Daily Prelims Notes 12 May 2022

May 12, 2022
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Daily Prelims Notes

12 May 2022

Table Of Contents

1. Supreme Court slams government claim that only President has power to pardon

Subject: Polity

Section: President

Context: Centre’s claim that the President, and not the Tamil Nadu Governor, has “exclusive power” to decide Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict A.G. Perarivalan’s plea for pardon

Background:

Rajiv Gandhi Assasination case: https://optimizeias.com/rajiv-gandhi-assasination-case/

SC Stand:

Centre’s claim that the President, and not the Tamil Nadu Governor, has “exclusive power” to decide Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict A.G. Perarivalan’s plea for pardon. By that analogy, if a pardon is sought in a murder case, the Governor should refer it to the President, SC questioned centre
A three-judge Bench led by Justice L. Nageswara Rao said the government’s argument if taken at face value, would leave Article 161 (the constitutional power of Governors of States to grant pardon) a “dead-letter”.
Then, the end result of centre’s submissions is that all pardons granted for IPC offences by Governors all these years are

Pardoning Power of President and Governor:

Article 72 of the Constitution empowers the President to grant pardons to persons which includes,

Pardon: It removes both the sentence and the conviction and completely absolves the convict from all sentences, punishments and disqualifications.
Commutation: It denotes the substitution of one form of punishment for a lighter form. For example, a death sentence may be commuted to rigorous imprisonment, which in turn may be commuted to a simple imprisonment.
Remission: It implies reducing the period of sentence without changing its character. For example, a sentence of rigorous imprisonment for two years may be remitted to rigorous imprisonment for one year.
Respite: It denotes awarding a lesser sentence in place of one originally awarded due to some special fact, such as the physical disability of a convict or the pregnancy of a woman offender.
Reprieve: It implies a stay of the execution of a sentence (especially that of death) for a temporary period. Its purpose is to enable the convict to have time to seek pardon or commutation from the President.
Under Article 161 of the Constitution, the governor of a state also possesses the pardoning power. Hence, the governor can also grant pardons, reprieves, respites and remissions of punishment or suspend, remit and commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence against a state law.
But, the pardoning power of the governor differs from that of the President in following two respects:
- The President can pardon sentences inflicted by court martial (military courts) while the governor cannot.
- The President can pardon death sentence while governor cannot. Even if a state law prescribes death sentence, the power to grant pardon lies with the President and not the governor. However, the governor can suspend, remit or commute a death sentence. In other words, both the governor and the President have concurrent power in respect of suspension, remission and commutation of death sentence.

Earlier SC judgements on Governors Pardoning Power:

SC held that the Governor of a State can pardon prisoners, even before they have served a minimum 14 years of prison sentence.
- Therefore, Pardoning powers overrides Section 433A: The Governor’s power to pardon overrides Section 433A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) – which mandates that a prisoner’s sentence can be remitted only after 14 years of jail.

2. SC puts sedition trials on hold until Centre re-examines

Subject: Polity

Section: Constitution

Concept:

Edition, which falls under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, is defined as any action that brings or attempts to bring hatred or contempt towards the government of India and has been illegal in India since 1870.

Historical Background of Sedition Law:

Sedition laws were enacted in 17th century England when lawmakers believed that only good opinions of the government should survive, as bad opinions were detrimental to the government and monarchy.
This sentiment (and law) was borrowed and inserted into the Section 124A of IPC in 1870, by the British.
British used Sedition law to convict and sentence freedom fighters. It was first used to prosecute Bal Gangadhar Tilak in 1897.
Mahatama Gandhi, too, was later tried for sedition for his articles in Young India.

Supreme Court Observations

In 1962, the Supreme Court decided on the constitutionality of Section 124A in KedarNath Singh v State of Bihar.
It upheld the constitutionality of sedition, but limited its application to “acts involving intention or tendency to create disorder, or disturbance of law and order, or incitement to violence”.
It distinguished these from “very strong speech” or the use of “vigorous words” strongly critical of the government.
In 1995, the Supreme Court, in Balwant Singh v State of Punjab, held that mere sloganeering which evoked no public response did not amount to sedition.

3. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner (ORGI)

Subject: Polity

Section: Statutory Bodies

Context: WHO’s latest updates on Global Health Estimates (GHE) revealed that India accounting for 80 per cent of the excess mortality during Covid-19. India informed WHO that in view of the availability of authentic data published through the Civil Registration System (CRS) by Registrar General of India (RGI), mathematical models should not be used for projecting excess mortality numbers for India.

Concept:

Functions of ORGI:

The office of RGI is primarily responsible for the following activities:

Housing & Population Census: The Census Commissioner, India is the statutory authority vested with the responsibility of conducting the Housing & Population Census in India under Census Act, 1948 and the Rules framed thereunder. Planning, coordination and supervision of the field activities; data processing; compilation, tabulation and dissemination of Census results are the primary duties of this office.
Civil Registration System (CRS): The Census Commissioner, India is also designated as Registrar General, India under the Registration of Births & Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969, which provides for the compulsory registration of births and deaths. In this role, the RGI coordinates the functioning of the civil registration and vital statistics system in the country through all States and UTs.
Sample Registration System (SRS): Implementation of Sample Registration System, wherein large-scale sample survey of vital events is conducted on a half-yearly basis, is also the responsibility of the ORG&CCI. SRS is an important source of vital rates like Birth Rate, Death Rate, Infant Mortality Rate and Maternal Mortality Rate at the State level in the country.
National Population Register (NPR): In pursuance to provisions contained in Citizenship Rules, 2003 framed under the Citizenship Act, 1955, the National Population Register is prepared by collecting information relating to all persons who are usually residing in the country.
Mother Tongue Survey: The project surveys the mother tongues, which are returned consistently across two and more Census decades. The research programme documents the linguistic features of the selected mother tongues.

4. Climate Outlook Report

Subject: Geography

Section: Climate

Context: In the latest Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update, the WMO said that 2022 will be cooler (compared to the 1991 – 2020 average) over India, along with Alaska and Canada.

Concept:

In a rare trend, India could be among the few regions globally where below normal temperatures have been predicted for this year and the next four years, the decadal report stated.
Further, it said 2022 will be cooler (compared to the 1991 – 2020 average) over India, along with Alaska and Canada.
One of the primary reasons for lowering of temperatures over India from next year is the possible increase in rainfall activity in this decade.
Even, IMD had said that the Indian monsoon will soon enter the positive epoch after remaining under a negative epoch since 1971 from April this year.
The future trend suggests that the decadal mean value will be close to near normal during 2021 to 2030. It will then turn positive, meaning that the decade 2031-2040 will be the beginning of a wet epoch.
However, the WMO has warned with high certainty that during any one year between 2022 and 2026, the global near-surface temperature could exceed 1.5° Celsius of pre-industrial levels.

To know about WMO, refer: https://optimizeias.com/world-meteorological-congress/

5. Coin DCX announces Rs100-crore fund to invest in Web3 start-ups

Subject: Economy

Section: Capital Market

Indian crypto exchange Coin DCX has launched its investment arm, Coin DCX Ventures, to invest Rs 100 crore in early-stage crypto and block chain start-ups over the next 12 months. While the Coin DCX Ventures mandate is to invest in Web 3 companies globally, the company expects 30-40per cent of its portfolio tocome from India. The fundwill focus on Seed and SeriesA investments, but the mandate is flexible.

Seed Money

Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor invests capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company.
The term seed suggests that this is a very early investment, meant to support the business until it can generate cash of its own (see cash flow), or until it is ready for further investments.
Seed money options include friends and family funding, seed venture capital funds, angel funding, and crowdfunding.
Seed money can be used to pay for preliminary operations such as market research and product development.
Seed funding is generally one of the first steps investors offer to get startups on their feet before they become fully operational.
Seed funding involves a higher risk than normal venture capital funding since the investor does not see any existing projects to evaluate for funding.

Difference in seed capital and venture capital–

Seed capital can be distinguished from venture capital.

Venture capital investments tend to come from institutional investors,
- involve significantly more money,
- are arm’s length transactions,
- involve much greater complexity in the contracts and corporate structure accompanying the investment.

Series A, B and C funding rounds are merely stepping stones in the process of turning an ingenious idea into a revolutionary global company, ripe for an IPO.

Series A Funding

Once a business has developed a track record (an established user base, consistent revenue figures, or some other key performance indicator), that company may opt for Series A funding in order to further optimize its user base and product offerings.
In this round, it’s important to have a plan for developing a business model that will generate long-term profit.
Series A rounds raise approximately $2 million to $15 million
Investors are looking for companies with great ideas as well as a strong strategy for turning that idea into a successful, money-making business. The investors involved in the Series A round come from more traditional venture capital firms.
It’s also common for investors to take part in a somewhat more political process. It’s common for a few venture capital firms to lead the pack. In fact, a single investor may serve as an “anchor.” Once a company has secured a first investor, it may find that it’s easier to attract additional investors as well.
Angel investors also invest at this stage, but they tend to have much less influence in this funding round than they did in the seed funding stage.

Series B Funding

Series B rounds are all about taking businesses to the next level, past the development stage.
Investors help start-ups get there by expanding market reach. Companies that have gone through seed and Series A funding rounds have already developed substantial user bases and have proven to investors that they are prepared for success on a larger scale.
It is used in bulking up on business development, sales, advertising, tech, support, and employees costs a firm a few pennies.
The average estimated capital raised in a Series B round is $33 million
Series B appears similar to Series A in terms of the processes and key players.
The difference with Series B is the addition of a new wave of other venture capital firms that specialize in later-stage investing.

Series C Funding

Businesses that make it to Series C funding sessions are already quite successful.
These companies look for additional funding in order to help them develop new products, expand into new markets, or even to acquire other companies.
In Series C rounds, investors inject capital into the meat of successful businesses, in an effort to receive more than double that amount back. Series C funding is focused on scaling the company, growing as quickly and as successfully as possible.
Series C funding could be used to buy another company.
In Series C, groups such as hedge funds, investment banks, private equity firms, and large secondary market groups accompany the type of investors mentioned above.
Companies that do continue with Series D funding tend to either do so because they are in search of a final push before an IPO or, alternatively, because they have not yet been able to achieve the goals they set out to accomplish during Series C funding