• The Reserve Bank of India enhanced the market liquidity with an additional bond purchase for as much as Rs.10,000 crore
• The Reserve Bank has decided to conduct open market in the form of purchase of an aggregate amount of 10,000 crores,
• The liquidity injection will help rationalise shorter term yields in sync with the benchmark yield
• It will serve both the purposes of supplying liquidity into the system and realignment of yield spread (differential) between shorter end and 10 year benchmark.
• Earlier it had conducted a dollar swap auction where banks could exchange rupee with dollars stocking up reserves of the greenback, the world's most powerful currency.
• Similarly, it will again conduct a dollar swap auction for $2 billion next Monday to cover dollar shortages in the wake of a global crisis.

• Open market operations is the sale and purchase of government securities and treasury bills by RBI or the central bank of the country.
• The objective of OMO is to regulate the money supply in the economy.
• When the RBI wants to increase the money supply in the economy, it purchases the government securities from the market and it sells government securities to suck out liquidity from the system.
• RBI carries out the OMO through commercial banks and does not directly deal with the public.
• OMO is one of the tools that RBI uses to smoothen the liquidity conditions through the year and minimise its impact on the interest rate and inflation rate levels.

• In a rare move, the Supreme Court invoked its plenary powers and ordered forthwith removal of BJP lawmaker and Manipur Forest Cabinet Minister TH Shyamkumar, restraining him from entering the Assembly till further orders.

• Shyamkumar had won the Assembly polls in 2017 as a Congress candidate but later joined the BJP government. The plea of his disqualification is still pending with the Speaker.
• The SC had on January 21 taken note of inordinate delays in deciding 13 pleas for disqualification of lawmakers pending since April 2017 and had asked the Manipur Assembly Speaker to decide within four weeks the plea of a Congress leader seeking disqualification of Shyamkumar.
• The polls for 60 seats of the Manipur Legislative Assembly were conducted in March 2017 in which Congress Party emerged as the single largest party with 28 seats and BJP came second with 21 seats.
• However, a BJP led government was sworn in and Shyamkumar, a Congress MLA, switched side and became a minister in the state government leading to filing of several pleas in April 2017 with Speaker seeking his disqualification under the anti-defection law.

• The top court rarely invokes its plenary power under Article 142 of the Constitution to remove a cabinet minister from any government.
• The SC said given the extraordinary facts in the present case, "we are constrained to use our powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India".
• Article 142(1) states that "The Supreme Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it, and any decree so passed or order so made shall be enforceable throughout the territory of India in such manner as may be prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament and, until provision in that behalf is so made, in such manner as the President may by order prescribe
• Article 142(1) states that the Supreme Court shall have the power to make any order for the purpose of securing the attendance of any person, the discovery or production of any documents or the investigation or punishment of any contempt of itself.

• Courts not to inquire into proceedings of the Legislature
• The validity of any proceedings in the Legislature of a State shall not be called in question on the ground of any alleged irregularity of procedure
• If we talk about this particular case the due to the inaction of the Speaker the court invoked Article 142, which allows the Supreme Court to pass any order necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter.

• The Tenth Schedule was inserted in the Constitution in 1985.
• It lays down the process by which legislators may be disqualified on grounds of defection by the Presiding Officer of a legislature based on a petition by any other member of the House.
• A legislator is deemed to have defected if he either voluntarily gives up the membership of his party or disobeys the directives of the party leadership on a vote. This implies that a legislator defying (abstaining or voting against) the party whip on any issue can lose his membership of the House.
• The law applies to both Parliament and state assemblies.
• The legislators may change their party without the risk of disqualification in certain circumstances.
• The law allows a party to merge with or into another party provided that at least two-thirds of its legislators are in favour of the merger.
• In such a scenario, neither the members who decide to merge, nor the ones who stay with the original party will face disqualification.
• Various expert committees have recommended that rather than the Presiding Officer, the decision to disqualify a member should be made by the President (in case of MPs) or the Governor (in case of MLAs) on the advice of the Election Commission.

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about IUSSTF-Viterbi program)
What's the NEWS

• A total of 14 students will undertake a research internship at Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, LA, USA.
• The internship would commence from mid-May for a period of 8 weeks, and students would be working broadly in areas of Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning and Neural Networks, communication circuits, Analog and Digital Circuit Design, and so on.

Know! about the Viterbi Program of IUSSTF

• The Viterbi Program of IUSSTF was developed between IUSSTF and the Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California (USC).
• This program is a part of the Government's endeavour to encourage research and development amongst the bright young Indian minds to create long-term, sustainable, and vibrant linkages between India and the US.

Know! about IUSSTF

• IUSSTF was established under an agreement between the Governments of India and the United States of America in March 2000.
• It is an autonomous bilateral organization jointly funded by both the Governments that promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Innovation through substantive interaction among government, academia, and industry.
• The Department of Science & Technology (DST), Governments of India, and the U.S. Department of State are respective nodal departments.
• IUSSTF has an evolving program portfolio that is largely conceived and driven by scientific communities of both the countries
• The program provides an opportunity for Indian students pursuing a Bachelors's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Computational Sciences at a recognized institution of higher education and learning in India to undertake a research internship at the Viterbi School of Engineering for a period of 8 weeks.

Defence
Defence Ministry signs contract for 16,479 Light Machine Guns with Israel

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Negev 7.62X51 mm LMG)
What's the NEWS

• The defence ministry has signed a major contract for procuring more than 16,000 light machine guns from an Israeli firm for frontline troops.

Know! more about the deal

• The Indian Armed Forces' long- standing requirement of a modern state-of- the-art Light Machine Gun (LMG) has finally fructified.
• The Acquisition Wing of Ministry of Defence has signed the capital acquisition contract with Israel Weapons Industries for procurement of 16,479 LMGs at a cost of Rs 880 crore with the approval of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh

Know! about Negev 7.62X51 mm LMG

• The contracted Negev 7.62X51 mm LMG is a combat proven weapon and currently used by several countries around the globe.
• The weapon has semi-automatic mode to provide accurate, controlled fire in close quarter battle
• The LMG, will enhance the lethality and range of a soldier in comparison with presently used weapon, the INSAS LMG that has a calibre of 5.56x45mm.
• These guns are being procured under the Fast Track Procedure (FTP)
• The FTP is to ensure expeditious procurement for urgent operational requirements of the regular and special forces.
• It is applied for cases where there has been an unforeseen delay, which is adversely affecting the capacity of the forces.
• The Defence Acquisition Council had cleared the procurement of these LMGs for the army, air force and navy in February 2018.
  
  

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