Constitutionality of Disaster Management Act, 2005 on the Touchstone of Federalism During Covidǧ19 in India

As per 7th Schedule of Constitution of India, 1950 there is sub-division of three lists namely Union list, State list and Concurrent list, which gives a detailed insight of powers of law making with both Centre and State in our country. Due to this both Centre and State have their exclusive domain wherein they can exercise their law-making power. During this exercise of power, which has been so specifically demarcated, can there be dispute of any kind? Answer is yes, Centre has often encroached upon exclusive domain of State subject matters by passing laws on such subject(s). The prominent example of it is the exercise of power under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 which came to be invoked by Centre for issuing guidelines binding on States in light of prevention of global pandemic being COVID-19. Public health and sanitation are a specific field of legislation under Entry 6 of List II, implying that States have exclusive power to legislate upon matters wherein public health is an issue, however despite of that Central Government laid down an array of guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic directing States to enforce those guidelines. In this article, the main focus will be regarding constitutionality of those guidelines issued by Centre and the interpretation laid down by the Judiciary in regards to similar incidents. Furthermore, the history of enactment of Disaster Management Act, 2005 and how the powers exercised under the guise of it, will be analyzed in order to arrive at a reasonable conclusion in relation to the present issue. Moreover, upon this premise of issuance of guidelines by Centre under the DMA Act, 2005, the Indian Federalism would be discussed upon the touchstone of judgements delivered by Hon’ble Supreme Court in said regard and by briefly comparing same with other federal jurisdictions such as United States. The entire Paper will be a blend of descriptive, historical, comparative and analytical approach.

Agriculture Bill 2020: An Apolitical Analysis

The government recently passed a bill. Outside of the physical boundaries of each state's APMC markets, it enables intra-state and multi-state exchanges of agricultural products. Only under exceptional circumstances does the federal government have the authority to control the supply of specific foods. The following are the goals of APMCs: To control the sale of agricultural products. Agriculture marketing development is restricted by APMCs in the following ways: By limiting the number of people who are allowed to purchase. The growth of private markets is stifled. The practice of selling directly to companies and retail customers is being phased out. Promoting online purchases is not a good idea. Market yards' specific properties are governed by trade committees established under state APMC Acts. This Ordinance mandates that farmers' produce be sold both intra-state and inter-state. State governments do not allow market fees, cess, or levies in the form of additional taxes. In exceptional circumstances, the central government can use this Ordinance to control the supply of cereals, pulses, potatoes, onions, edible oilseeds, and oils. Farmers struggled to defend MSPs, or minimum support rates, which they believed would be impacted by the new legislation. Just 6% of the farming community sell their goods at MSP prices, according to statistics. Since agriculture is on the State List, the Central will be unable to pass any legislation in this region. Punjab and Rajasthan are considering taking legal action to extend their APMC mandi yards' boundaries. The lost revenue from mandi fees and taxes is also a problem for states.

The spring bread wheat ‘Ekstra’

The current study was carried out in order to create an early-ripening variety of spring bread wheat with productivity at the level of middle-early or higher, the most adapted to the specific conditions of the Middle Urals. The estimation of the breeding material was carried out in the fields, the soils of which are typical for the Sverdlovsk region and Permsky Krai. During the years of the study, the agroclimatic conditions differed along the growing season. There have been established the dry year of 2016 (90 mm of rain, GTC 0.6) and the moisture years of 2014, 2015, 2017–2019 (with precipitation amount of 247–448 mm, GTC 2.0–3.2). The crossings were carried out between the middle-ripening variety ‘Omskaya 35’ (mother) and the early- ripening variety ‘Iren’ (father). There has been developed the variety that combined high productivity and early maturity. The average productivity of the new variety ‘Ekstra’ in the Competitive Variety Testing in 2014–2019 was 4.07 t/ha, which is on 0.55 t/ha higher than the standard variety ‘Iren’, the maximum productivity was 5.0–6.1 t/ha (2019). The new variety has exceeded the values of the standard variety in such yield structure elements as “seed weight per head”, “1000 grain weight”, “grain content per head”; the accumulation of seeds per day of growing season was 14.2% and at 1 mm of precipitation the value improved till 15.2%. In the ecological testing the variety ‘Ekstra’ exceeded the varieties ‘Iren’, ‘Irgina’ from the State List of Breeding Achievements in the Volga-Vyatka region on 0.56–0.80 t/ha and the middle-early ripening varieties ‘Gornouralskaya’, ‘Bazhenka’, ‘Svecha’, ‘Zlata’ on 0.44–0, 55 t/ha. The variety ‘Ekstra’ is characterized by better energy efficiency parameters than ‘Irgina’, ‘Iren’, ‘Gornouralskaya’, ‘Zlata’. The excess was 9.2–21.9% in terms of total energy in the harvest per hectare, 16.0–40.6% in net energy income, and 4.7–13.1% in bioenergy ratio. The variety reduced energy consumption for the production of 1 ton of grain by 9.5–11.5%. There has been determined a significant advantage of the variety ‘Ekstra’ in terms of the general adaptability, stability, and breeding value of the genotype. In 2020 the variety was included into the State List of Breeding Achievements in the Volga-Vyatka region, Ural, West Siberian regions of the Russian Federation. The variety ‘Ekstra’ has the same parameters of productivity, yield structure elements, adaptability, the accumulation of seeds per day of growing season and per 1 mm of precipitation, energy efficiency of cultivation, as the middle-early ripening standard variety ‘Ekaterina’.

A REVISION OF THE HERPETOFAUNA OF COLIMA, MEXICO

The herpetofauna of Colima has received relatively little attention until recently. A few state lists and several unpublished dissertations are the only references available for the herpetofauna of the state. Recently a revised herpetofaunal state list was published by Lemos-Espinal et al. (2020). Unfortunately, that revision was published with numerous errors and omissions. Here we review all published accounts on the herpetofauna of Colima as well as two unpublished thesis related to the herpetofauna of the state, and records in online databases (GBIF, Vertnet). We examine museum specimens of previously published taxa and show that many of the species reported from the state are in fact misidentifications, and that other species already known from the state have been ignored in the most recent state list. Additionally we report on six species of amphibians and reptiles that are new records for the state. Based on our revision, we show that the herpetofauna of Colima consists of 148 species, of which 110 are reptiles and 38 are amphibians, with five introduced species. We also comment on species of possible occurrence in the state. We recommend that other state lists which have been published for Mexico be revised in order to fix a variety of issues and erroneous information in those lists.

FISCAL ADVANTAGE OF WAQF AND THE RULE OF TAX EXEMPTION FOR CHARITABLE PURPOSES UNDER THE INCOME TAX ACT 1967

This study explores the principle of waqf in the context of current tax policies governing waqf properties. In Islamic law, waqf is defined as charity whereby the donor endows the property in the name of Allah SWT for the benefit of the public at large. However, for tax exemption purposes, there is no specific provision in the Income Tax Act 1967 (ITA). Waqf is under the State List in the Federal Constitution and it comes under the jurisdiction of state governments. Currently, there is a misunderstanding about tax deduction in Section 44(6) and Section 44(11C) of ITA that includes waqf as a gift and gets the same tax treatment. Nevertheless, there are strong justifications which state that waqf does not fall within the scope of Section 44(6). The study will analyse the status of waqf institutions which are eligible for tax deduction and the reason why waqf does not fall within the scope of donation under section 44(6) of the ITA. The methodology used in this study is doctrinal legal research whereby the analysis focuses on the legal principle of waqf in Islamic law and the rule of tax exemption under the ITA. As a result, the study found that there is inconsistency in implementing waqf for tax rebate purposes. The recommendation of this study is that a comprehensive waqf guideline should be introduced to ensure consistent development of waqf to enhance the public interest.

The analysis of varietal structure of maize cultivated for grain in the Rostov region

The current stage of plant growing is characterized by varietal policies aimed at increasing the number of new varieties (hybrids) being bred for production. This feature of varietal diversity makes it possible to choose a variety (hybrid) for specific forecrops and soil-climatic conditions, a variety with specific adaptability, length of vegetation period and product quality. One of the largest regions of the maize sown area in Russia is the Rostov region, the conditions of which allow cultivating maize with different ripening periods. The current paper has presented the dynamics of the maize productivity in Russia and in the Rostov region. There has been conducted an analysis of sown maize hybrids and varieties in the Rostov region according to the year of including them into the State List of the Russian Federation. It has been determined that the largest number of maize hybrids was cultivated in 2018 from the number included into the State List of the Russian Federation for the period from 2009 to 2013 (52 pcs.), and in 2019 from the number included into the State List of the Russian Federation for the period from 2010 to 2014 (57 pcs.). There has been demonstrated a share of maize hybrids in the sown area depending on their time being in production. So, the hybrids that have been cultivated for 6–10 years occupied the largest share (44.6% in 2018; 52.6% in 2019). There have been identified the most popular maize hybrids cultivated in the Rostov region in 2018 and 2019. There has been calculated a share of domestic hybrids (varieties) in the sown areas and the cost advantage of domestic maize seeds.

Baking properties of winter soft wheat grain grown in the south of the Rostov region

To successfully increase grain production and improve its quality, the development and introduction of new winter wheat varieties is of great importance. The winter soft wheat varieties developed by the FSBSI “Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy” and included into the State List of Breeding Achievements of the Russian Federation are able to form grain with 30.0% gluten and more, and are suitable for the first, second and third class of baking. A comparative characteristic of the grain quality of winter wheat varieties of the intensive type included in the State List and their ability to form food grain suitable for baking is currently of practical interest. There have been studied 6 varieties in the conditions of drought in 2013 and 2014 (the amount of precipitation during the growing season was 190.0–191.5 mm, the average daily air temperature was 20.3–20.9 °C), and in the conditions of excess moisture in 2016, 2017 (the amount of precipitation was 274.2–292.8 mm, the average daily air temperature was 19.5–20.4 °C). The studied varieties formed the highest productivity from 8.70 to 9.01 t/ha under conditions of excessive moisture. Under drought conditions, productivity of the varieties decreased significantly and ranged from 6.50 to 7.69 t/ha. Better grain quality of the studied varieties was formed in the conditions of the drought of 2013, 2014 with 14.9 to 15.9% of protein and 27.9 to 31.0% of gluten. Food grain close to the first class (from 30.0 to 31.0% of gluten) were formed by the varieties “Aksiniya”, “Tanais” and “Nakhodka”; the second class (more than 28.0% of gluten) was obtained from the varieties “Shef” and “Etuyd”. The ranking method according to grain quality indicators allowed establishing an average rank and identifying the varieties “Aksiniya”, “Tanais”, “Nakhodka” and “Shef” with the best baking traits.

NEW VARIETY OF YELLOW FODDER LUPINE 'BULAT'

The article presents steps of development of a new yellow lupin variety 'Bulat'. Its pedigree and description for competition tests years are given. In 2009 five productive, tall plants without extern anthracnose symptoms have been selected from the hybrid 6-02-10-10 under heavy anthracnose epiphytoty. Later the line 09-3-50-2 has been selected for green mass and seeds yield. It was tested in a competition test nursery since 2013. The line named as 'Bulat' was included to The State List of Breeding Achievements Allowed for Use. The average seed yield for six tests years made 1.87 t/ha and the yield of its green mass made 60.4 t/ha. 'Bulat' is for universal use (grain forage, green fodder, and grass conserved forage). It is resistant to pods cracking and seeds shedding. Weight of 1000 seeds is 112 grams. Vegetation period is 90–99 days. Crude protein in seeds is 42%, in dry matter of green mass it is 18%. Seed alkaloid content is 0.06%, in green mass it is 0.02%. The variety is resistant to Fusarium and tolerant to anthracnose. It suits for cultivation on light and cohesive soils.

DEVELOPMENT OF WHITE LUPIN VARIETIES WITH IMPROVED DROUGHT RESISTANCE

The article presents the estimation of white lupin breeding material for drought resistance at seed growing in the osmotic — sucrose solution. Promising drought resistant lines with a set of economic-and-biological characters have been selected. The varieties Mitchurinskiy and Piligrim have been developed on its base and are listed in the State List of Agricultural Achievements.

THE ANALYSIS OF THE VARIETAL COMPOSITION AND SOWN SEED QUALITY OF SPRING BARLEY IN THE AGRICULTURAL FARMS OF THE ROSTOV REGION

The article presents analysis of the sown areas and spring barley productivity in the Rostov region. There has been made analysis of the cultivated varieties according to the year of their introduction into the State List of the Breeding Achievements of the Russian Federation (period-by period). There have been revealed the sown areas of spring barley varieties depending on the time spent in the production. There has been carried out the analysis of the composition of the sown spring barley seeds (original, elite and reproductive) from 2017 to 2018. There have been identified the most widely spread varieties of spring barley in the Rostov region and their reproductive composition. There has been considered expediency to improve spring barley production in the region by increasing the acreage and introducing new highly adaptable varieties.