11th, August, 2022

 

Topic: No Confidence Motion in Legislative Assembly

 

Importance: Himachal HPAS Prelims and Mains

 

What is the news?

• Congress and the CPM filed a no-confidence motion against the state government in the Vidhan Sabha on the first day of the monsoon session here today.
• Speaker Vipin Parmar accepted the motion following a heckle by the opposition.

 

No-confidence motion against the Himachal Pradesh government defeated by voice vote.

What is Voice Vote?

• Voice voting is the preferred method of decision making by the Indian Parliament. MPs/MLA’s in favor of a decision call out “Ayes” and those opposed say “Noes”.
• The Speaker then takes a call on which voices was louder and conveys the decision of the House.

To understand the non-confidence motion in the Legislative Assembly:

What is a No Confidence Motion?

• No Confidence Motion is a formal proposal moved by the opposition against the ruling government in the Lok Sabha under Rule 198 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha.
• According to the No Confidence Motion, if the ruling party fails to prove its majority in Lok Sabha after the passing of the motion, it must resign and so is the case of Legislative assembly.

The non-confidence motion is a major tool against the Cabinet in the Lok Sabha. For the motion to be accepted, a minimum of 50 members of the Lok Sabha should support it. The motion of no confidence in the government can only be tabled in the Lok Sabha.

 

Article 164 Deals with this.

What is Article 164 of Indian Constitution?

• Article 164 is the supreme law of India of the Indian constitution. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishes government institutions’ structure, procedures, powers, and duties, and sets out fundamental rights, directive principles, and citizens’ responsibilities.

 

 The four have the following responsibilities:

Article 164 (1): The state’s governor appointed the Chief Minister.
Article 164 (2): The state’s Legislative Assembly is the responsibility of The Council of Ministers.
Article 164 (3): The Governor assists the minister’s commitments.
Article 164 (4): A Minister shall stop being a minister after six months who is not a member of the Legislative Assembly.

 

What kind of majority is required on a non-confidence motion?

Simple Majority

• This represents a majority of over 50% of the members present and voting.
• This is also known as functional majority or working majority. The simple majority is the most frequently used form of majority in Parliamentary business.
• When the constitution or laws do not specify the type of majority required, a simple majority is taken into consideration for the vote.

To understand simple majority, let us consider a situation in Lok Sabha. On a particular day, out of the total strength of 545, 45 were absent and 100 abstained from voting on an issue. So only 400 members were present and voting. Then the simple majority is 50% of 400 plus 1, ie. 201.

• Ordinary bills need to be passed by a simple majority in both Houses of the Parliament before it is sent to Indian President for his assent.

 

Examples where the simple majority is used:

• To pass Ordinary/Money/Financial bills.
• To pass Non-Confidence Motion/Adjournment Motion/Censure Motion/Confidence Motion.
• For the removal of the Vice President majority required in Lok Sabha is the simple majority – A67(b).
• To declare a financial emergency.
• To declare a state emergency (President’s rule).
• Election of Speaker/Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha and State legislatures.
• Constitution Amendment Bill under Article 368 which needs to be ratified by states, require only a simple majority at State Legislatures.

(Source: The Tribune)

 

 

Topic: Education Sector

 

Importance: Himachal HPAS Prelims and Mains

 

What is the news?

• Online management system for private universities to start by year end.

What is the aim of this initiative?

• Students, faculty, infrastructure and grievance modules of an online management system aimed at ensuring transparency and real-time information exchange between Himachal Pradesh Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission (HPPEIRC) and private universities are ready and the system is slated to be functional by the end of the year.

 

To check fake degrees, ghost faculty:

• Information regarding admission norms and attendance will be available in the student module while faculty details, including salary and perks and eligibility, will be a part of the faculty module.
• A biometric system for students and faculty members will be made mandatory in order to reduce the scope of allotting fake degrees to dummy students and ensure that a teacher is not working in several educational institutions.

 

What is Ghost Faculty?

• Anyone who has even briefly been associated with the administration of medical colleges in India, both public and private, would know that ‘ghosts’ are endemic here.
• These colleges have ghost faculty that appear during inspections by authorities and disappear into an ephemeral cloud as soon as inspections are over.

 

Why does the need of this arise?

• A large number of cases in which students procured degrees from universities while being employed elsewhere had come to the notice of the commission and a biometric system for students and faculty members will be made mandatory to reduce the scope of allotting fake degrees to dummy students and also ensure that the same teacher is not working in several educational institutions.

 

How it will help the students, faculty and parents?

• The students, faculty and parents will be able to lodge their grievances through this platform which will also contain details of infrastructure for running courses offered by the universities.
• Aiming for the free exchange of ideas, best practices, research work, innovations of all private universities would be available in the knowledge bank module for ready reference.
• The fully automated online system would ensure real-time information exchange about infrastructure, admissions, faculty, courses offered, student strength, financial status of institutions, information shared under RTI and grievances of the students.
• About 75 per cent of the system is ready and stitching and integration of various modules is to be completed, said chairman of HPPEIRC, Maj General (Retd), Atul Kaushik.

 

Who made this Online Management System?

• A tender of Rs 1 crore for an online management system was awarded to the ITI Limited, a Chandigarh-based Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) and a high-level committee was constituted to monitor the progress of the project.

(Source: The Tribune)

 

Topic: Sports

 

Importance: Himachal HPAS Prelims and Mains

 

What is the news?

• The government will shower money on the players who win medals in the Commonwealth Games. Renuka Singh Thakur, Vikas Thakur will be given an amount of Rs 1 crore each.
• Whereas, boxer Ashish Chaudhary will get ten lakh rupees. Apart from this, the players who win medals will also be offered the job of class one officer.

 

Due to New Sports Policy:

• The new sports policy has been implemented in Himachal Pradesh.
• In this, the government has made this arrangement. Renuka Singh Thakur, who hails from Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, was part of the Indian team in the women’s cricket competition that started for the first time in the Commonwealth Games. Renuka Singh Thakur was the highest wicket-taker in the competition with 11 wickets.
• After losing the final match against Australia in the competition, the Indian team had to be satisfied with the silver medal. Vikas Thakur of Hamirpur district also won silver in weightlifting. Boxer Ashish Chaudhary, a resident of Sundarnagar in Mandi, was also part of the boxing contingent.

 

Rakesh Pathania, Sports Minister shared:

• The government will honor the medal winners in the Commonwealth Games with Rs 1 crore each.
• Apart from this, the participating player will be awarded ten lakhs. He said that in the new sports policy of the state, it has been provided that the medal winning players will be honored with prize money.
• Apart from this, it has also been provided that the medal winner will also be given a class one job in the state.

(Source: Amar Ujala)

 

 

Topic: IIT-Mandi uses AI tools for wastewater management

 

Importance: Himachal HPAS Prelims and Mains

 

What is the news?

• Researchers at the IIT, Mandi, used artificial intelligence-enhanced operation research tools to select waste water management methods that meet the socio-economic needs specific to places and environments.

• Dr Satvasheel Powar, IIT, Mandi, said, “We have used a set of methods called Multi-Criteria Decision-Making that combines alternative decisions with quantitative and qualitative results in compact solutions.”

(Source: The Tribune)

 

 

Topic: Vatika on the school premises

 

Importance: Himachal HPAS Prelims and Mains

 

What is the news?

• Government Senior Secondary School, Sandhu, has approached University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, to help the school set up a ‘vatika’ on the school premises.

 

Why important?

• It’s the first time any school has approached us for setting up a ‘vatika’ on its premises. The ‘vatika’ will have ornamental flowers, herbal and medicinal plants, the already existing apple trees, and several lawns,” said SR Dhiman, head of the Department of Floriculture, UHF, Nauni.

 

OPEN LAB FOR STUDENTS OPTING FOR AGRI SUBJECT:

• Located on the Shimla-Kinnaur highway, the school has a lot of vacant land and the management committee has decided to use it for the construction of a park.

 

Purpose:

• The idea behind the project is to offer students an open laboratory for horticulture and floriculture. Many students opt for agriculture as a subject and they will benefit immensely from the project,” said school principal Rajinder Khasia.
• Dhiman said if the students learnt about flowers, nurseries and their maintenance in the school itself, it will give them an edge over others while looking for employment. “There is good scope for employment in floriculture. These children will be better equipped for these jobs. Also, they can even start their own work.

(Source: The Tribune)