Table of Contents
Rocky summit
• Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin sat down for their first formal summit meeting, in Helsinki
• Mr. Trump could have certainly managed the summit better by addressing genuine concerns in the U.S. over allegations of Russia’s election meddling.
• Days earlier, the U.S. Justice Department indicted 12 Russian intelligence officials for hacking and leaking emails of top Democrats.
• The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) is set to expire in 2021 and Russia has shown interest in extending it.
A fishy matter
• Reports of traces of the chemical formaldehyde in fish in several States
• In June, the Kerala government found formaldehyde-laced fish being transported into the State.
• The Hindu + Dr. J. Jayalalithaa Fisheries University investigation revealed around 5-20 ppm of the chemical in freshwater and marine fish in two of the city’s markets.
• Goa reported similar findings.
• Food and Drugs Administration later said the levels in Goan samples were on a par with “naturally occurring” formaldehyde in marine fish.
• Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has banned formaldehyde in fresh fish, while the International Agency for Research on Cancer labelled the chemical a carcinogen in 2004.
• The evidence the IARC relied on mainly consists of studies on workers in industries such as printing, textiles and embalming.
• But there is little evidence that formaldehyde causes cancer when ingested orally.
• A 1990 study by U.S. researchers estimated that humans consume 11 mg of the chemical through dietary sources every day.
• The presence of formaldehyde in fresh fish points to unscrupulous vendors trying to pass off stale catch as recent.
• The lack of evidence linking ingested formaldehyde with cancer doesn’t necessarily make the chemical safe.
• The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
• When certain marine fish are improperly frozen during transit, formaldehyde forms in them naturally.
• Measuring free formaldehyde versus bound formaldehyde can be one way of distinguishing a contaminant from a naturally occurring chemical.
• But the line between safe and unsafe consumption should be drawn by experts, in a transparent manner.
Restoring faith in EVMs
• July 17: several Opposition parties decided to discuss the issue of malfunctioning of EVMs
• Chief Election Commissioner said EVMs are being made a “scapegoat” because they “cannot speak”
• One of the main reasons the functioning of EVMs is being questioned is, ironically, the EC itself.
• The body has lost some sheen in the last few years.
• Former Gujarat Chief Secretary Achal Kumar Jyoti was appointed the CEC in July 2017
• In a peculiar decision, the EC chose not to announce dates for the Gujarat elections but announced dates for the Himachal Pradesh elections which were to be held at the same time.
• This conveniently allowed the Prime Minister to announce some new sops and schemes for Gujarat which he would not have been able to do if the dates had been announced.
• The inept management of elections by the ECI, as seen in the December 2017 R.K. Nagar by-election in Chennai in which there was distribution of cash and in the seizure of fake electoral ID cards in the R.R. Nagar constituency in Bengaluru, has brought into question the Commission’s propriety.
• At present, after casting the vote in EVMs, the printed paper is directly dropped in the box (the voter only has seven seconds to see this).
• Instead, the paper should be given to the voter who should then drop it in the ballot box.
• ECI should introduce a new procedure wherein the manual counting of the printed ballots has to be done before announcing the result if the difference between the winner and the loser is less than, say, 10%, and the loser demands a recount.
The Wuhan breakthrough
• The Wuhan summit in April between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping has been a game changer.
• Lines of “strategic communications” have opened up between Indian and Chinese establishments.
• The arterial flow of information exchange has meant that India and China can be joint custodians rather than rivals in managing their neighbourhood of shared interests.
• Two plus one dialogue mechanism: China and India will comprise the ‘two’, while the ‘plus one’ would be Nepal.
• While the ‘two’ would be the constants, the ‘plus one’ would be the variable.
IMPORTANT NEWS
• Lok Sabha to debate TDP’s no-trust motion tomorrow 
• Sabarimala temple bar unreasonable: SC
• Tagging a woman’s right to enter the famous Sabarimala temple with her menstrual cycle is unreasonable, the Supreme Court’s Constitution Bench observed on Wednesday.
• The Bench, led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, asked whether the exclusion of women aged between 10 and 50 from entering a temple because they are considered ‘impure’ amounts to the practice of untouchability, a social evil abolished by law.
• Bill on death penalty for child rape to be tabled
• Cabinet gives nod to present it in the monsoon session
• Two-constituency norm reasonable: govt. tells SC
• A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra is hearing the petition filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay seeking a declaration that Section 33(7) of the Representation of the People Act of 1951, which allows candidates to contest from two constituencies at a time, as invalid and unconstitutional.
• Special remission for prisoners
• Women and transgender convicts above 55 and male convicts over 60 who have completed half of their prison sentences will be released under an amnesty scheme during the year-long celebrations to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, beginning October 2. 
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