# Supreme Court

• Countering the Supreme Court’s observation that “silence of the Constitution” on the procedure and qualification for appointment of the Chief election commissioner and election commissioner was exploited by successive governments, the centre on Wednesday defended its right to appoint the CECs and ECs.
• Central government told the Supreme Court that constitutional silence cannot be filled up by the the Judiciary.
• Government also said that the courts should respect the independence of the executive and not encroach on its domain.
• Attorney General said that “there is no pick and choose procedure” and appointments are done on the basis of the seniority of the bureaucrats.

# Stubble burning

• The annual season of stubble burning is almost over with the daily combined count in Punjab and Haryana have recorded lowest paddy residue events this year since 2020.
• The data has been given by Indian agricultural research Institute (IARI), which follows the standard protocol notified by the commission for air quality management in National capital Region and adjoining areas (CAQM) in 2021.
• Between September 15 and November 23, Punjab and Haryana have witnessed a reduction of fire counts by 30% and 48% respectively.

# ICMR

• A survey carried out by the Indian council of medical research in 12 tribal districts of India has revelaled that non-communicable diseases (NCDs) were causing 66% of deaths in these areas.
• It is comparable to the percentage of deaths being caused due to NCDs – mainly cardiovascular diseases, Cancers, Chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes – in non tribal districts which is about 63%.
• After NCDs, infectious diseases (15%) and injuries (11%) caused maximum deaths according to the ICMR survey.

# OECD

• Global think tank OECD on Wednesday lowered India’s growth projection for the current year to 6.6% from 6.9% earlier.
• OECD retained India’s status as the second fastest growing economy after Saudi Arabia.