India's goods exports saw a decline of 2.8% from 2022 levels to $33.9 billion in November, while imports dropped by 4.33% to $54.5 billion, resulting in a merchandise trade deficit of $20.6 billion. The decline in imports was attributed to factors such as a decrease in discretionary demand for high-value goods like gems and jewellery and a global drop in prices of key items like petroleum products.
The Yemen-based and Iran-aligned Houthi militia announced that it would join the war to support the people of Gaza.
This brought the critical waterways of the Red Sea, which connects the Suez Canal, into the middle of the conflict. The Suez by itself carries nearly 15% of all global trade between the West and the East.
the Strait of Hormuz - stays under threats from Iran due to its constant conflicts from USA.
Since the incident in November, the number of commercial vessels facing Houthi aggression has only increased, and cases are being reported on a near daily basis.
USA-vigilance increases in Read Sea, Strait of Babel-e-Mandab
Arab – a bit restrained, Anti-Houthi Sentiments; under negotiation through China
Impact on Asian economies: The impact of a certain issue will be global, especially for Asian economies like India, Japan, South Korea, and China. These countries have shown interest in the issue, with India implementing military operations under Operation Sankalp and Japan working through diplomatic channels with Tehran. South Korea has also experienced tensions with Iran over their ships traveling through the region.
On December 18, 2006, the Rajya Sabha approved the Forest Rights Act, which aims to resolve conflicts over forest encroachments and establish a more democratic, bottom-up forest governance in India.
The implementation of the FRA has been hindered by political opportunism, forester resistance, bureaucratic apathy, misconceptions, and canards, thus failing to deliver on its promise of forest-dwellers' freedom and democratizing forest governance, 17 years after it was enacted.
Matters only worsened post-Independence- After Independence, forest areas previously owned by princely states and zamindari estates were declared state property without proper investigation, worsening matters.
The Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 and the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 (FCA), again conceived within the framework of eminent domain, became the another forms of injustice. Lakhs of communities were forcibly resettled when creating sanctuaries and national parks.
But the biggest lacuna in FRA implementation is the extremely slow and incomplete recognition of community rights to access and manage forests
Community forest rights or CFRs- Maharashtra, Odisha, and, more recently, Chhattisgarh, are the only States to recognize CFRs substantially.
Political equality in liberal democracies is not only about equal opportunity to participate in the political decision-making process, but also equal vote value. Delimitation of constituencies can weaken or strengthen democracy by diluting the right to vote qualitatively or quantitatively through unequal weighting or gerrymandering (redrawing of boundaries to favour a candidate/party).
Articles 81 and 170 of Constitution state that the ratio of the population for the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assembly constituencies shall be the same as far as practicable.
Article 327 empowers Parliament to make laws related to the delimitation of constituencies, which cannot be questioned in a court of law.
The government has constituted four delimitation commissions so far: in 1952, 1962, 1972 and 2002.
The first delimitation order in 1956 identified 86 constituencies as two-member constituencies, which was abolished.
The second delimitation order in 1967 increased the number of Lok Sabha seats from 494 to 522 and State Assembly seats from 3,102 to 3,563.
The third delimitation order of 1976 increased the number of Lok Sabha and State Assembly constituencies to 543 and 3,997, respectively.
Due to the fear of more imbalance of representation, the 42nd Amendment Act in 1976 froze the population figure of the 1971 Census for delimitation until after the 2001 Census.The Delimitation Act of 2002 did not give power to the Delimitation Commission to increase the number of seats, but said that the boundaries within the existing constituencies should be readjusted.
But the fourth Delimitation Commission was able to reassign reserved constituencies, which increased the number of seats for SCs from 79 to 84 and STs from 41 to 47 based on the increase in population. The moratorium was extended until the first Census after 2026 for any further increase in the number of seats.
Dilution of vote value-The population of Rajasthan, Haryana, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Gujarat has increased by more than 125% between 1971 and 2011, whereas the population of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa, and Odisha has increased by less than 100% due to stricter population control measures. This also reveals a huge variation in the value of vote for a people between States.
Sachar Committee Report: in a majority of the seats reserved for SCs by the Delimitation Commission (1972-76), the population of Muslims was more than 50% and also higher than the SC population. And constituencies which had a large SC population and a lower Muslim population were declared unreserved. This has a major impact on the number of Muslim representatives in Parliament. At present, the share of Muslims MPs in Parliament is only around 4.42%, whereas the Muslim population is 14.2%.
Delimitation cannot be postponed further - The next Delimitation Commission needs to address quantitative and qualitative dilution of vote value while protecting the interests of southern states, whose representation in Parliament could be weakened. Adequate representation of minorities also needs to be ensured.
