18th October 2023 Current Affairs for UPSC and STATE PSC Exams

18th October 2023 Current Affair: These current affairs updates for October 18, 2023, provide valuable information to aid your preparation for UPSC Current Affairs 2023 and State PSC exams. The news headlines covered in the current affairs for October 18, 2023, include Same-Sex Marriage, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: Pioneering Reforms and Educational Vision, The Supreme Court’s Verdict, Reshaping Telcos’ License Fee Taxation and the Telecom Industry, Democratic Values in India.

1) Same-Sex Marriage, A Comprehensive Analysis of the Supreme Court’s Landmark Decision

• Fundamental right to marry: The majority of judges held that there is no fundamental right to marry under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
• Special Marriage Act: The Special Marriage Act (SMA) does not recognize same-sex marriages.
• Adoption: Queer couples should not be allowed to adopt children.
• Civil unions: The majority did not rule on whether civil unions should be legalized for same-sex couples.

2) Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Pioneering Reforms and Educational Vision

• Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, born on October 17, 1817, in Delhi, was a prominent figure in 19th-century British India.
• He came from a family of scholars and nobles and received his early education in Arabic, Persian, and Islamic studies.
• The shifting political scenario in India, with the decline of the Mughal Empire and the ascent of British colonial rule, greatly influenced his views.
• The 1857 Indian Rebellion (Sepoy Mutiny) heightened his concerns about the status of Muslims in this changing socio-political landscape.

3) Constitutional Safeguards and Democratic Values in India

• The Indian Constitution, known for its democratic and liberal principles, forms the foundation of the nation’s governance.
• Recent developments have raised concerns regarding attempts to undermine the Constitution’s identity.
• These threats go beyond mere textual changes and affect the core values of the Constitution, particularly its commitment to democracy.
• Various external forces challenge the democratic environment enshrined in the Constitution.

4) The Supreme Court’s Verdict, Reshaping Telcos’ License Fee Taxation and the Telecom Industry

• The Supreme Court of India made a recent ruling regarding telecom companies like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
• The ruling reclassifies the annual license fees, calculated based on adjusted gross revenue (AGR), as capital expenditure.
• It rejects the telecom firms’ argument that these fees should be treated as revenue expenditure due to their connection with annual gross revenue.
• This decision overturned previous judgments from the Delhi, Bombay, and Karnataka High Courts that favored the telecom companies.