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President Droupadi Murmu gave assent to four key laws, including the Digital Personal Data Protection Act and the one pertaining to the control of services in Delhi. The laws were passed by Parliament in the recently concluded Monsoon Session.
While the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act provides for a three-member authority that will handle the transfer and postings of Group A officers under the Delhi government, the data protection law will provide for a framework to prevent the misuse of an individual’s data by online platforms.
The Delhi services Bill had seen extensive debate in both Houses, with the Opposition pressing for a division of votes in the Rajya Sabha.
The parties belonging to the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) accused the Centre of violating a May 11 Supreme Court order, which had given the Delhi government the control over services, and usurping the rights of the Arvind Kejriwal-led government in the Union Territory.
The data protection Bill was passed by voice vote amid Opposition protests over Manipur. However, at the time of introduction, several Opposition MPs had opposed it on the ground that it would result in a surveillance state.
States
UNFPA project in Rajasthan for gender sensitivity gets support from experts (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
A project of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for gender sensitivity in Rajasthan has received support from experts working for the elimination of customs promoting patriarchy.
The four-month-long project aims at promoting gender equality and shaping public opinion to end gender-based discrimination.
The UNFPA has signed an agreement with Haridev Joshi University of Journalism (HJUJ), Jaipur, for capacity building of its students on issues related to gender norms, sexual violence, and human rights.
A two-day workshop on gender sensitivity attended by 40 journalism students in Jaipur over the weekend highlighted the subject, with an emphasis on creating a more equal and just society.
Gender experts from Population First, UNFPA, and the Jaipur-based Lok Samvad Sansthan addressed the workshop. They called upon the students to play an active role in bringing about a change in attitude in society.
The speakers also made a reference to the social norms and customs prevalent in Rajasthan that push women to the margins.
Population First director A.L. Sharada said the trend of assumptions being made about the status of women often promoted a patriarchal mindset in society, which could leave a negative impact on women as they start considering themselves inferior.
The State’s traditions of the veil being forced on women and the control wielded by men as a form of dominance have diluted the efforts to bring gender equality, she said.
News
NCERT forms 19-member panel for textbooks revision (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Education)
The Union Education Ministry on Saturday notified the formation of a committee that will prepare new textbooks for Classes 3 to 12 under the National Education Policy (NEP). M.C. Pant, Chancellor of the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), is the Chairperson of the National Syllabus and Teaching Learning Material Committee (NSTC). Manjul Bhargava, Professor at Princeton University, is the Co-Chairperson.
As a follow-up of the National Education Policy, 2020, development of the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE 2023) was initiated with the constitution of the National Steering Committee.
In this context, NSTC which is empowered to develop the school syllabus, textbooks, and teaching learning materials for Classes 3-12 (and to appropriately revise the existing textbooks of class 1 and 2 to ensure smooth transition from Class 2 to 3) is being notified.
The NCF-SE, developed by the K. Kasturirangan-led steering committee, is now in the advanced stages and shall act as the reference point and guiding road map for the syllabus and textbook developers for school education all over the country, it said.
The textbooks and other teaching learning materials will cover all curricular areas, and the subjects within, that are a part of the NCF-SE, as also their support materials such as teacher handbooks.
The textbooks and other teaching learning materials developed and finalised by the NSTC shall be published and distributed by the NCERT.
The NSTC will be assisted by curricular area groups to develop textbooks and other teaching learning materials for each of the subjects included in the syllabus.
Govt. planning law on protection of Indian manuscripts (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 1, Culture)
The Bakhshali manuscript, an ancient Indian mathematical text written on birch bark, is considered to be the earliest recorded example of the use of zero.
The seminal text, dating back roughly to the third or fourth century AD, is in one of the Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford.
Many other Indian manuscripts lie in libraries across the globe or are with private collectors, both in India and abroad.
Sources in the Culture Ministry say the government is planning to introduce the National Manuscripts Bill, 2023, possibly in the Winter Session of Parliament.
The primary aim of the Bill is to document and catalogue Indian heritage texts wherever they may be in India or abroad, maintain accurate and up-to-date information about them, and detail the conditions under which they may be consulted.
The Bill envisages setting up a 10-member National Manuscripts Authority (NMA). While the Culture Minister will be the Chairperson of this body, the members will include the Secretaries of Culture, Finance and Education, the Vice-Chancellor of Central Sanskrit University, special invitees representing the States, and private agencies.
The National Manuscripts Authority will be the apex policy-making body with regard to digitisation, conservation, preservation, editing, and publication work of manuscripts.
India possesses an estimated 10 million manuscripts in 80 ancient scripts such as Brahmi, Kushan, Gaudi, Lepcha, and Maithili, says the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM), an autonomous body under the Culture Ministry, which is mandated with preserving the vast manuscript wealth of India.
Science
Low human activity helps corals despite Warm Ocean (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Simultaneously mitigating human impacts on land and sea reduced coral loss during an unprecedented marine heatwave in Hawaii and supported coral reef persistence after the heatwave, according to a paper in Nature.
The findings demonstrate the potential of combined management strategies to protect coral reefs. Coral reef ecosystems are frequently impacted by human activity on land and in the sea; land-based disturbances include wastewater pollution, and sea-based disturbances include overfishing.
Corals are especially impacted by prolonged periods of warm ocean temperatures, known as marine heatwaves, which can cause coral bleaching and death.
Jamison Gove from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Honolulu, Hawaii and others combined surveys of reef change with a unique 20-year time series (2003-2019) of land-sea human impacts.
It encompassed an unprecedented marine heatwave in Hawaii in 2015, when ocean temperatures were 2.2 degree C higher than normal.
The human impacts analysed included urban run off, wastewater pollution and fishing restrictions. Throughout the study period coral reef cover increased in some areas, decreased or remained stable.
Reefs with mitigated land — and sea-based human impacts showed increased coral cover before the heatwave and reduced coral loss during the heatwave.
Additionally, reefs with more herbivorous fishes and exposure to fewer land-based human impacts had increased reef-builder cover — more of the types of coral essential to reef growth — four years after the disturbance compared with reefs with reduced fish populations and exposure to more land-based human impacts.
The authors modelled scenarios that suggested reducing land- and sea-based human impacts results in a three - to sixfold greater probability of a reef having high reef-builder cover four years after a disturbance.
North India more affected by El Nino (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 1, Geography)
Ahead of every monsoon, meteorologists track, with a degree of nervousness, temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. Six in 10 years, a half degree or more rise — an El Nino — corresponds to diminished rainfall in India.
The converse, or a La Nina, is linked to increased rain. A study last week however suggests that this cyclical swing — called the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) — affects vast regions of India differently.
Since 1981, the study published this week in Scientific Reports notes, monsoon rainfall over Central India — known as the monsoon core zone and where agriculture is largely rainfed — is increasingly getting disassociated from the ENSO with only 10% of droughts or excess rains linked to ENSO fluctuations.
On the other hand, the ENSO link to North India was strengthening, with 70% of rainfall fluctuations linked to the ENSO cycle. In southern India, the relationship has remained largely stable.
While past research into monsoon patterns have suggested a “weakening” of the relationship between ENSO and monsoon, the latest suggests that this too has varied since 1901.
“We notice that the ENSO–ISMR inverse relationship started getting stronger from 1901 to 1940, became stable from 1941 to 1980 and then the relationship has weakened in the recent epoch (1981 onwards),” the authors note in their study.
Monsoon rainfall, which accounts for 80% of India’s annual rainfall, is influenced by two broad factors: the external one is the impact of ENSO which influences the trade winds and their ability to carry warm, moist air towards India around monsoon.
The other, internal, is the ‘monsoon trough — an elongated low-pressure area which extends from over Pakistan to the Bay of Bengal.
FAQ
What is the debate around Article 370? (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The ongoing arguments before a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 throw considerable light on the history behind the unique status enjoyed by the State until August 2019, when the Centre removed it.
Jammu and Kashmir was accorded special status because of the circumstances in which it acceded to India soon after Independence. Sandwiched between the two new Dominions of India and Pakistan, the State did not make an immediate decision on which country to join, as it had vital economic and cultural links with both.
However, by October 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh was faced with regular military attacks from the Pakistan side by “soldiers in plainclothes, desperadoes with modern weapons”.
There was mass infiltration by heavily armed tribesmen from the North-West Frontier into Kashmir, and the Maharaja felt this could not happen without the support of the governments of Pakistan and of the North-West Frontier Province. In a desperate letter to India’s Governor-General, Lord Mountbatten, on October 26, 1947, he sought help from India, noting that “naturally they cannot send the help asked for” without his State acceding to the Dominion of India.
Therefore, he attached an ‘Instrument of Accession’ with the letter. However, it was not unconditional. He specified matters on which the Dominion legislature may make laws for Jammu and Kashmir, but the rest of the powers were to be retained by the State. These subjects were Defence, Foreign Affairs and Communications.
While India was then ruled under the provisions of the Government of India Act, 1935, Jammu and Kashmir had its own Constitution since 1939. In the Instrument of Accession, Hari Singh had laid down a condition that it cannot be altered unless he accepted the change.
Quite significantly, he said: “Nothing in this Instrument shall be deemed to commit in any way to acceptance of any future Constitution of India or to fetter my discretion to enter into arrangement with the Government of India under any such future Constitution.”
Why has govt. called for PC import curbs? (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
On August 3, the government restricted the import of laptops, tablets, all-in-one personal computers, ultra-small form factor computers and servers.
The import of these products would be allowed against a valid licence for restricted imports. Initially meant to be enforced with immediate effect, a revised order the next day deferred the enforcement until November 1.
Import of all items categorised under the Harmonised System of Nomenclature (HSN) 8471, that is, automated data processing machines and units, would be restricted from November 1.
A valid licence would be required to import them for sale to consumers. Exemption to licensing requirements would be extended in four circumstances.
First, purchasing a single unit of the mentioned products on an e-commerce website that are being brought into the country through post or courier. It would only draw relevant duties.
This also applies to (reimport of) products meant for repair and return. Permission has been given to import up to 20 such items in a consignment for purposes entailing research and development, testing, benchmarking and evaluation, repair and re-export or product development purposes.
Following their intended use, the products would either have to be destroyed beyond use or re-exported. Finally, items may be imported if they serve as an essential part of an entity’s capital good.
The key objective is to reduce the dependence on imports, ensure the country has access to trusted hardware and systems and increase domestic manufacturing of products.
Can improved nutrition help prevent TB? (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
According to recent reports in The Lancet and The Lancet Global Health, nutritional support has helped prevent both tuberculosis (TB) among household contacts and mortality among TB patients in a trial in Jharkhand.
In 2017, the World Health Organization had estimated that undernutrition is responsible for twice the number of TB cases than HIV globally.
Any attempt to end/eliminate TB in India by 2025 will become possible only if undernutrition among people is addressed. As per conservative estimates, 40% of new TB cases annually in India are due to undernutrition.
A large field-based trial was undertaken between August 2019 and August 2022 in four districts of Jharkhand by a team led by Dr. Anurag Bhargava and Dr. Madhavi Bhargava from the Yenepoya Medical College, Mangaluru in collaboration with the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP) and the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis-Indian Council of Medical Research (NIRT-ICMR).
The RATIONS (Reducing Activation of Tuberculosis by Improvement of Nutritional Status) trial enrolled 2,800 people with pulmonary TB disease and 10,345 household contacts of TB patients.
While all the TB patients received nutritional support, household contacts were randomly assigned to receive either nutritional support or usual diet alone. There were 5,621 household contacts in the intervention arm and 4,724 contacts in the control group.
While there were 108 (4%) deaths among TB patients across all body weights, mortality among those under 35 kg body weight (severely underweight) was 7%.
In comparison, in a study carried out by the Chennai-based NIRT in Tiruvallur district, Tamil Nadu, which did not provide any nutrition support to the TB patients, mortality was 14% in those weighing under 35 kg; mortality dropped to 4% among those weighing over 35 kg. Incidence of TB deaths reduced by 12% with a one-unit increase in BMI and by 23% for a two-unit increase in BMI.