SC affirms 3% quota for disabled in PSUs - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

SC affirms 3% quota for disabled in PSUs.

It applies to direct recruitment and in promotions too, says top court

A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court has granted relief to persons with disabilities across the country by allowing reservation in promotion in all groups for those employed in public sector jobs.
The Bench led by Justice Rohinton F. Nariman confirmed that 3% reservation should be given to disabled persons both in direct recruitment and in promotions.
The Bench, also comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and V. Ramasubramanian, was answering a reference on the question whether the disabled, included under The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995”, were eligible for reservation in promotion.

“This judgment will open the doors for thousands of persons with disabilities who have been stagnating at the lower levels in public sector jobs, as their promotion to higher level posts was made difficult due to discriminatory policies,” advocates Rajan Mani and Ritu Kumar of the Disability Law Initiative, who appeared in the case, reacted.
The judgment confirms a 2016 verdict of the top court in Rajeev Kumar Gupta’s case that granted reservation in promotion to disabled persons employed in Groups A and B in addition to Groups C and D categories in the public sector.
The 2016 judgment had held that wherever posts were identified to be suitable for persons with disabilities, 3% reservation must be given. The government had however challenged the 2016 judgement, leading to the reference to the larger Bench.
The government had referred to the Indira Sawhney case, which had capped reservation at 50% and prohibited reservation in promotions.
But Justice Nariman countered that the Sawhney judgment only pertained to the Backward Classes. It has no relevance in the case of persons with disabilities.
The Constitution only prohibits preferential treatment on the basis of caste or religion. Here, reservation is contemplated for disabled persons.
Similarly, the top court said, “A perusal of Indra Sawhney would reveal that the ceiling of 50% reservation applies only to reservation in favour of Other Backward Classes under Article 16(4) of the Constitution of India whereas the reservation in favour of persons with disabilities is horizontal, which is under Article 16(1) of the Constitution.”
Justice Nariman pointed to how the 1995 law emphasises that “employment is a key factor in the empowerment and inclusion of people with disabilities”. (Source: The Hindu)


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SC affirms 3% quota for disabled in PSUs.

Four Indian PSUs for the first time among world's top 100 arms makers - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Four Indian PSUs for the first time among world's top 100 arms makers.

For the first time, four Indian arms manufacturing companies – all public sector units, including two from Bengaluru have found a place in the list of world's top 100 arms manufactures. A report from a Stockholm-based institute that tracks arms trade around the world revealed.

Notwithstanding their inclusion and a 6% growth in sales from the previous year, the total volume of Indian arms sale remains less than 2% of the global arms sale – an indication of India's poor export performance at the international arena.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has clubbed India with Brazil and Turkey in the category of emerging producers.
The combined sales of the seven companies based in these three countries were $ 11.1 billion in 2017 —an increase of 8.1% compared to the previous year.
India is the largest producer with three defence PSUs and Indian Ordnance Factory Board selling military equipment worth $ 7.5 billion to the three Services.
The minuscule Indian share in the global pie is a contrast to the Narendra Modi-government's claims of turning India into a defence manufacturing hub.
In the last four and half years, the government claimed to have taken multiple policy initiatives to kick-start defence manufacturing in the private sector in a big way. However, almost all such measures are stuck on the papers till now.
The leading Indian defence manufacturers continue to be Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Indian Ordnance Factory Board and Bharat Electronics Limited that figure in the SIPRI top-100 list since 2002.
In 2017, a fourth defence PSU Bharat Dynamics Limited broke into the top-100 with arms sales of $ 880 million. HAL and IOFB are among the top-50 companies since 2002.
“All four companies are state-owned and are almost entirely dependent on domestic demand. There was a marginal decrease in Hindustan Aeronautics’ total arms sales, while the totals of the other three companies each rose by approximately 10%,” says the SIPRI report.
US companies dominate the global market capturing 57% of the share followed by Russia (9.5%), UK (9%) and France (5.3%).
Lockheed Martin remained the world’s largest arms producer in 2017, with arms sales of $ 44.9 billion. “The gap between Lockheed Martin and Boeing—the two largest arms producers in the world—increased from $ 11 billion in 2016 to $ 18 billion in 2017,” said Aude Fleurant, director of SIPRI’s arms and military expenditure programme in the report.(defencenews.in)


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Four Indian PSUs for the first time among world's top 100 arms makers.

UJALA Scheme

The union government has launched National LED programme - Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) in Madhya Pradesh.

The scheme is being implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of PSUs under the Union Ministry of Power.

UJALA is a flagship project of the Govt. of India where it wants every home in India to use LED bulbs so that the net power or energy consumption rate comes down and the carbon emission rates can also be checked.

Key features of the scheme:

• Under this Programme, 3 crore LED Bulbs will be distributed in the next 6 months in the State.
• Under the scheme, people of Madhya Pradesh will get energy efficient 9W LED bulbs at an upfront payment of just 85 rupees per LED bulb.
• The scheme will not only help reduce consumers their electricity bills but also contribute to the energy security of India.
• The scheme is being monitored in a transparent manner through a national dashboard (www.delp.in).
• The distribution of LED bulbs will happen through DISCOM offices, DISCOM bill collection centres, designated EESL kiosks, Weekly haat markets, etc.