Article 35A

• Article 35A gives special rights to the Jammu and Kashmir’s permanent residents. It disallows people from outside the state from buying or owning immovable property there, settle permanently, or avail themselves of state-sponsored scholarship schemes.
•  It also forbids the J-K government from hiring people who are non-permanent residents.
• Article 35A was added to Article 370 by a Presidential order in 1954.
• Article 370 of the Constitution grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, while Article 35A empowers the state legislature to define the state’s “permanent residents” and their special rights and privileges.

Disinvestment

• Disinvestment as a tool is used by governments throughout the world to give up their stake partly in public enterprises mainly to fund their fiscal deficit, balance of payments, infrastructure projects, public debt, and investment to encourage spending in an economy or Social programs.
• Disinvestment in India started in 1991 when India’s high balance of payments forced Indian government to open Indian economy by adopting policies like opening up of foreign trade and investment, deregulation, privatization and inflation control measures.
• Part of this policy measures was disinvestment to curb balance of payments and to allow more private players in government firms to improve its efficiency as many public sector undertakings (PSU’s) were not doing well at that time under government rule and also to invest the gained money in improving economy but in subsequent years disinvestment was only used to cover the fiscal hole of government.
• Helicopter services provider Pawan Hans is a joint venture between the government, which holds 51% stake, and state-owned ONGC, which owns the remaining 49% shareholding. Pawans Hans has a fleet of 46 choppers.

The Motor Vehicles Act, 1988

• The Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 is an Act of the Parliament of India which regulates all aspects of road transport vehicles. The Act came into force from 1 July 1989.
•  It replaced Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 which earlier replaced the first such enactment Motor Vehicles Act, 1914.
• The Act provides in detail the legislative provisions regarding licensing of drivers/conductors, registration of motor vehicles, control of motor vehicles through permits, special provisions relating to state transport undertakings, traffic regulation, insurance, liability, offences and penalties, etc.
• For exercising the legislative provisions of the Act, the Government of India made the Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989.

Indian star tortoise

• The Indian star tortoise (Geochelone elegans) is a threatened species of tortoise found in dry areas and scrub forest in India and Sri Lanka.
• This species is quite popular in the exotic pet trade, which is the main reason it is endangered.
• The species is categorised as ‘Vulnerable’ in the red list of endangered species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
• The species is listed in the Schedule IV of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 and prohibited from export under the Foreign Trade Policy. The species are liable for confiscation under the Customs Act, 1962.