8th September 2018 Current Affairs

Contents

Section 377 Verdict: Supreme Court legalizes Homosexuality, partially strikes down Section 377

A Five Judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on September 6, 2018, decriminalized Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) by partially striking down some of its provisions.
The bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra; Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud, and Indu Malhotra ruled that Section 377, to the extent it criminalizes sexual acts between consenting adults, whether homosexual or heterosexual, is unconstitutional.
However, bestiality will continue as an offense. Any kind of sexual activity with animals shall remain penal offense under Section 377 of the IPC.

The Telangana Cabinet on September 6, 2018, passed a resolution calling for the dissolution of the Telangana Legislative Assembly.
The state’s Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had convened the meeting of his Council of Ministers to dissolve the Legislative Assembly and seek fresh elections six months ahead of schedule.
The CM submitted a one-line resolution of the cabinet dissolving the assembly to the state’s Governor ESL Narasimhan immediately after the meeting.
The Governor asked Rao and his council of ministers to continue as the caretaker government.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on September 3, 2018, asked all scheduled commercial banks with more than 10 branches to appoint an Internal Ombudsman.
The Scheme covers appointment and tenure; roles and responsibilities; procedural guidelines and oversight mechanism for the Internal Ombudsman.
All Scheduled Commercial Banks in India having more than 10 banking outlets are required to appoint IO in their banks.
The IO will examine customer complaints referring to the deficiency in service on the part of the bank that is partly or wholly rejected by the bank.

The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on September 1, 2018, launched the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi.
The initiative seeks to leverage the expansive network of the postal department to ensure financial inclusion for the masses.
The simultaneous launch events were held for the IPPBs at 650 branches and 3,250 access points.
The objective of IPPB is to build the most accessible, affordable and trusted bank for the common man, spearhead the financial inclusion agenda by removing the barriers for the unbanked and reduce the opportunity cost for the underbanked populace through assisted doorstep banking.

The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) candidate, Arif Alvi on September 4, 2018, won the Pakistan Presidential Election 2018, defeating his two rival candidates Fazal-ur-Rehman and Aitzaz Ahsan.
Fazal-ur-Rehman is the joint candidate of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and some other opposition groups, while, Aitzaz Ahsan belongs to the Pakistan Peoples Party.
Alvi will replace incumbent President Mamnoon Hussain as the 13th President of Pakistan with a term of five years. Hussain’s five-year term will end on September 8, 2018.
Before taking oath as the President of the country, Alvi will have to resign from the National Assembly, as per Pakistan’s Constitution.