The BJP coalition retained power in Nagaland
- The northeastern state of Nagaland has a total of 60 assembly constituencies. The National Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and BJP alliance is ruling the state. In this, NTPP contested in 40 constituencies and BJP in 20 constituencies.
- Congress fielded candidates in 23 constituencies and Naga People's Front in 22 constituencies. Voting was held on 27th and votes were counted. In this, NTPP won 25 constituencies. Its ally BJP won 12 seats. The BJP alliance has secured an absolute majority with 31 MLAs required to form the government.
- Nationalist Congress 7, National People's Party 5, Republic of India (Adwale) Party 2, Naga People's Front 2, Lok Janashakti (Ram Vilas) Party 2, United Janata Dal won one. Independents won 4 seats.
- There are total 60 constituencies in the state of Meghalaya. Elections for these constituencies were held on February 27. In this state, the votes were counted and the results announced.
- 31 seats are required to form the government in this state. But no party got 31 seats for majority. NPP alone won 26 seats as the single largest party. Following this, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, the NPP leader, sought the support of other parties, including the BJP, which won 2 seats.
- He also appealed to Union Home Minister Amit Shah in this regard. Following this, the BJP, which won only 2 seats, has given a letter of support to form the government in Meghalaya. Thus, the BJP joins the coalition government in Meghalaya.
- Yesterday, the Supreme Court gave a historic verdict that the President should appoint the Election Commissioners and the Chief Election Commissioner as per the instructions of the committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
- Arun Goyal was the Secretary of the Union Ministry of Heavy Industries. A Punjab IAS officer, he voluntarily retired on November 18 last year. However, he was appointed as the Election Commissioner the very next day. The current Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar's term ends in February 2025.
- Thereafter, Arun Goyal will be the Chief Election Commissioner. He will be in the Election Commission for a total of more than 5 years.
- Many filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the lightning fast appointment of Arun Goyal as Election Commissioner. It requested that there should be a collegium-like structure for the appointment of Election Commissioners and Chief Election Commissioners.
- These petitions were heard by a constitution bench consisting of 5 judges namely Justices KM Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Harishikesh Roy and CD Ravi Kumar.
- In this case, the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court gave a unanimous judgment in this case. Justice Rastogi, who was present at the session, agreed to the unanimous decision of the session chaired by Justice Joseph. However, along with his reasons he also gave a personal verdict.
- The Supreme Court has said in its verdict: Until the law is passed...: The President should appoint the Election Commissioners and the Chief Election Commissioner as per the instructions of the committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. If there is no Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, the Leader of the Opposition with a single majority should be included in this committee. This procedure will continue until Parliament passes a law regarding the appointment of Election Commissioners.
- Assembly elections were held in Tripura on 16th of last month and in Meghalaya and Nagaland on 27th. The votes cast in these 3 northeastern states were counted. Out of the 60 constituencies in Tripura, the BJP contested 55 seats and its ally IPPT in the remaining seats.
- In this, BJP won 32 constituencies and IPFT one. While 31 MLAs are needed to form the government, the BJP, which has an absolute majority, is forming the government for the second time.
- The MoU was signed in the presence of Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Mary of Denmark at an event held in Chennai. Ministers Thiagarajan, Mano Thangaraj, Forest Department Secretary Supriya Sahu, Municipal Administration Department Secretary Sivdas Meena, Housing Department Secretary Apoorva were present.
- Through this agreement, the two countries will cooperate in advance efforts to mitigate the increasing extreme heat.
- It will be implemented in collaboration with Department of Environment and Climate Change, Department of Municipal Administration and Department of Housing, Government of Tamil Nadu.
- Integrated action plans including improvement of green cover of cities, strong efficiency measures, heat mitigation planning will be prepared and implemented.
- A study conducted by the American investment research firm Hindenburg published a report with evidence that Indian businessman Gautam Adani's Adani Group had committed an unprecedented fraud of Rs 17.80 lakh crore in the stock market.
- Following this, the shares of Adani Group fell sharply. In this case, lawyer ML Sharma had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court last January demanding that a committee headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court should be set up to investigate the Adani Group corruption.
- The bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud of the Supreme Court which heard this petition has given an actionable verdict.
- Adani issue is a capital issue to be considered. Because Adani Group has majority stake in SBI and LIC state-owned companies. Therefore, the protection of investors in this matter is very important.
- Especially with such controversies coming up, it is clear that the SEBI system is not providing proper protection to the investors. They should confirm it immediately. And whether norms were violated in the Adani-Hindenburg affair should also be probed. SEBI should soon develop a framework in this regard.
- In particular, it appears that SEBI has stopped the investigation against Adani. And the matter is that SEBI has to investigate whether there is any violation of S:19 of SEBI Rules and whether there is any manipulation in share price.
- A special expert panel headed by retired Supreme Court judge AM Sabre has been set up by the Supreme Court to probe the scandal.
- It has five members namely former State Bank Chairman O. P. Bhatt, retired High Court Judge JP Devduth, Nandan Neilkeni, one of the founders of Infosys software company, KV Kamath, Chairman of New Development Bank of BRICS countries, lawyer Somasekaran Sundaresan. The committee is formed.
- The Union Government and SEBI should assist in the investigation. A detailed inquiry in this regard should be conducted daily and a status report should be submitted to the Supreme Court in a sealed cover within two months. This has been said in the judgment.
- Union AYUSH Minister Mr. Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurated the first Shanghai Cooperation Organization International Conference and Exhibition on Traditional Medicine in Guwahati today.
- More than 150 delegates from 17 countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization participated in the seminar. The 2-day seminar discussed issues such as formulation of a regulatory framework for traditional medicinal products, promoting dialogue between manufacturers and buyers, and the role of government agencies in promoting traditional medicines.
- A four-day traditional medicinal products exhibition was also inaugurated today. Traditional medicine manufacturing companies, exporters and importers have displayed their products.