Environmental Performance Index (EPI)

• The EPI is an international ranking system of countries based on their environmental health.
• It is a biennial index, first started in 2002 as the Environment Sustainability Index by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and Columbia University Center for International Earth Information Network.
• EPI 2022 uses 40 performance indicators to assess and rank 180 countries.
• The report says it uses the most recent data, and the indicators “measure how close countries are to meeting internationally established sustainability targets for specific environmental issues”.
• The 40 indicators are under the broad categories of climate change performance, environmental health, and ecosystem vitality.
• The 2022 EPI has included new parameters to its earlier assessments, with projections of progress towards net-zero emissions in 2050, as well as new air quality indicators, and sustainable pesticide use.

India’s position

• With a rank of 180 and a score of 18.9, India has fallen from a rank of 168 and a score of 27.6 in 2020.
• India comes after Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Myanmar, the poorest performers.
• Denmark tops the list with a score of 77.9.
• India ranks close to the bottom on a number of indicators including ecosystem vitality (178th), biodiversity (179th), biodiversity habitat index (170th), species protection index (175th), wetland loss, air quality (179th), PM 2.5 (174th), heavy metals such as lead in water (174th), waste management (151st) and climate policy (165th) including projected greenhouse gas emissions (171st).
• India has also scored low on rule of law, control of corruption, and government effectiveness, according to the report.

Two-Thirds Majority in Anti-Defection Law

• Under the anti-defection law, a member of a legislature can be disqualified if he or she has voluntarily given up membership of their political party; and if he/she votes or abstains from voting in the House contrary to any direction issued by their party (or by any person or authority authorized by the party).
• There is a provision to protect such legislators from disqualification. If two-thirds of the members agree to a merger with another party, they will not be disqualified.
• Under the 91st Amendment to the Constitution in 2003, the exemption from disqualification if one-third of the members form a separate group (the rule prior to the amendment) was removed.

Partners in the Blue Pacific (PBP) initiative

• The US and its allies — Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and the United Kingdom — have launched a new initiative called ‘Partners in the Blue Pacific’ for “effective and efficient cooperation” with the region’s small island nations.
• The PBP is a five-nation “informal mechanism” to support Pacific islands and boost diplomatic, and economic ties in the region.
• It simply means that through the PBP, these counties — together and individually — will direct more resources here to counter China’s aggressive outreach.
• The areas where PBP aims to enhance cooperation include “climate crisis, connectivity and transportation, maritime security and protection, health, prosperity, and education”.

Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D)

• The Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L), Ministry of Education released the Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D).
• It assesses the performance of the school education system at the District level by creating an index for comprehensive analysis.
• Based on the success of State PGI, 83-indicator-based PGI for District (PGI-D) has been designed to grade the performance of all districts in school education.
• The data is filled by districts through an online portal.
• The PGI-D is expected to help the state education departments to identify gaps at the district level and improve their performance in a decentralized manner.
• The indicator-wise PGI score shows the areas where a district needs to improve.
• The PGI-D will reflect the relative performance of all the districts on a uniform scale which encourages them to perform better.

Kihoto Hollohan Case

• In ‘Kihoto Hollohan vs Zachillhu The law covering the disqualification of lawmakers and the powers of the Speaker in deciding such matters became part of the statute book in 1985 when the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution, commonly known as the ‘anti-defection law’, was adopted.
• A constitutional challenge to the Tenth Schedule was mounted, which was settled by the apex court in ‘Kihoto Hollohan’.
• The principal question before the Supreme Court in the case was whether the powerful role given to the Speaker violated the doctrine of basic structure — the judicial principle that certain basic features of the Constitution cannot be altered by amendments by Parliament.
• The Supreme Court laid down the doctrine of basic principle in its landmark judgment in ‘Kesavananda Bharati vs the State of Kerala’ (1973). and Others (1992), in which the Supreme Court upheld the sweeping discretion available to the Speaker in deciding cases of disqualification of MLAs.