Relevance IN - Prelims (about SCO and SCO governor council meet) + Mains (GS II bilateral regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interest
What's the NEWS

• India will host the 19^th council of heads of government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation next year, the first such high level meeting of the eight-member grouping to be organised by New Delhi after its admission into the grouping in 2017

• The SCO is a China-led eight-member economic and security bloc in which India and Pakistan were admitted as full members in 2017.
• Its founding members included China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
• In the 18th meeting of SCO's council of heads of government that was held at Tashkent early this month the decision was taken that India will host a meeting of the heads of the government for the first time
• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh represented India at the summit in Tashkent.

• The SCO has four observer states, namely Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia. It has six dialogue partners, namely Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka.
• The SCO, which has its headquarters in Beijing, holds summits of heads of states as well as heads of government meetings annually in member countries. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi attends the summit, the heads of the government meetings are attended by senior Cabinet Ministers.
• India's membership was strongly pushed by Russia, while Pakistan's entry into the grouping was backed by China.

• The SCO has high economic potential because 40 per cent of the world population lives in its countries, which produce an aggregate GDP of more than USD 18 trillion, that is more than the 22

• In recent years, the SCO has made counter terrorism cooperation one of its main focus areas and created Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) which focussed on periodic counter terrorism exercises involving the member countries.
• A number of proposals, including the creation of the Council for the Development of Digital Economy and setting up of SCO Development Bank (SDB) and SCO Development Fund (SDF) were discussed.
• China would launch the SCO International Youth Incubator programme.

What's the NEWS

• Art 356, under which Prez's rule is imposed in state, deals with failure of constitutional machinery in state.

Know! more about it

• Imposition of President's rule in Maharashtra is the first instance in the 59-year-old history of the state when Article 356 has been invoked due to inability of political parties to form a government after an assembly election.
• Overall, this is third time that Maharashtra has come under the central rule. The present-day Maharashtra came into existence on May 1, 1960.
• Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyar recommended the imposition of President's rule in Maharashtra after Shiv Sena failed to prove the majority within its given deadline and the BJP refused to form government saying it had fewer numbers.
• The recommendation file was sent by the Union Home Ministry for the President's assent. President Ram Nath Kovind approved the proposal on November 12, 2019.

Shiv Sena approached the Supreme Court

• Shiv Sena has filed a writ petition under Article 14 & 21 of the constitution of India, challenging the governor's unconstitutional and unreasonable decision to reject the request for a deadline extension to submit letters of support.

The seats statics

• In the October 21 assembly election, whose results were declared on October 24, the BJP emerged as the single largest party with 105 seats followed by the Shiv Sena 56, the NCP 54 and the Congress 44.
• Pre-poll allies BJP and the Shiv Sena had together won 161 seats, way above the 145 majority mark in the 288-member house.

Know! about the President's rule

• President's rule has been imposed in Maharashtra for the third time since the state came into existence in May 1960.
• The President's rule means direct rule of the central government and suspension of state government's rule.
• The President's rule is imposed after invoking Article 356 of the Indian constitution. It is imposed on the recommendation of Governor in two cases:

1. In case of failure of constitutional machinery
2. If a state legislature is unable to function according to constitutional provisions

• The President's rule is imposed for a minimum duration of six months and a maximum duration of 3 years but it has to be approved by the Parliament after every six months.
• The President's rule can be revoked whenever a party is able to prove its majority and submit letters of support.

SC allows 17 disqualified Karnataka MLAs to contest December 5 by polls
Relevance IN - Prelims (about anti -defection law and about 190) + Mains (GS II Parliament and State Legislatures - structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.

What's the NEWS

• The Supreme Court upheld the disqualification of 17 Karnataka MLAs belonging to the Congress (14) and the Janata Dal-Secular (3).
• The MLAs were disqualified by the then Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar.
• The Supreme Court said that disqualified legislators should be allowed to give their opinion.
• The Supreme Court said that the decision of the then Lok Sabha Speaker is correct, but disqualification decision for the entire term of the Legislative Assembly is not correct.

Know! the genesis of this matter

• The speaker of legislative assembly Ramesh Kumar had disqualified 17 rebel MLAs before the confidence motion of the HD Kumaraswamy government in the assembly.
• In July 2019, after BJP swept the parliamentary elections, 17 MLAs of the coalition submitted resignations to the speaker.
• By-elections are being held on December 5 for 15 seats (out of these 17 seats) due to disqualification of these MLAs.
• These disqualified MLAs wanted to file nominations for these by-elections.
• These MLAs had recently filed an application in the apex court, requesting the Election Commission to postpone the by-elections for 15 seats

Article 190

• It explains the vacation of seats by the members of Houses of legislature of state.
• The article gives the power for the MLA to resign addressing the speaker. However, the article also gives power to the speaker the power to reject the resignation

Anti-Defection Law

• The tenth schedule of the Constitution lays down the process by which legislators can be disqualified on grounds of defection by the presiding officer of the legislature. A MLA is deemed to have been defected

- if he voluntarily gives up his membership of the party
- If he disobeys party leadership on a vote

Prelims Factoids
Amazon launches 'Project Zero' in India to block counterfeit goods
Relevance IN - Prelims (about Project Zero)

• In a bid to ensure that customers receive authentic goods when shopping on Amazon.

Know! more about Project Zero

• Amazon announced to bring "Project Zero" to India. "Project Zero" introduces additional proactive mechanisms and powerful tools to identify, block and remove counterfeits.
• Over 7,000 brands have already enrolled in Project Zero across US, Europe and Japan. A number of Indian brands participated in a pilot to help the company test the experience in India.
• "Project Zero" combines Amazon's advanced technology and innovation with the sophisticated knowledge that brands have of their own intellectual property and how best to detect counterfeits of their products.
• It does so through three powerful tools: Automated protections, self-service counterfeit removal tool and product serialization.
• Product serialisation is enabled by a unique code that brands apply within their manufacturing and packaging process, and it allows Amazon to individually scan and confirm the authenticity of every single purchase of a brand's enrolled products through Amazon's marketplace.
  
  

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