Vostok 2018 is Russia's military exercise spanning from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific coast.
It is the biggest military maneuvers since the height of the cold war.
Zapad 81 is the mammoth manoeuvres carried out in Eastern Europe by the former Soviet Union in 1981.
Chinese and Mongolian forces will also participate.
It will involve 300,000 troops, engaging in tri-service mock-operations.
These exercises are taking place amid Washington’s growing friction with Russia and China.
Government e-Marketplace
National Mission on Government e Marketplace (GeM) will be launched by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
GeM is a platform that provides online, end to end procurement of commonly used goods and services for all Central and State Government Departments, Public Sector Units and affiliated bodies.
It is developed by the Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D) with technical support of NeGD (National e-Governance Divsion of Ministry of Electronics and IT).
It provides the tools of e-bidding, reverse e-auction and demand aggregation to facilitate the government users, achieve the best value for their money.
The aim of the mission is to promote inclusiveness, transparency and efficiency in public procurement and achieve cashless, contactless and paperless transaction.
The mission will accelerate the adoption and use of GeM by major central Ministries, State Governments and their agencies.
SC/ST Reservation
Supreme Court has quoted that SC/ST status entitling a person to quotas in jobs and educational institutions in one state will not automatically continue in another when the person migrates, except when he/she goes to Delhi.
Union Territory of Delhi is exempted because it is the national capital and a microcosm of India.
Thus, a person’s SC/ST status will not follow him to another state would not apply to the Union Territory (UT) of Delhi.
The court said, when a SC/ST person migrates, the automatic inclusion of them in another state would be detrimental to the interests of local communities and hence unconstitutional.
The court also quoted that mandate of Articles 341 and 342 will be compromised if special privileges of SC/ST are carried to another state.
However, the central list doesn’t discriminate between the reserved categories of one state from that of another.
Article 341 and 342
Article 341 of the constitution define as to who would be Scheduled Castes with respect to any State or UT.
Article 342 of the constitution define as to who would be Scheduled Tribe (ST) with respect to any State or UT.
The President of India in consultation with the Governor of a particular State may notify the castes, races or tribes be deemed to be Scheduled Castes (A-341) and to be Scheduled Tribes (A-342).
Parliament may by law include in or exclude any caste, race or tribe from the list of SC and ST specified.
Reservation in services/post - The following are the relevant articles which govern the reservation in services/post for SC/STs.
Article 16(4) of the constitution enables State to provide reservation in appointments in favour of any backward class of citizens who are not adequately represented in the services under the State.
Article 46 of the Constitution directs the State to promote the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people and protect them from all forms of exploitation.
Article 335 states that the claims of the members of the SC and ST shall be taken into consideration in the making of appointments to services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or of a State.
It shall be consistently with the maintenance of efficiency of administration.
e-Cigarettes
The Central government has directed all states and Union Territories to not allow the manufacture, sale and advertisement of e-cigarettes and other Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS).
Electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes, are devices that do not burn or use tobacco leaves but instead vaporize a solution, which a user then inhales.
The main constituents of the solution, in addition to nicotine, are propylene glycol (with or without glycerol and flavouring agents).
ENDS are devices that heat a solution to create an aerosol, which also frequently contains flavours, usually dissolved into propylene glycolor and glycerin.
A number of metals, including lead, chromium and nickel, and chemicals like formaldehyde have been found in aerosols of some ENDS.
ENDS are not approved as NRTs (nicotine-replacement therapies) under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and rules made thereunder.
According to Global Tobacco Epidemic 2017 report by the WHO, the governments of 30 countries like Mauritius, Australia, Singapore etc have already banned ENDS.
