FEB -8
DAILY HINDU NEWS PAPER ANALYSIS
RBI REPO RATE
Lowering India’s in terest rates for the Frst time in the last 57 months, the Monetary Policy
Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India on Friday unanimously cut the repo rate by 25 basis
points (bps) to 6.25%, to support fading growth in the hope of inFation easing to 4.4% in this quarter
and 4.2% through 2025-26. The RBI’s policy shift, which may translate into cheaper loans for homes,
cars and other purposes, comes within a week of the Union Budget for 2025-26 that seeks to drive
growth by stimulating urban de mand with income tax breaks worth ₹1 lakh crore. The repo rate is
the rate at which the RBI lends to other banks, and one basis point equals 0.01%. This is the Frst
repo rate cut since the early days of the CO VID-19 pandemic, when the RBI made a 40 bps cut to 4%
in May 2020 and held it there for a couple of years. Since 2022, the repo rate has been on the rise.
INDPEDENT JUDICIARY
The Calcutta High Court on Friday rejected an appeal Fled by the West Bengal go vernment seeking
the en hancement of the life sen tence to death penalty for Sanjay Roy, the sole con vict in the rape
and mur der case of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s R.G. Kar Medi cal College and Hospital in August
2024
The High Court in its order on Friday rejected the ar gument by the State go vernment and said as
per the provisions of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, the State government can not issue such
directions as long as the Centre or the CBI is willing to do so.
100 DAYS
Senior Opposition mem bers in the Rajya Sabha De rek O’Brien and Manoj Ku mar Jha have moved
separate Bills seeking to make the sitting of Parlia ment mandatory at least for 100 days in a year.
The leaders said the move is to reform the Parliamentary system by ensuring that the working hours
of the House are not lost due to disruptions. While Mr. O’Brien has proposed a minimum sit ting of
100 days, Mr. Jha has sought 120 days sitting of the House annually. Mr. O’Brien said that while the
idea of a Fxed ca lendar was explored by the General Purposes Commit tee of the Lok Sabha in 1955,
Parliament through Fxing a minimum number of days of sitting, introducing the provision for
extending the hours of a sitting, bringing a short ses sion in addition to the exist ing three sessions,
institut ing a mechanism to separately discuss Opposi tion business and compen sating the hours not
util ised due to disruptions.
3 TO 1
The Union government has decided to restructure its skilling initiatives, combin ing three of them
into the Skill India Programme, a Central Sector scheme, with the Cabinet on Friday approving an
outlay of ₹8,800 crore for a three year period ending in 2025-26. The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas
Yojana 4.0 (PMKVY 4.0), the Pradhan Mantri National Appren ticeship Promotion Scheme (PMNAPS), and the Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS) Scheme will now be come the three key compo nents of
the composite Skill India Programme.
INDIA AND FRANCE
India and France are set to make major announce ments in the areas of de fence, small modular reac
tors (SMR), and aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) and also adopt a France-India road
map on artiFcial intelli gence (AI) during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-day visit to France
early next week
Mr. Modi will arrive in Paris on the evening of Fe bruary 10 to co-chair the AI Action Summit along
with French President Emma nuel Macron and also hold bilateral talk
TROPEX
Indian Navy’s biennial cap stone Theatre Level Opera tional Exercise (TROPEX) is under way in the
Indian Ocean Region, in which the combined Feet, com prising approximately 65 Indian Navy ships,
nine submarines, and over 80 aircraft, are being “put through complex maritime operational
scenarios to validate and reFne the Na vy’s Concept Operations”. This is conducted bien nially with
participation by all operational units of the Navy along with participa tion of Army, Air Force, and
Coast Guard assets
ARTICLE 100
Under Article 200, a Go vernor has three options when Bills are sent to him for assent – give assent,
withhold assent, or refer the Bills to the President for consideration. The Tamil Nadu govern ment
has argued that a Go vernor can refer a Bill to the President only in case of any ‘repugnancy’ under
Article 254, that is, if the proposed State law is found to be inconsistent with or encroaches into an
existing Central law or if the Bill tends to derogate the Constitutional powers of the State High Court.
Under the Frst proviso of Article 200, if the Gover nor chooses to withhold assent to a Bill, he has to
re turn it as soon as possible to the House with a “mes sage” to reconsider the proposed law or
speciFed provisions or suggest amendments. If the House reiterates the Bill and presents it to the
Governor, the “Gover nor shall not withhold as sent”. In short, the proviso makes it clear that the Go
vernor has to grant consent.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Following the approval of the Biotechnology for Eco nomy, Environment and Employment (BioE3)
poli cy by the Union Cabinet last August, the Depart ment of Biotechnology or ganised a consultation
with States on Friday here to setting up biomanufac turing facilities in their regions.
Biomanufacturing ref ers to the industrial manu facture of a variety of pro ducts relating to highvalue bio-based chemicals, bio polymers and enzymes; smart proteins and func tional foods;
precision biotherapeutics and cli mate resilient agriculture.