News in The Hindu

Ordinance to protect convicted lawmakers from disqualification passed

The Union cabinet on 24-09-2013 cleared an ordinance that will protect convicted MPs and MLAs from immediate disqualification, provided their appeal against the conviction and sentence is admitted by a higher court within 90 days and both the conviction and sentence are stayed.

The Representation of the people ( Second Amendment and Validation ) Bill, 2013

Highlights

Ø  MP or MLA will not be entitled to vote.

Ø  They cannot draw salary and allowances.

Ø  They may continue to participate in the proceedings of Parliament or the Legislature of the State.

Ordinance making power of the President

Ø  Article 123, Part V of the constitution empowers the President to promulgate ordinances during the recess of the parliament.

Ø  Ordinance have same  force and effect as an act of Parliament ,but they are temporary.

Ø  President can promulgate ordinance only when both the houses of the Parliament are not in session or when either of the two houses of Parliament is not in session.

Ø  President can promulgate ordinance only when he is satisfied that the circumstances exists that render it necessary for him to take immediate action.

Ø  An ordinance can be issued only on those subjects on which the Parliament can make laws.

Ø  It is subject to the same constitutional limitations as an act of the Parliament.

Ø  Every ordinance issued by the President should be laid before the Houses of the Parliament when it reassembles.

Ø  It should be approve by both the houses within 6 weeks after reassembly.

Ø  President can withdraw an ordinance at any time.

              RBI RELAXES TRADE CREDIT NORMS

Ø  RBI HAS RELAXED THE NORMS TO RAISE FUNDS FROM ABROAD.

Ø  Earlier ,only companies in the infrastructure sectors were allowed to raise such trade credits.

Ø  Now all types of companies can avail of trade credit facility.

Ø   

Ø  Trade credit should not exceed $20 million upto a maximum of five years for import of capital goods as classified by the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT)                              

Scale to measure and predict wildfires

U.S. researchers have been working on a system to measure and predict the destructiveness of wildfires similar to the way officials use the magnitude scale for earthquakes .

Ø  The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) hopes its Wildland Urban Interface Hazard Scale will tell residents the likely intensity of a wildfire burning into their neighbourhood.

Ø   It would allow city planners to assign better building codes for the millions of people who live in fire-prone areas in the U.S. West.

Ø  The proposed scale would range from E1 to E4 with E4 being a location’s highest exposure to fire.

Ø  Building codes and buffer zones between homes and forest could then be set.