13-Mar-2017: No candidate fielded for elections to the Commission on Legal Continental Shelf
India for the first time in two decades is not going to have a member in the U.N. scientific body that decides what portions of the seabed can be exclusively mined for natural resources such as oil, precious metals and minerals.
India’s current member to the 21-person body, called Commission on Legal Continental Shelf (CLCS) and part of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), told India’s decision not to field a candidate for the upcoming election.
According to officials of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), the date to send a nomination lapsed on March 7. Multiple sources said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), which formally nominates Indian candidates, chose to nominate a person to another U.N. body, called the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).
The MoES is the nodal Ministry of the Government for the Law of the Sea-related issues. However, the MEA went on to nominate a retired Joint Secretary-level officer for ITLOS membership, whereas the MoES candidate for CLCS was not agreed to by the MEA. Despite several representations by the MoES Secretary at various levels, the issue was not addressed.
The CLCS has a five-year tenure and elections are due in June for the 2017-2022 term. Not having an Indian in this 21-member group would mean that China and Pakistan would likely grab two of the five seats allotted to the so-called Asia-Pacific group.
Apart from signalling prestige, a membership of the commission allows India to gauge the scientific strength of claims by countries to parts of the seabed that, like territorial waters, are often hard to demarcate. Such information is privy only to participants. India has had disputes with several neighbours — Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka — over how the continental shelf (the seabed under the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal) can be fairly distributed.
India has huge interest in CLCS and applied for extending the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) up to 350 nautical miles from the existing 200 nautical miles. India’s submission to CLCS will likely come up for scrutiny later this year, and Sri Lanka, which has claimed a larger area than India, will be examined first. India’s application number is 48, while Sri Lanka’s is 43.
Fielding candidates for ITLOS and CLCS would require India’s Permanent Commission to The United Nations, which coordinates the process, to canvass for votes for both positions and could reduce future “diplomatic leverage,”. “It’s also one of those rare occasions when there’s been a vacancy in both ITLOS and CLCS and maybe the MEA deems ITLOS more important.
In CLCS, the sitting members from the Asia-Pacific region are China, Japan, South Korea, Pakistan, Malaysia and India, and all countries, except India, are sending candidates for both posts.
While ITLOS is a judge position and the appointee is paid annual wages, there is no remuneration for the sitting CLCS member.
India became a signatory to the UNCLOS in 1982 and has had continuous representation in CLCS, ITLOS and the International Seabed Authority (ISA) since their inception in 1997, 1996 and 1994 respectively.
6-Mar-2017: 13th Executive Committee Meeting of the International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN).
The Ministry of Power, Government of India is hosting the 13th Executive Committee Meeting of the International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN) at POWERGRID Corporate Center, Gurugram. This is the first ever Executive Committee Meeting of ISGAN being held in India and would have multiple sessions on 6th, 7th and 9th March, 2017.
Smart Grid implementation in India would get a boost from deliverables obtained through decisions and actions taken in 13th ISGAN ExCo Meeting as ISGAN aims to improve the understanding of smart grid technologies, practices and promote adoption of related enabling government policies. The dynamic knowledge sharing, technical assistance and project coordination and periodic ISGAN reports on progress and projects being undertaken in the field of Smart Grids across the world would also be helpful in suitable deployment of Smart Grid technologies in India.
ISGAN is an agreement under International Energy Agency (IEA) and consists of representatives from 25 countries across the globe. India is one of the founding Member of ISGAN and Joint Secretary (Distribution), Ministry of Power, is the member representative of India. ISGAN creates a mechanism for multilateral government-to-government collaboration to advance the development and deployment of smarter electric grid technologies, practices and systems.
A total of 36 representatives from 18 countries namely Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, US and UAE are participating in this event.
3-Feb-2017: WCD Ministry holds national consultation to discuss issues related to India’s accession to Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development held a National Consultation to discuss issues related to India’s accession to Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, in New Delhi.
A large number of women married to Indians abroad are compelled to return to India with their children when they undergo violence in their marriages. Women who have suffered from violence in marriages abroad far exceed men. After listening to the viewpoints expressed by all the stakeholders , the WCD Minister opined that the problems being faced by the parents must be addressed and an effective mechanism for the same must be created. A model legislation to safeguard not only the interests of the child but also of the parents, especially women must also be developed.
Accordingly, based on the discussions and guidance given by the Hon’ble Judges, it was decided that the Chandigarh Judicial Academy Chandigarh along with NRI Commission of Punjab to examine in detail the legal issues involved by taking all viewpoints into account including those of suffering women. They will give recommendations as to how the problems of parents and children involved in such situations can be addressed. They will also study the draft Protection of Children (Inter-Country Removal and Retention) Bill, 2016 . It was also decided that if a model legislation is required to safeguard the interests of parents and children, the same will be drafted. It was decided that this exercise will be completed in four months.
Hague Convention is a multilateral treaty which came into existence on 1st December, 1983. The convention seeks to protect children from the harmful effects of abduction and retention across international boundaries by providing a procedure to bring about their prompt return. The convention is intended to enhance the international recognition of rights of custody and access arising in place of habitual residence, and to ensure prompt return of the child who is wrongfully removed or retained from the place of habitual residence. It seeks to return children abducted or retained overseas by a parent to their country of habitual residence for the courts of that country to decide on matters of residence and contact. The convention shall apply to any child, up to the age of 16 years who is a habitual resident of any of the contacting states.
Currently, there is no specific Indian legislation addressing issues related to abduction of children from and into India. However Law Commission of India had submitted the 218th Report titled “Need to accede to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980” on 30th March, 2009. In view of this report, before acceding to the Convention, the Ministry of Women and Child Development prepared a draft Bill titled “The Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction Bill, 2016”. The draft Bill was placed on the Ministry’s website for comments and suggestions from various stakeholders.
The Law Commission of India has recently suggested some modifications in the above mentioned Bill and re-named it as the “The Protection of Children (Inter-country Removal and Retention) Bill, 2016”.