety of reasons.

2011: When anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare began a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar on April 5, 2011, it led to the resignation of Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar from the group of ministers charged with reviewing the draft Jan Lokpal Bill.

2017: On January 8, 2017, the people of Tamil Nadu erupted in protest against a Supreme Court ban on Jallikattu following complaints of animal cruelty. Contending that the traditional bull-taming sport is quintessential to their cultural identity, people from all walks of life converged near Chennai’s Marina to express solidarity with the protesters. The protests gained momentum and soon spread all over the state. The Tamil Nadu government legalized Jallikattu on January 23, 2017.

2018: Thousand of farmers across the country began their march to Parliament on Nov. 30, 2018 to highlight the worsening agrarian crisis. They wanted their demands – better crop prices, drought relief and loan waivers- discussed in the winter session that year.

2019: Protests continue to rage in the country following the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in December 2019 and the proposed pan-India NRC.

 

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In September 2016, India inked a deal with France’s Dassault Aviation for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets as an estimated cost of Rs 59,000 crore or 7.8 billion. The original plan of the previous UPA govt was to buy 126 jets of which 18 would be in flyaway condition and the rest would be assembled in India by the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL). However, the deal fell through. In order to upgrade the ageing fleet of the IAF, the Modi government entered into the new deal for jets with India-specific enhancements. Besides, an offset clause was added under which France would invest 30% of the 7.8 billion in India’s military aerospace research programmes and 20% into local production of Rafale components. Ever since, questions were raised about the cost agreed upon for the aircraft, violation of procurement procedures, and the choice of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence Ltd as an offset partner over the experienced HAL. However, in December 2019, the Supreme Court dismissed all petitions alleging irregularities in the deal. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh received the first of the 36 jets at a ceremony in Paris on October 8, 2019.

 

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Demonetisation is withdrawal of a particular form of currency from circulation which means it is no longer legal tender. On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the biggest-ever demonetisation exercise in India. Notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denomination were scrapped. The move was undertaken to crack down on black money and curb terror funding. Cash shortages ensued, significantly affecting the country’s economy. The RBI’s annual report released months after the exercise said almost 99% (Rs 15.28 lakh crore) of the banned currency notes had been deposited in banks between Nov. 8, 2016 and June 30, 2017. With almost all of the money accounted for, there are doubts whether the exercise was effective.

 

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In May 2015, a scorching heat wave killed more than 1,500 people as temperatures soared above 47ºC. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were the worst-hit regions with more than 1,100 deaths, mainly caused by extreme dehydration and heat stroke. Extreme weather conditions are set to become more common as greenhouse gases heat up the planet say scientists.

Earlier in the decade too (June 2010), a heat wave struck India and South Asia, when temperatures touched 53ºC, killing hundreds of people. Record temperatures in northern India claimed lives in what was believed to be the hottest summer in the country since record began in the late 1800s. More than 100 people died in Gujarat, 90 in Maharashtra, 35 in Rajasthan and 34 in Bihar.

 

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The last decade saw two general elections – in 2014 and 2019 – both of which witnessed the victory of the BJP-led NDA.

The 2014 election, held from April 7 to May 12 saw the BJP-led NDA win a sweeping victory gaining 336 of 543 seats of which the BJP won 282 seats (31%), whereas the Congress won 44 seats (8.1%). It was the first time in the history of the country that a non-Congress party had won a simple majority on its own. It was also the Congress’ worst defeat, as it could not qualify to be the official opposition party for which a party should have gained 10% of the seats.

The country went to polls again in April-May 2019. The results saw a landslide victory for the incumbent BJP-led NDA which won 353 seats (of which BJP won 303 seats, a clear majority), while the Opposition UPA –Congress and it allies – secured 9 seats (of which Congress won 52 seats).

 

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