This Act is also known as Morley-Minto Reforms (Lord Morley was the then Secretary of State for India and Lord Minto was the then Viceroy of India).
□ The features of this Act were as follows :-
◇ It considerably increased the size of the legislative councils, both Central and provincial. The number of members in the Central legislative council was raised from 16 to 60. The number of members in the provincial legislative councils was not uniform.
◇ It retained official majority in the Central legislative council, but allowed the provincial legislative councils to have non official majority.
◇ It enlarged the deliberative functions of the legislative councils at both the levels. For example, members were allowed to ask supplementary questions, move resolutions on the budget and so on.
■ INDIAN COUNCIL ACT 1909 [PART 2]
#Historicalbackground
◇ It provided (for the first time) for the association of Indians with the executive councils of the Viceroy and Governors.
◇ Satyendra Prasad Sinha became the first Indian to join the Viceroy’s executive council. He was appointed as the Law Member.
◇ It introduced a system of communal representation for Muslims by accepting the concept of ‘separate electorate’.
◇ Under this, the Muslim members were to be elected only by Muslim voters. Thus, the Act ‘legalised communalism’ and Lord Minto came to be known as the Father of Communal Electorate.
◇ It also provided for the separate representation of presidency corporations, chambers of commerce, universities and zamindars.
■ GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ACT 1919
#Historicalbackground
◇ It relaxed the central control over the provinces by demarcating and separating the central and provincial subjects.
◇ The central and provincial legislatures were authorised to make laws on their respective list of subjects. However, the structure of government continued to be centralised and unitary.
◇ It further divided the provincial subjects into two parts– transferred and reserved.
◇ The transferred subjects were to be administered by the Governor with the aid of Ministers responsible to the legislative council. The reserved subjects, were to be administered by the Governor and his executive council without being responsible to the legislative council. This dual scheme of governance was known as ‘dyarchy'.
🖍 FATEHPUR SIKRI
♦️One of the highlights of Indo-Islamic architecture was the creation of a new capital city by Akbar at Fatehpur Sikri. It has been described as a “frozen moment in history” as the buildings here represent a unique blend of Hindu and Persian styles.
Some of the important buildings inside the city are:
♦️ Buland Darwaza the imposing 40 metre red sandstone structure was built in 1576 AD, to commemorate Akbar’s victory over Gujarat. It is the highest gateway of the world.
♦️Salim Chishti’s tomb was built in 1581 AD. It has beautiful Jaali work in white marble. It has arabesque patterns with inscriptions of Quranic verses on the walls. It is in the imperial complex which also has Buland Darwaza and Jama Masjid. It was further decorated by Jahangir in 1606 AD.
♦️ Panch Mahal is a five-storied structure made of columns and is inspired by the concept of Persian badgir (wind-catcher).
#Some Facts and Datas
#Women
🍄 As per the National Family Health Survey - 5 (2019-21), 23.3% of women aged 20-24 are married before 18.
Relevance - Recent proposal to increase age of women's marriage from 18 to 21.
#Growth
🍄 The Indian Economy has registered negative GDP growth rate of -7.5% in 2020-21. It is for first time in the last 41 years i.e., since 1979-80 that economy has registered negative growth rate.
■ WHAT IS ASSET MONETIZATION ?
#Economy
The Union Finance Minister has launched the National Monetization Pipeline for the brownfield infrastructure assets.
□ About Asset monetization :-
◇ Asset Monetization involves the creation of new sources of revenue by unlocking of the value of hitherto unutilized or underutilized public assets.
◇ Internationally, it is recognized that public assets are a significant resource for all economies.
◇ Many public sector assets are sub-optimally utilized and could be appropriately monetized to create greater financial leverage and value for the companies and of the equity that the government has invested in them.
◇ This helps in the accurate estimation of public assets which would help in the better financial management of government/public resources over time.
□ NATIONAL MONETIZATION PIPELINE.
◇ The NMP comprises a four-year pipeline of the Central Government’s brownfield infrastructure assets.
◇ It will serve as a medium-term roadmap for the Asset Monetization initiative of the government, apart from providing visibility for the investors.
◇ Incidentally, the 2021-22 Union Budget, laid a lot of emphasis on Asset Monetization as a means to raise innovative and alternative financing for infrastructure.
◇ It has to be noted that the government views asset monetization as a strategy for the augmentation and maintenance of infrastructure, and not just a funding mechanism.
Environment
Dead zones
✅Dead zones (biological deserts) are increasing in the coastal delta and estuarine regions.
✅Hypoxic zones (zones deprived of oxygen) can occur naturally (due to upwelling of nutrients).
✅They can be created or enhanced by human activity to form dead zones.
✅Dead zones are areas in the ocean with very low oxygen concentration (hypoxic conditions).
✅Dead zones emerge when influx of chemical nutrients spur algae growth.
✅These zones usually occur 200-800 meters (in the saltwater layer) below the surface.
✅Dead zones are detrimental to animal life. Most of the animal life either dies or migrates from the zone.
✅One of the largest dead zones forms in the Gulf of Mexico every spring (farmers fertilize their crops and rain washes fertilizer off the land and into streams and rivers).
