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 The Constitution distributes the legislative powers between the Parliament and the State Legislature, and, they are required to act within their respective spheres  Often the question arises as to whether or not the legislature enacting the law has transgressed the limits of its constitutional powers. Such transgression may be patent, manifest or direct, but it may also be disguised, covert and indirect. The doctrine of colourable legislation is applied when the transgression is disguised, covert and indirect. As per the doctrine of “occupied field” enshrined in Article 254(1) of the Constitution, if there exists a Central law on a concurrent subject, then a State law cannot override it. Article 254(2) provides that if a State law receives presidential assent after due consideration, then it can apply in contravention to the Central law in that particular State Article 254(2) was intended to bring in changes to Central laws if there was a genuine hurdle in implementing them in a parti

 Speedy disposal of justice at minimum cost to the public is the objective of the institution. The Gram Nyayalaya will function from the block panchayat hall and make legal help available to people at the block panchayat level. the rural court would intervene in public issues, and that it was a forum to make justice available at the local level These institutions are the logical next step in the decentralisation effort, which will provide access to justice to citizens at the grassroots level Under the Gram Nyayalaya, mobile courts, with the powers of judicial magistrate would be set up at Panchayat level The Central Government has decided to meet the non-recurring expenditure on the establishment of these Gram Nyayalayas A substantial number of the courts pertain to community areas, water and other common resources such as pastoral land. The Act also makes the judicial process participatory and decentralised because it allows appointment of local social activists and lawyers as mediato

 The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) is a short-horned grasshopper These winged insects differ from normal hoppers, and become dangerous only when their populations build up rapidly and the close physical contact in crowded conditions triggers behavioural changes. The normal breeding season for locusts in India is July-October. But this time, they have been sighted by mid-April. Locusts are polyphagous, i.e. they can feed on a wide variety of crops. Secondly, they have an ability to multiply rapidly. A single female desert locust lays 60-80 eggs thrice during its roughly 90-day life cycle. the Mekunu and Luban cyclonic storms of May and October 2018 that struck Oman and Yemen, respectively. These turned large desert areas in remote parts of the southern Arabian Peninsula into lakes, which allowed the insects to breed undetected across multiple generations. The main locust breeding areas in the Horn of Africa, Yemen, Oman, Southern Iran and Pakistan’s Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtu

 The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest judicial body having trans-national jurisdiction The International Court of Justice (ICJ) started work in 1946 The ICJ has its seat at The Hague, the Netherlands, and has the jurisdiction to settle disputes between countries and examine cases pertaining to violation of human rights It is the judicial arm of the United Nations. The UN Security Council is authorised by Chapter XIV of the United Nations Charter to enforce Court rulings, but enforcement is subject to veto by permanent members of the Security Council. The ICJ has a total strength of 15 judges who are elected to nine-year terms of office. Judges are elected by members of the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council, where polling takes place simultaneously but independent of each other. In order to be elected, a candidate must have an absolute majority in both bodies, which often leads to much lobbying, and a number of rounds of voting. In order to ensure

to provide a dedicated platform for cooperation among solar resource-rich countries  Earlier, there was no specific body in place to address the specific solar technology deployment needs of the solar resource-rich countries located between the Tropic of Cancer & the Tropic of Capricorn  The absence of universal energy access, energy equity, & affordability are issues common to most of the solar resource-rich countries.  International Solar Alliance (ISA) is conceived as a coalition of solar resource-rich countries to address their special energy needs & will provide a platform to collaborate on addressing the identified gaps through a common, agreed approach  It will not duplicate or replicate the efforts that others (like International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), International Energy Agency (IEA), Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st  Century (REN21), United Nations bodies, bilateral organizations

 Cyclones that form in every ocean basin across the world are named by the regional specialised meteorological centres (RSMCs) and Tropical Cyclone Warning Centres (TCWCs). There are six RSMCs in the world, including the India Meteorological Department (IMD), and five TCWCs. As an RSMC, the IMD names the cyclones developing over the north Indian Ocean, including the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea, after following a standard procedure.  The IMD is also mandated to issue advisories to 12 other countries in the region on the development of cyclones and storms  In 2000, a group of nations called WMO/ESCAP (World Meteorological Organisation/United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), which comprised Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand, decided to start naming cyclones in the region. After each country sent in suggestions, the WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones (PTC) finalised the list. The WMO/ESCAP expanded to inclu

 Kalapani is a region located in the easternmost corner of Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district. It shares a broder on the north with the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and Nepal in the east and south. The region resembles a slice of cake wedged in between Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani. The area is in India’s control but Nepal claims the region because of historical and cartographic reasons The area is the largest territorial dispute between Nepal and India consisting of at least 37,000 hectares of land in the High Himalayas. The Kalapani region derives its name from the river Kali. Nepal’s claims to the region is based on this river as it became the marker of the boundary of the kingdom of Nepal following the Treaty of Sugauli signed between the Gurkha rulers of Kathmandu and the East India Company after the Gurkha War/Anglo-Nepal War (1814-16). According to the treaty of 1816, Nepal lost the regions of Kumaon-Garhwal in the west and Sikkim in the east. According to Article 5, t

 These are handed out to those who have recovered from COVID-19 for the purpose of travel.  Immunity passports are also known as ‘risk-free certificates.’ According to the World Health Organisation, use of such certificates could lead to the risk of continued transmission. The risk of reinfections is mentioned by some infectious disease consultants Antibody tests do not quantify the amount of antibodies and still hard to say what is protection.  Many countries are having the testing deficit . Still people will rush for tests to get such passport. It can bring inaccessibility for poor people Reliability of antigen tests has certain limits  The “immunity passport system is compromising the privacy as it has no clear provisions for identification and monitoring.  Other contentious issues would be profiteering by private labs performing tests, and the menace of fake certificates.  It will further divide the society with different ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. Estonia is building an "immuni

 These are handed out to those who have recovered from COVID-19 for the purpose of travel.  Immunity passports are also known as ‘risk-free certificates.’ According to the World Health Organisation, use of such certificates could lead to the risk of continued transmission. The risk of reinfections is mentioned by some infectious disease consultants Antibody tests do not quantify the amount of antibodies and still hard to say what is protection.  Many countries are having the testing deficit . Still people will rush for tests to get such passport. It can bring inaccessibility for poor people Reliability of antigen tests has certain limits  The “immunity passport system is compromising the privacy as it has no clear provisions for identification and monitoring.  Other contentious issues would be profiteering by private labs performing tests, and the menace of fake certificates.  It will further divide the society with different ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. Estonia is building an "immuni

  Sovereign gold bond is a substitute for holding physical gold. issued by the Reserve Bank of India  The government issues such bonds in tranches at a fixed price that investors can buy through banks, post offices and also in the secondary markets through the stock exchange platform. These bonds are backed by a sovereign guarantee and can also be held in demat form.  they are priced as per the underlying spot gold prices these bonds offer an interest at the rate of 2.5% per annum on the principal investment amount.  While the interest on the bonds are taxable, the capital gains at the time of redemption are exempt from tax These bonds can also be used as collateral for availing loans from banks and NBFCs.  It has a fixed tenure of eight years, though early redemption is allowed after the fifth year from issuance. the bonds are listed on the exchange, these can be transferred to other investors as well.  The bonds are priced in rupees based on the simple average of closing price of gol

 A coparcenary is a smaller unit of the family that jointly owns property. Coparcener is a person who has a birthright to parental property A coparcenary consists of a ‘propositus’, that is, a person at the top of a line of descent, and his three lineal descendants — sons, grandsons and great-grandsons  Coparcenary property is named thus because the co-ownership is marked by “unity of possession, title and interest”. the concept is found in the Mitakshara school, which prevails in most parts of India, a male’s right to be a coparcener is by birth coparcenary has succession up to four degrees of lineal descent.  When the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, Section 6, says that when a male Hindu died after the Act came into force, his interest in a Mitakshara coparcenary shall go to the surviving members of the coparcenary and not in accordance with the Act a provision was added to preserve the interest of female children. It said if the deceased left behind a Class I female relative (daughter,

 Also known as the competitive exclusion principle, this refers to the proposition that the populations of two competing species cannot remain at stable levels over time. When two species compete for control over a limited amount of resources, the dominant species will take advantage over its weak competitor. This will cause the weaker species to get excluded from its previous territory and its population to drop over time. The law is named after Soviet biologist Georgii Gause although it was formulated first by American biologist Joseph Grinnell in his 1904 paper “The Origin and Distribution of the Chestnut-Backed Chickadee”. In cases where no extinction occurs, this is because adaptation to slightly different niches takes place. ecological communities are assembled by species evolutionary differentiation and progressive adaptation to different niches Core ideas in community ecology, such as adaptation, niche differentiation and limiting similarity, all rely on this principle. classic