Ø The Lok Sabha passed the Constitutional
Amendment Bill to scrap the collegium system of appointing Supreme Court and
High Court judges and cleared the National Judicial Appointments Commission
Bill, 2014, to regulate the procedure. The NJAC Bill was passed by voice vote
along with one official amendment. The House also passed the 99th Constitution
Amendment Bill, which gives Constitutional status to the proposed commission,
with 367 MPs voting in favour and none against. Members of the AIADMK
abstained.
Ø Manjul Bhargava and
Subhash Khot, mathematicians of Indian
origin, are among eight winners of the International Mathematical Union awards,
announced in Seoul. Maryam Mirzakhani of Stanford University, from Iran, is the
first woman to win the Fields Medal. Canadian-American Manjul Bhargava, 40, a
number theorist from Princeton University, is one of four winners of the Fields
Medal. The other Fields Medalists are Arthur Avila of the Paris Diderot
University-Paris 7 and Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada, Rio de
Janeiro, from Brazil; Martin Hairer of the University of Warwick, from the U.K.
Dr. Khot gets the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize, “for outstanding contributions in
mathematical aspects of information sciences.”
Ø Four new judges appointed at Supreme Court. Senior
advocate Uday Umesh Lalit became the sixth lawyer to be directly
elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court. Mr. Lalit was sworn in by
Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha along with the Chief Justices of Guwahati,
Jharkhand and Meghalaya High Courts at a brief ceremony held in the first court
hall. The three Chief Justices are — Abhay Manohar Sapre, R. Banumathi
and Prafulla Chandra Pant.
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| Bimal Jalan |
Ø Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the
constitution of an Expenditure Management Commission (EMC) that was announced by Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley in his budget speech. The Commission is expected to recommend
major expenditure reforms that will enable the government to lower its fiscal
deficit. A fiscal deficit in control will help the government to strengthen the
macro economy over time and especially ease inflation. The Commission
will be mandated with the task of suggesting an overhaul for reducing the food,
fertilizer and oil subsidies and other ways of controlling fiscal deficit. It
is expected to submit its interim report before the presentation of the 2015-16
budget next February. The final report is expected before the 2016-17 budget.
The government will shortly issue the terms of reference for it. The
former Reserve Bank of India Governor, Bimal Jalan,
will head the Commission. Members include former Finance Secretary Sumit Bose
and former RBI Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn.
Ø Lanco Infratech Ltd. (LITL), on Wednesday, sold
its 1,200-MW Udupi Power plant to Adani Power for more than Rs.6,000 crore.
This is the largest deal in the thermal power space.
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