GI tag for white onion

• Alibag, in the Raigad district of Maharashtra, will be now recognized for Geographical Indication (GI) tagged white onion.
• The GI tag gives a unique identity to the white onion, which has medicinal qualities and is being cultivated in a traditional way for a long time.
• Farmers will directly get benefits as the white onion will get the premium price because of the GI tag.
• GI tag adds to the export potential, potential, which has helped other produce, such as Chiku (Sapodilla) from Gholwad, Keshar mango from Marathwada, and bananas in Jalgaon.
• The Government of India provided a GI tag to the rose onions in 2015.
• These measures increase the production of Bangalore Rose onions in Karnataka to around 60,000 tonnes per year.

Barycenter

• When any two objects orbit one another, they do so around a mutual center of gravity called their barycenter.
• For a system like Earth and the Sun, the barycenter would be close enough to the center of the Sun that it would be hard to see the star move around it from any great distance.
• Were Earth more massive, the Sun's circling of the barycenter would be far easier to detect.
• Jupiter is a lot larger than Earth. It has 318 times more mass.
• As a result, the barycenter of Jupiter and the sun isn’t in the center of the sun.
• It’s actually just outside the sun's surface!
• Barycenter also helps astronomers search for planets beyond our solar system.
• Our entire solar system also has a barycenter.
• The sun, Earth, and all of the planets in the solar system orbit around this barycenter.
• It is the center of mass of every object in the solar system combined.
• Our solar system’s barycenter constantly changes position.
• Its position depends on where the planets are in their orbits.
• The solar system's barycenter can range from being near the center of the sun to being outside the surface of the sun.
• As the sun orbits this moving barycenter, it wobbles around.

Tribal Revolts

Santhal Revolution

• On June 30, 1855, over 10,000 Santhals were mobilized by their leaders, Kanho Murmu, Chand Murmu, Bhairab Murmu, and Sidho Murmu, to revolt against the East India Company over oppression by revenue officials, zamindars, and corrupt moneylenders.
• The landmark event in tribal history, referred to as Santhal Hul, took place in Bhognadih village in present-day Jharkhand.
• Soon after their open rebellion, Santhals took to arms to resist the imposition of East India Company laws.

Paika rebellion

• The 1817 Paika Rebellion in Odisha’s Khurda is referred to as the original first war of Indian Independence.
• That year, the Paikas, a class of military retainers traditionally recruited by the kings of Odisha, revolted against the British colonial rulers mainly over being dispossessed of their land holdings.
• The trigger for the revolt came as some 400 Kondhs descended from the Ghumusar area to rise against the British.

Kol revolt

• The Kols, tribal people from the Chhota Nagpur area, rose in revolt against the British in 1831.
• The trigger here too was the gradual takeover of tribal land and property by non-tribal settlers who were aided by new land laws.
• The tribals fought with traditional weapons taking the battle to colonial forces who finally overpowered them with modern weaponry.

Bhil uprising

• After the British intruded into the Bhil territory in Maharashtra’s Khandesh region, the tribals pushed back fearing exploitation under the new regime in 1818.
• The revolt was led by their leader, Sewaram, and was brutally crushed using the British military might.
• This uprising again erupted in 1825 as the Bhils sought to take advantage of reverses being suffered by the British in the First Anglo-Burmese war.

Guidelines for bail order

• Regarding bail, the Court has made a specific observation in the form of an obiter that the Government of India may consider the introduction of a separate enactment, in the nature of a Bail Act, so as to streamline the grant of bails.
• As part of the new guidelines, it is clearly stated that there need not be any insistence on a bail application while considering the application under Sections 88, 170, 204, and 209 of the Code.
• The Court said that “there needs to be a strict compliance of the mandate laid down in the judgment of this court in Siddharth” (Siddharth vs State of U.P., 2021).
• It is a clear direction of the Court that bail applications ought to be disposed of within a period of two weeks except if the provisions mandate otherwise, the exception being an intervening application.
• The Court also said that “applications for anticipatory bail are expected to be disposed of within a period of six weeks with the exception of any intervening application”.

Steps taken

• The State and Central governments will have to comply with the directions issued by the Court from time to time with respect to the constitution of special courts.
• The High Court in consultation with the State governments will have to undertake an exercise on the need for special courts.
• The vacancies in the position of Presiding Officers of the special courts will have to be filled up expeditiously.
• The CJI has also raised the issue of vacant positions and infrastructural requirements in the judiciary.

Undertrial prisoners

• The High Courts have been directed by the apex court to identify under trial prisoners who cannot comply with bail conditions.
• After doing so, appropriate action will have to be taken in light of Section 440 of the Code, facilitating their release.
• Under Section 440, the amount of bond shall not be excessive, and high courts and sessions courts may reduce the amount prescribed by the magistrate or a police officer.
• An exercise will have to be done similarly to comply with the mandate of Section 436A of the Code, under which a person imprisoned during investigation or trial shall be released on bail on completion of half of the jail term prescribed for that offense.

State Borrowings

• The borrowing by State public sector undertakings or their special purpose vehicles (SPVs) will be considered as borrowing by the State government needing consent.
• Considering the effect of bypassing the Net Borrowing Ceiling (NBC) of the States by such borrowings, it was decided and communicated to the States in March 2022.
• The borrowings by State Public Sector companies/corporations, Special purpose vehicles (SPVs), and other equivalent instruments, where a principal and/or interest are to be serviced out of the State Budgets and/or by assignment of taxes/cess or any other State’s revenue, shall be considered as borrowings made by the State.
• This kind of borrowing would need the consent of the Union Government under Article 293(3) of the Constitution of India.
• All States have enacted their Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act.
• Compliance with the State FRBM Act is monitored by the respective State Legislatures.
• Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, generally follows the fiscal limits mandated by the accepted recommendations of the Finance Commission while exercising the powers to approve borrowings by States under Article 293 (3) of the Constitution of India.
• The normal Net Borrowing Ceiling (NBC) of each State is fixed by the Union Government at the beginning of each financial year.
• Adjustments for the over-borrowing by States during previous years, if any, are made in the borrowing limits of the subsequent year.