1) National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC): The NAAC is an autonomous body under the University Grants Commission (UGC).
- It assesses and certifies Higher-level Educational Institutions (HEIs) with gradings as part of accreditation.
- Only higher education institutions that are at least six years old, or from where at least two batches of students have graduated, can apply for NAAC accreditation.
- The accreditation is valid for five years.
- The ratings of institutions range from A++ to C. If an institution is graded D, it means it is not accredited.
- NAAC relies heavily on self-assessment reports of applicant institutions.
2) Kurmi: Kurmis blocked railway tracks in various parts of eastern India demanding Scheduled Tribe (ST) status and inclusion of Kurmali language in the eighth schedule of the Constitution.
- Kurmi is traditionally a non-elite tiller caste in the lower Gangetic plain of India.
- They are present in southern regions of Awadh, eastern Uttar Pradesh and parts of Bihar.
3) Long Range Radio (LoRa): Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT, an Institute under the RBI) has developed a new low-cost financial network to take banking to remote areas.
- LoRa technology is a wireless modulation technique in the physical layer, allowing long-range communication using a chirp spread spectrum. LoRa technology uses dedicated radios, which are not usually present in end-user devices, limiting interferences from other devices.
- Banks can use this as their own dedicated private network instead of using a third-party network which is presently based either on a satellite link or wired (fibre).
4) Directorate of Enforcement (ED): it is a multi-disciplinary organization mandated with investigation of offences of money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws.
- It functions under the Department of Revenue of the Ministry of Finance.
- The statutory functions of the Directorate include enforcement of following Acts:
- Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (COFEPOSA), Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA), Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) and Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA):
5) Bench Strength and binding nature of judgments: A Constitution Bench has recently decided that a decision delivered by a Bench of largest strength is binding on any subsequent Bench of lesser or coequal strength.
- The Supreme court stated that the majority decision of a bench of larger strength would prevail over the decision of a bench of lesser strength, irrespective of the number of judges constituting the majority
- Simply put, the court verdict establishes that a 4-3 majority view will overrule a unanimous view of a bench of 5 judges — only because the former is a numerically superior bench.
- Doctrine of Precedence: Under this, courts refer to their older ruling as precedence on related matters. The precedential legitimacy of a larger bench ruling must be considered a thumb rule for stability in the law.
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