# World Health Organization

• There were likely 47 lakh deaths, directly or indirectly attributable to Covid-19 in India in 2021 and 2020, a report by World Health organization claimed on Thursday.
• These are the highest, by far, for any country and make up nearly a third of the 15 million such deaths estimated by the agency globally.
• India officially estimated only 4.8 lakh cumulative deaths linked to Covid-19 as of December 2021.
• It implies that the WHO claim is 10 times the government data.

# Sedition law

• A 60 year old Constitution bench judgement validating sedition law led a three judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramanna on Thursday to pause to examine if petitions challenging the colonial provision should be referred to a larger bench of five or seven judges of the court.
• The 1962 judgement in Kedarnath v state of Bihar delivered by a bench of five judges of Supreme Court had upheld section 124A (sedition) of the Indian penal code.
• A judicial law laid down by the Supreme Court cannot be countered by a numerically inferior bench.

# Delimitation panel

• The Jammu and Kashmir delimitation commission on Thursday notified the new boundaries, names and number of assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir.
• This notification will further pave the way for the first ever assembly election in the Union territory that was carved out of the erstwhile state of J&K in 2019.
• The Delimitation commission said in a statement that it had recommended to the centre to nominate atleast two Kashmiri migrants to the legislature.

# Tea exports

• Tea exports declined by 2.4% to 184.35 million kg during the April to February period of last fiscal, according to the latest tea board data.
• The value of exports in first eleven months of 2021-22 increased marginally to ₹4956 crore as compared to ₹4933 crore.