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The Supreme Court asked the Centre to provide data that may point to a more dignified, less painful and socially acceptable method of executing prisoners other than death by hanging.
A Bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice P.S. Narasimha even mooted the setting up of an expert committee to relook India’s method of putting to death its criminals.
The Chief Justice said such a committee would have experts from the national law universities, professors of law, doctors and scientific persons.
The court indicated to the Centre, represented by Attorney General R. Venkataramani, that it needed some underlying data based on which it could examine if there was a more “humane” method of execution, which would render death by hanging unconstitutional.
If we have to relook death by hanging, we need better data. We want to know the impact of the sentence of death by hanging, the pain caused, the period of actual death and the availability of resources for hanging a person.
The Bench explained that it also needed to know what strides the fields of science and technology have made in suggesting “any other method of execution consistent with human dignity”.
The court was hearing a petition filed by advocate Rishi Malhotra challenging the constitutionality of death by hanging as a mode of execution. Section 354 (5) of the Code of Criminal Procedure mandates that a person sentenced to death shall “be hanged by the neck till he is dead”.
Mr. Malhotra said there is a need to evolve a “humane, quick and decent alternative”. He termed hanging as “cruel and barbarous” compared to lethal injection, as used in the United States.
States
Amid protests, Rajasthan becomes first State to pass Right to Health Bill (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Amid a strong protest by the agitating private doctors, the Rajasthan Assembly passed the Right to Health Bill with the provision for mandatory free-of-cost emergency treatment for every resident of the State at both the government hospitals and the privately-run institutions.
With this, Rajasthan has become the first and the only State in the country to legislate the right to health.
The Bill, which was tabled in the Assembly on September 22 last year and was later referred to a Select Committee, was passed by voice vote in the House.
The Bill gives every resident of the State the right to emergency treatment care “without prepayment of requisite fee or charges” by any public health institution, health care establishment and designated health care centres.
Medical and Health Minister Parsadi Lal Meena said during a two-hour-long debate on the Bill that it was major welfare step aimed at protecting the interests of the public.
. Meena said the State government would reimburse the expenses to the health care provider if a patient was unable to pay the requisite charges after emergency care, stabilisation and referral.
The doctors and paramedical staff of private hospitals and nursing homes have been protesting against the Bill, saying its “draconian provisions” would stifle the private health sector.
The agitating doctors said the amendments suggested by them to the Select Committee were not carried out and the Bill had made it mandatory to provide free treatment without defining an emergency.
3 States chip in to stop illegal sand mining in Chambal sanctuary (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Three States have commenced joint action to stop illegal sand mining in National Chambal Sanctuary, situated at the trijunction of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, which is known for its population of critically endangered gharials.
The Chambal River cuts through the mazes of ravines and hills in the sanctuary.Coordination among the three States was discussed at a high-level meeting in Jaipur with emphasis on protecting the fragile ecosystem critical for breeding of gharials, which are fish-eating crocodiles. Illegal sand mining is threatening the flora and fauna in some parts of the sanctuary.
Rajasthan Chief Secretary Usha Sharma said the Forest and Mineral Departments as well as the police and district administration in the three States would be required to operate in close coordination to put a complete stop to illegal mining.
Chief Secretaries Iqbal Singh Bains of Madhya Pradesh and Durga Shankar Mishra of Uttar Pradesh attended the meeting via video conferencing.
Ms. Sharma said a prompt exchange of information among the officials would help prevent the mining activities, while manual checking of vulnerable places would stop the entry of the people with questionable credentials.
The sanctuary is listed as an ‘Important Bird and Biodiversity Area’ and is also a proposed Ramsar site.
States
Dayanand Saraswati’s life is an inspiration for Modi govt.: Shah (Page no. 4)
(GS Paper 1, History)
Dayanand Saraswati,” said Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the 148th Foundation Day celebrations of Arya Samaj at Delhi’s Talkatora stadium.
Mr. Shah said Maharishi Dayanand awakened the soul of the country which had been in slumber for years and maintained that a similar situation is prevailing at present as well. Hence Arya Samaj and its public outreach is the ‘need of the hour’.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken inspiration from the life of Dayanand Saraswati to take the country forward to make it a “vishwa guru.
Mr. Shahsaid the Maharishi fearlessly propagated “swadharma, swabhasha and swaraj” in the pre-Independence era at a time when talking about these was prohibited.
Even though he was a Gujarati and had an expertise in Sanskrit, Maharishi Dayanand spoke and wrote in Hindi. He had a long vision. He knew that to unite the country, one language is needed for communication.
The Home Minister also praised the Arya Samaj for ushering in a revolution in education in the forest-dwelling people of the North-East and maintained that no one else can run a programme like ‘Embrace distance’ in the tribal areas except the Arya Samaj.
He also compared Arya Samaj with the PM’s vision as both of them promote natural farming.Speaking on the occasion, Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat praised Arya Samaj for its efforts in education, language, culture and traditions of India.
The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), in its recently-held national executive body meeting in Panipat, had extended support for the celebrations of 200th birth year of Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati.
Maharishi Dayanand’s teachings and works are still relevant. On the occasion of his 200th birth anniversary, RSS bows in reverence before him.
All the swayamsevaks will participate in the programmes organised so that his ideals will be reflected in their lives. RSS is of the view that a true tribute can be paid only by building a cultured vibrant society filled with the sense of ‘self’ and freeing the society of untouchability, addiction and superstitions,” the RSS said.
Editorial
An objective look at a China-led framework (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
In his keynote speech at the Lanting Forum in Beijing on February 21, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang highlighted the recently unveiled Global Security Initiative (GSI) Concept Paper.
The GSI is presented as a China-led framework that seeks to restore stability and security, particularly in Asia. Accordingly, Mr. Qin outlined five major pillars to effectively implement the GSI, i.e., mutual respect; openness and inclusion; multilateralism; mutual benefit, and a holistic approach.
While the promotion of such principles is timely and critical, given the current shifts in the international geopolitical landscape at the expense of the developing world, a practical assessment indicates that the GSI is tailored more to be an empty narrative to compete with United States leadership and dominant U.S.-led concepts.
Consequently, with the war in Ukraine intensifying and diverging perceptions among developing countries vis-à-vis the West and the unfolding war, China is seeking to leverage these fault lines by promoting its vision as a capable alternative leader.
However, an objective look at China’s recent track record of external engagement paints a completely different picture of what to expect from Beijing’s vision of a future security order.
A grave mistake in Great Nicobar (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 3, Infrastructure /Environment)
In unprecedented haste, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has cleared the decks for a mega project at the cost of about ₹70,000 crore at the southern tip of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
NITI Aayog is piloting the project and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation is the project proponent.
The ‘Holistic Development of Great Nicobar Island’ project aims to develop an international transhipment port of 14.2 mTEU cargo capacity at Galathea Bay along the island’s south-eastern coast, an international airport to support 4,000 passengers during peak hours, a 450 MVA gas and solar-based power plant, and an ecotourism and residential township of about 160 sq km.
The government hopes to establish the offices of multinational corporations by clearing about a million trees in the tropical rain forest and destroying large parts of coral reefs.
The process towards implementation of this free trade zone and transhipment facility in Great Nicobar, located about 1,650 km from Chennai and 40 nautical miles from the international shipping route, started in September 2020 when the NITI Aayog issued a request for proposals for preparing the master plan for the project.
In March 2021, AECOM India Private Ltd, a consulting agency, released a pre-feasibility report. The MoEFCC’s Expert Appraisal Committee initiated the process of environmental clearance in April, and the project proponent contracted the Hyderabad-based Vimta Labs to prepare the environment impact assessment (EIA) report.
In December 2021, the Ministry placed the draft EIA report in the public domain for comments and discussion. The quick approvals, clearances, exemptions and de-notifications show that the Union government is keen to implement this project.
Explainer
Understanding waste-to-energy plants (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The Kerala government recently announced the State’s first waste-to-energy project in Kozhikode. The planned facility is expected to be built in two years and generate about 6 MW of power.
There are around 100 waste-to-energy projects around the country but only a handful of them are operational, thanks to various production and operational challenges.
Waste-to-energy projects use non-recyclable dry waste to generate electricity. The process increases the State’s power generation capacity and eases the solid waste management (SWM) burden.
Generally, solid waste in India is 55-60% biodegradable organic waste, which can be converted into organic compost or biogas; 25-30% non-biodegradable dry waste; and around 15% silt, stones, and drain waste.
Of the non-biodegradable dry waste, only 2-3% — including hard plastics, metals, and e-waste — is recyclable. The remainder consists of low-grade plastic, rags, and cloth that can’t be recycled.
This fraction of the non-recyclable dry waste is the most challenging portion of the present SWM system; the presence of these materials also reduces the efficiency of recycling other dry and wet waste.
It is this portion that waste-to-energy plants use to generate power. The waste is combusted to generate heat, which is converted into electricity.
Kozhikode has a population of about 6.3 lakh and generates approximately 300 tonnes per day (TPD) of waste. Of this, around 205 TPD is biodegradable and 95 TPD is non-biodegradable.
The municipality is currently using the biodegradable material to generate organic compost in various composting plants. Of the non-biodegradable waste, only about 5 TPD out of the 95 TPD is recycled; the remaining non-recyclable dry waste could be used to generate power at the waste-to-energy plant.
Is the SARSCoV2 XBB.1.16 lineage a cause for concern? (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Over the past three years and multiple waves of infection, the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to evolve by accumulating genetic variations.
Co-infection of multiple lineages of a virus could result in recombinations between genomes which can give rise to chimeric genomes, otherwise called recombinants.
While most recombinations may not give rise to viable viruses, there is a rare possibility that recombination could result in the creation of a new lineage of the virus with better functional capabilities than either of the parent lineages.
Several recombinant lineages of SARS-CoV-2 have emerged during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two such recombinant lineages are currently designated as Variants Under Monitoring (VUM) by the World Health Organization — XBB, a recombinant of Omicron sublineages BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75, and XBF, a recombinant of BA.5.2.3 and BA.2.75.3 Omicron sublineages.
The lineage XBB.1.5, a sublineage of the XBB, first identified in New York City in October 2022, is currently designated as a Variant of Interest (VOI) by the WHO.
First detected in SARS-CoV-2 sequences from India, the XBB.1.16 is a recombinant lineage of the virus and is a descendent of the XBB lineage.
The lineage has been circulating predominantly in India. A significantly large number of the genomes from outside India, such as in the U.S. and Singapore, have been linked with international travel, mostly from India.
The variant has to date been detected in at least 14 countries across the world. The lineage XBB.1.16 has a number of mutations in common with the VOI XBB.1.5.
Additional key mutations including E180V and T478R in the Spike protein and I5T in ORF9b are present in the XBB.1.16 lineage.
In contrast, the XBB.1.5 has the mutation T478K in Spike. T478R is associated with immune escape, or the ability of the virus to evade antibodies generated from previous infections or vaccines.
News
Antisubmarine warship INS Androth launched (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
The INS Androth, second in a series of eight Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft, was launched in Kolkata. It was built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers. Propelled by three diesel-driven water jets, these ships can attain a maximum speed of 25 knots.
Their primary role is to conduct anti-submarine operations in coastal waters, low intensity maritime operations and mine laying operations.
These ships are also capable of full-scale sub surface surveillance of coastal waters and various surface platforms and coordinated ASW operations with aircraft.