Facts in News

Facts in News

Article 224A of the Constitution

• It allows the Chief Justice of a High Court to appoint a person who has been a judge earlier to sit as a judge of the court with the prior consent of the President.
• The provision has been invoked very rarely in the judicial history of India.
• It was inserted by the Constitution (Fifteenth Amendment) Act, 1963.
• Recently, the Supreme Court has allowed High Courts to start appointing retired HC judges as ad hoc judges for two to five years if there is a pendency of a large number of cases.

Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC)

• It is an intergovernmental food standards body, set up in May 1963.
• It was established jointly by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), within the framework of the Joint Food Standards Programme.
• Objective: To protect consumer’s health and ensure fair practices in food trade.
• Members: Currently, 189 members (188 UN member countries and the European Union).
  • India became a member in 1964.
  • Timor-Leste is the latest country to join it in 2018.
• Voluntary in nature, Codex standards can be general or specific and are recognised by WTO Agreements as reference standards for international trade and trade dispute settlement.
• Meeting: Once a year alternating between Geneva and Rome.
• Funding: Through regular budgets of WHO and FAO with all work subject to approval of the two governing bodies of the parent organizations.
• Recently, the 5^th session of the Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs (CCSCH) has been inaugurated inorder to harmonize Codex standards for spices products in global trade.
  • CCSCH was formed in 2013 under CAC.

Council of the European Union

• Established as an informal summit in 1975.
• It was formalised as an institution in 2009 upon the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon.

• Composition
  • Heads of state or government of the 27 EU member states, the European Council President and the President of the European Commission..

• Functions
  • It defines the EU’s overall political direction and priorities.
  • It is not an EU’s legislating institution, so it does not negotiate or adopt EU laws.
  • Instead, it sets the EU’s policy agenda, traditionally by adopting ‘conclusions’ during European Council meetings.
  • The European Council mostly takes its decisions by consensus.

European Union

• It is an international organization comprising 27 European countries and governing common economic, social, and security policies
  • Originally 28 nations after the UK left the EU in 2020.
• Formation: In 1993, after the signing of the Maastricht Treaty.
• In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for advancing the causes of peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.

• Objectives
  • Political & economic cooperation by creating a single currency, the EURO
  • To unify security and foreign policy, common citizenship Rights.
  • To enhance cooperation in the areas of judiciary, immigration and asylum.

Image Courtesy: Europedirect

Gender Samvaad Event

• Recently, the Ministry of Rural Development has launched a platform called ‘Gender Samvaad’.
• Gender Samvaad is a joint initiative of Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) and the Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy (IWWAGE) at LEAD.
• It is organized as a bi-monthly webinar that  will provide states with opportunities to exchange knowledge on:
  • Understanding gender interventions globally.
  • Creating a ‘gender knowledge repository’ with resources to design and implement gender interventions.
• The Gender Samvaad webpage is an open knowledge repository, hosted by IWWAGE.

Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM)

• Flagship scheme of Ministry of Rural Development.
• Objective: Central Sponsored Scheme that aims at eliminating rural poverty through building strong institutions for the poor & providing livelihood to poors.
  • Centrally Sponsored Schemes are jointly funded by the Centre and states.

Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy (IWWAGE)

• It is an initiative of LEAD, an action-oriented research centre of IFMR Society (a not for profit society registered under the Societies Act).
• Aim: build on existing research and generate new evidence on women’s economic empowerment.
• It is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.