Important Bills

1. Central Information Commission:-
• Central information commission is constituted by the central government through a gazette
notification.
• The commission includes one chief information and not more than 10 information commission.
• All are appointed by the president.
• Oath of office is administered by the president of India according to the form set out in the first
schedule.
• Central information commission and state information commission have power of civil court.
2. Election Commission celebrates diamond jubilee:-
• The president of India recently inaugurated the diamond jubilee celebration of the election
commission of India.
• The commission was set up on Jan 25, 1950. While the rest of the constitution came into force
on Jan 26, 1950.
• Article 324 that created the commission was one of those exceptional provisions given effect as
early as on Nov 26, 1949.
• Until Oct 1989 there was just one chief election commission. In 1991 a law providing for the
appointment of two election commissioners. This law was amended and renamed in 1993.
• The election commission enjoys complete autonomy and is insulated from any kind of
executive interference.
• It also functions as a quasi-judicial body in matters of electoral disputes and other matters
involving the conduct of elections.
• However the decisions of the body are liable for independent judicial reviews by courts acting
on electoral petitions.
Principal functions of Election Commission of India:-
• Demarcation of consistencies
• Preparation of electoral rolls
• Recognition of political parties and allotment of symbols
• Scrutiny of nomination papers
• Conduct of polls
• Scrutiny of election expenses of candidates.
• The national health bill – 2009
• It seeks to provide health , health equity and justice for all Indians
3. National Health Bill- 2009
It seeks to provide health, health equity and justice for all Indians.
Its Important Features are:-
• Right to heath care:- the bill seeks to legalize the right to health care along with other issues
associated with health rights.
• Emergency care:- no individual should be denied emergency treatment because of his inability
to pay fees or due to the requirement for police clearance.
• Patient complaints:- bill seeks to make it mandatory for the hospitals to address patient
complaints on 24x7 basis.
• Name of doctor involved in treatment:- every patient has the right to know the name of
doctor/ nurse involved in his treatment.
4. National Arrears Grid:-
• Union law minister had announced that the national arrears grid and the special purpose vehicle
would implement the action plan to bring down the arrears of cases pending in various courts.
• The action plans should focus on human resource development, infrastructure development and
procedural reforms.
• It is decided that special judges to deal with all pending criminal cases where the term of
sentences was less than 3 years.
• It favored creation of a national pool of judicial officers from retired judges to enable persons
from the pool to be appointed as high court judges.
5. Gram Nyayalayas:-
• The Gram Nyayalayas act 2008 had been enacted to provide for the establishment of the gram
nyayalayas at the grass root level for the purpose of providing access to justice to the citizens at
their door steps.
Salient features:-
• It is aimed at providing inexpensive justice to people in rural areas at their door steps.
• It will have its court of judicial magistrate of the first class and its presiding officers
( Nyayadhikri) shall be appointed by the state government in consultation with the High Court.
• The Gram Nyayalaya shall be established for every panchyats at intermediate level in a district
or where there is no panchayat at intermediate level in any state for a group of contiguous
panchayats.
• Gram nyayalaya shall be a mobile court and shall exercise the powers of both criminal and civil
courts.
• Officiating nyaydhikari will go to villages work there and dispose of the cases.
6. Law commission:-
• It is a non- statutory body.
• Constituted by the government from time to time originally constituted in 1955 and it is
reconstituted every three years.
7. Judges ( inquiry) bill , 2006:-
• The judges ( inquiry ) bill 2006 established a national judicial council ( NJC) to conduct
Inquiries into allegations of incapacity or misbehavior by high court and Supreme Court judges.
• The proposed NJC would consist of the chief justice of India, two Supreme Court judges and
two high court chief justices to investigate high court judge (It has been change again in the new
draft).
• The chief justice of India and four Supreme Court judges to investigate Supreme Court judges.
• The NJC shall investigate complaints submitted by any persons, or upon receiving a references
from parliament based on a motion moved by 50 Rajya Sabha or 100 Lok Sabha m.p.
• If the allegations are proven, the NJC may impose minor measures or recommended the removal of judges. Removal of judges shall be through impeachment by parliament.
8. Biotechnology Regulating Authority of India (BRAI) bill:-
• This Bill would bring about wide ranging changes in the process of regulating research,
transport, import, manufacture and use of G.M product in the country.
Controversy regarding the Bill:-
• According to section 81 of the bill the act will have an overriding effect over other state – level
acts. Activists allege that this ignores the constitutional powers of states over agriculture and
health
• This bill has no provisions for public participation, which is a violation of article 23.2 of the
Cartagena Protocol on bio- safety to which India is a signatory.
• The bill also states that whoever without any evidence or scientific record misleads the public
about the safety of organism and products shall be punished with imprisonment for a term
which shall not be less than six months. But which may extend to one year and with fine which
may extend to two lakh rupees or with both.
• The bill serves to over ride state specific concerns by making the proposed authority solely
responsible for releasing and controlling genetically modified organisms (GMOs) through out
the country and envisages only an advisory role for state.
9. The prohibitions of unfair practices in technical, medical
educations institutions and universities bill:-
• It is drafted by the Human Resource development ministry to provide for a central law to curb
malpractices.
• However in the T.M.A pai , case supreme court held that establishment of private unaided
educational institutions was in the exercise of fundamental rights to occupations under article 19
(1) (g) of the constitution.
10. Communal violence bill:-
• It is communal violence (prevention, control and rehabilitation) bill.
• The bill empowers the centre to intervene to tackle communal violence without the concurrence
of the state government , if it is believe that state is not doing enough to control the violence.
• The bill also empowers the centre to declare any area in any state communally disturbed, if it is
convinced that the state government is not following its directions to control or to check
communal violence.
• The bill gives the central government exclusive power to constitute a unified command to deal
with communal violence.

PRATIYOGITA DARPAN 2011 FEBRUARY MAGAZINE

FOR PRATIYOGITA DARPAN 2011 FEBRUARY MAGAZINE CLICK HERE

Name of Chief Guests at Republic Day of India

Chief Guests at Republic Day of India (26th January Parades): Since 1950, India has been hosting head of state or government of another country as the state guest of honour for Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi. Since 1955 parade is being presenting at Rajpath. The guest country is chosen after a deliberation of strategic, economic and political interests.

Following is the list of all Chief guest invited to attend Republic Day of India (26th January) since 1950 to 2011:

Year	Chief Guest Name	Country
1950	President Sukarno	Indonesia
1951
1952
1953
1954	King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck	Bhutan
1955	Governor General Malik Ghulam Muhammad (first guest for parade at Rajpath)	Pakistan
1956
1957
1958	Marshall Ye Jianying	People’s Republic of China
1959
1960	President Kliment Voroshilov	Soviet Union
1961	Queen Elizabeth II	United Kingdom
1962
1963	King Norodom Sihanouk	Cambodia
1964
1965	Food and Agriculture Minister Rana Abdul Hamid	Pakistan
1966
1967
1968	Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin and President Josip Broz Tito	Soviet Union Yugoslavia
1969	Prime Minister of Bulgaria Todor Zhivkov	Bulgaria
1970
1971	President Julius Nyerere	Tanzania
1972	Prime Minister Seewoosagur Ramgoolam	Mauritius
1973	President Mobutu Sese Seko	Zaire
1974	President Josip Broz Tito and Prime Minister Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike	Yugoslavia Sri Lanka
1975	President Kenneth Kaunda	Zambia
1976	Prime Minister Jacques Chirac	France
1977	First Secretary Edward Gierek	Poland
1978	President Patrick Hillery	Ireland
1979	Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser	Australia
1980	President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing	France
1981	President Jose Lopez Portillo	Mexico
1982	King Juan Carlos I	Spain
1983	President Shehu Shagari	Nigeria
1984	King Jigme Singye Wangchuck	Bhutan
1985	President Raúl Alfonsín	Argentina
1986	Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou	Greece
1987	President Alan Garcia	Peru
1988	President Junius Jayewardene	Sri Lanka
1989	General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh	Vietnam
1990	Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth	Mauritius
1991	President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom	Maldives
1992	President Mário Soares	Portugal
1993	Prime Minister John Major	United Kingdom
1994	Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong	Singapore
1995	President Nelson Mandela	South Africa
1996	President Dr. Fernando Henrique Cardoso	Brazil
1997	Prime Minister Basdeo Panday	Trinidad and Tobago
1998	President Jacques Chirac	France
1999	King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev	Nepal
2000	President Olusegun Obasanjo	Nigeria
2001	President Abdelaziz Bouteflika	Algeria
2002	President Cassam Uteem	Mauritius
2003	President Mohammed Khatami	Iran
2004	President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva	Brazil
2005	King Jigme Singye Wangchuck	Bhutan
2006	King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud	Saudi Arabia
2007	President Vladimir Putin	Russia
2008	President Nicolas Sarkozy	France
2009	President Nursultan Nazarbayev	Kazakhstan
2010	President Lee Myung Bak	Republic of Korea
2011	President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono	Indonesia

PADMA AWARDS 2011

The President of India has approved the conferment of Padma Awards-2011. This year the President has approved 128 awards including one duo case (counted as one) and 12 in the category of Foreigners/ NRIs/ PIOs/ Posthumous. These comprise 13 Padma Vibhushan, 31 Padma Bhushan and 84 Padma Shri Awards. There are 31 ladies among the awardees.

Padma Vibhushan

Sl No.	Name	Discipline	State/ Domicile
	Dr. (Smt.) Kapila Vatsyayan	Art - Art Administration and Promotion.	Delhi
	Mrs. Homai Vyarawalla	Art - Photography	Gujarat
	Shri A Nageshwara Rao	Art- Cinema	Andhra Pradesh
	Shri Parasaran Kesava Iyengar	Public Affairs	Delhi
	Dr. Akhlaq-ur-Rehman Kidwai	Public Affairs	Delhi
	Shri Vijay Kelkar	Public Affairs	Delhi
	Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia	Public Affairs	Delhi
	Shri Palle Rama Rao	Science and Engineering	Andhra Pradesh
	Shri Azim Premji	Trade and Industry	Karnataka
	Shri Brajesh Mishra	Civil Services	Madhya Pradesh
	Prof. (Dr.) Ottaplakkal Neelakandan Velu Kurup	Literature and Education	Kerala
	Dr. Sitakant Mahapatra	Literature and Education	Orissa
	Late Shri L. C. Jain	Public Affairs	Delhi *

Padma Bhushan

Sl No.	Name	Discipline	State/ Domicile
	Shri Satyadev Dubey	Art - Theatre	Maharashtra
	Shri Mohammed Zahur Khayyam Hashmi alias Khayyam	Art - Cinema - Music	Maharashtra
	Shri Shashi Kapoor	Art - Cinema	Maharashtra
	Shri Krishen Khanna	Art - Painting	Haryana
	Shri Madavur Vasudevan Nair	Art - Dance - Kathakali	Kerala
	Ms. Waheeda Rehman	Art - Cinema	Maharashtra
	Shri Rudrapatna Krishna Shastry Srikantan	Art - Music-Vocal	Karnataka
	Ms. Arpita Singh	Art - Painting	Delhi
	Dr. Sripathi Panditharadhyula Balasubrahmanyam	Art - Playback Singing, Music Direction & acting	Tamil Nadu
	Shri C.V. Chandrasekhar	Art - Classical Dance-Bharatanatyam	Tamil Nadu
	Shri Dwijen Mukherjee	Art	West Bengal
	Smt. Rajashree Birla	Social work	Maharashtra
	Mrs. Shobhana Ranade	Social work	Maharashtra
	Dr. Suryanarayanan Ramachandran	Science and Engineering	Tamil Nadu
	Shri S.(Kris) Gopalakrishnan	Trade and Industry	Karnataka
	Shri Yogesh Chander Deveshwar	Trade and Industry	West Bengal
	Ms. Chanda Kochhar	Trade and Industry	Maharashtra
	Dr. K. Anji Reddy	Trade and Industry- Pharmacy	Andhra Pradesh
	Shri Analjit Singh	Trade and Industry	Delhi
	Shri Rajendra Singh Pawar	Trade and Industry	Haryana
	Dr. Gunapati Venkata Krishna Reddy	Trade and Industry	Andhra Pradesh
	Shri Ajai Chowdhary	Trade and Industry	Delhi
	Shri Surendra Singh	Civil Services	Delhi
	Shri M. N .Buch	Civil Services	Madhya Pradesh
	Shri Shyam Saran	Civil Services	Delhi
	Shri Thayil Jacob Sony George	Literature and Education	Karnataka
	Dr. Ramdas Madhava Pai	Literature and Education	Karnataka
	Shri Sankha Ghosh	Literature and Education	West Bengal
	Late Shri K. Raghavan Thirumulpad	Medicine - Ayurveda.	Kerala*
	Late Dr. Keki Byramjee Grant	Medicine - Cardiology	Maharashtra *
	Late Shri Dashrath Patel	Art	Gujarat *

Padma Shri

Sl No.	Name	Discipline	State/ Domicile
	Ms. Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry	Art - Theatre	Chandigarh
	Shri Makar Dhwaja Darogha	Art- Chhau Dance	Jharkhand
	Shri Shaji Neelakantan Karun	Art – Film Direction	Kerala
	Shri Girish Kasaravalli	Art - Film making	Karnataka
	Ms. Tabassum Hashmi Khan alias Tabu	Art - Cinema	Maharashtra
	Shri Jivya Soma Mase	Art - Warli Painting	Maharashtra
	Guru (Ms.) M.K. Saroja	Art - Dance- Bharatnatyam	Tamil Nadu
	Shri Jayaram Subramaniam	Art - Cinema	Tamil Nadu
	Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty	Art - Music-Indian Classical Vocal	West Bengal
	Smt. Mahasundari Devi	Art - Mithilia/ Madhubani Painting.	Bihar
	Shri Gajam Govardhana	Art - Handloom Weaving	Andhra Pradesh
	Ms. Sunayana Hazarilal	Art - Dance - Kathak	Maharashtra
	Shri S.R. Janakiraman	Art - Carnatic Vocal Music	Tamil Nadu
	Shri Peruvanam Kuttan Marar	Art - Chenda Melam- Drum concert	Kerala
	Smt. Kalamandalam Kshemavathy Pavithran	Art - Dance - Mohiniattam	Kerala
	Shri Dadi Dorab Pudumjee	Art - Puppetry	Delhi
	Shri Khangembam Mangi Singh	Art - Traditional Music of Manipur (Pena)	Manipur
	Shri Prahlad Singh Tipaniya	Art - Folk Music	Madhya Pradesh
	Smt. Usha Uthup	Art - Music.	West Bengal
	Smt. Kajol	Art- Cinema	Maharashtra
	Shri Irfan Khan	Art- Cinema	Maharashtra
	Shri Mamraj Agrawal	Social work	West Bengal
	Shri Jockin Arputham	Social work	Maharashtra
	Ms. Nomita Chandy	Social work	Karnataka
	Ms. Sheela Patel	Social work	Maharashtra
	Ms. Anita Reddy	Social work	Karnataka
	Shri Kanubhai Hasmukhbhai Tailor	Social work	Gujarat
	Shri Anant Darshan Shankar	Public Affairs	Karnataka
	Prof. M. Annamalai	Science and Engineering	Karnataka
	Dr. Mahesh Haribhai Mehta	Science and Engineering - Agricultural Science	Gujarat
	Shri Coimbatore Narayana Rao Raghavendran	Science and Engineering	Tamil Nadu
	Dr. (Mrs.) Suman Sahai	Science and Engineering	Delhi
	Prof.(Dr.) E.A. Siddiq	Science and Engineering - Agricultural Science	Andhra Pradesh
	Shri Gopalan Nair Shankar	Science and Engineering - Architecture	Kerala
	Shri Mecca Rafeeque Ahmed	Trade and Industry	Tamil Nadu
	Shri Kailasam Raghavendra Rao	Trade and Industry	Tamil Nadu
	Shri Narayan Singh Bhati	Civil Services	Andhra Pradesh
	Shri P K Sen	Civil Services	Bihar
	Ms. Shital Mahajan	Sports - Adventure Sports- Para Jumping	Maharashtra
	Ms. Nameirakpam Kunjarani Devi	Sports - Weightlifting	Manipur
	Shri Sushil Kumar	Sports - Wrestling	Delhi
	Shri Vangipurapu Venkata Sai Laxman	Sports - Cricket	Andhra Pradesh
	Shri Gagan Narang	Sports - Shooting	Andhra Pradesh
	Smt. Krishna Poonia	Sports - Discus Throw	Rajasthan
	Shri Harbhajan Singh	Sports - Mountaineering	Punjab
	Dr. Pukhraj Bafna	Medicine - Padeatrics	Chhattisgarh
	Prof. Mansoor Hasan	Medicine- Cardiology	Uttar Pradesh
	Dr. Shyama Prasad Mandal	Medicine - Orthopaedic	Delhi
	Prof. (Dr.) Sivapatham Vittal	Medicine - Endocrinology	Tamil Nadu
	Prof. (Dr.) Madanur Ahmed Ali	Medicine - Gastroenterology	Tamil Nadu
	Dr. Indira Hinduja	Medicine - Obstetrics and Gynaecology.	Maharashtra
	Dr. Jose Chacko Periappuram	Medicine - Cardio-Thoracic Surgery.	Kerala
	Prof. (Dr.) A. Marthanda Pillai	Medicine - Neurosurgery	Kerala
	Shri Mahim Bora	Literature and Education	Assam
	Prof. (Dr.) Pullella Srirama Chandrudu	Literature and Education- Sanskrit	Andhra Pradesh
	Dr. Pravin Darji	Literature and Education	Gujarat
	Dr. Chandra Prakash Deval	Literature and Education	Rajasthan
	Shri Balraj Komal	Literature and Education	Delhi
	Mrs. Rajni Kumar	Literature and Education	Delhi
	Dr. Devanooru Mahadeva	Literature and Education	Karnataka
	Shri Barun Mazumder	Literature and Education	West Bengal
	Dr. Avvai Natarajan	Literature and Education	Tamil Nadu
	Shri Bhalchandra Nemade	Literature and Education	Himachal Pradesh
	Prof. Riyaz Punjabi	Literature and Education	Jammu and Kashmir
	Prof. Koneru Ramakrishna Rao	Literature and Education	Andhra Pradesh
	Ms. Buangi Sailo	Literature and Education	Mizoram
	Prof. Devi Dutt Sharma	Literature and Education	Uttarakhand
	Shri Nilamber Dev Sharma	Literature and Education	Jammu and Kashmir
	Ms. Urvashi Butalia #	Literature and Education	Delhi
	Ms. Ritu Menon #	Literature and Education	Delhi
	Prof. Krishna Kumar	Literature and Education	Delhi
	Shri Deviprasad Dwivedi	Literature and Education	Uttar Pradesh
	Ms. Mamang Dai	Literature and Education	Arunachal Pradesh
	Dr. Om Prakash Agrawal	Others - Heritage Conservation	Uttar Pradesh
	Prof. Madhukar Keshav Dhavalikar	Others - Archeology	Maharashtra
	Ms. Shanti Teresa Lakra	Others-Nursing	Andaman & Nicobar
	Smt. Gulshan Nanda	Others - Handicrafts promotion	Delhi
	Dr. Azad Moopen	Social work	UAE *
	Prof. Upendra Baxi	Public Affairs -Legal Affairs	United Kingdom *
	Dr. Mani Lal Bhaumik	Science and Engineering	USA *
	Dr. Subra Suresh	Science and Engineering	USA *
	Prof. Karl Harrington Potter	Literature and Education	USA *
	Prof. Martha Chen	Social work	USA *
	Shri Satpal Khattar	Trade and Industry	Singapore *
	Shri Granville Austin	Literature and Education	USA *

Note: * indicates awardees in the category of Foreigners / NRIs/ PIOs/ Posthumous.

# indicates duo case.