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Consumer prices rose at a three-month high pace of 5.55% in November from 4.87% in October, with food price inflation surging to 8.7% from 6.6% driven by a surge in the inflation rate for vegetables, pulses, fruits, and sugar.
While rural inflation levels were higher at 5.85% than the price rise in urban areas, which was 5.3%, food prices paid by urban consumers rose at 9.3% while they were up 8.4% for their rural counterparts.
On a month-on-month basis, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was up 0.54%, with rural prices up 0.64%, and food prices rising 1.05% from October levels.
Overall consumer price inflation stood at 5.88% in November 2022, with the food price index rising 4.7%.
Lok Sabha passes Bills for women’s quota in J&K, Puducherry (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Lok Sabha passed two Bills to extend the provisions of the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, which grants 33% reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, to the Union Territories of Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir.
The debate in the House was, however, dominated by Supreme Court’s verdict on Monday on Article 370.
Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai introduced the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Second Amendment) Bill and the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha.
Provisions for providing reservation for women in the Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir are also required to be made by Parliament by amending the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019,” said the Bill.
The provisions for providing reservation for women in the Puducherry Assembly also need to be made by Parliament, the statement read.
Editorial
An anti-terror law and its interference with liberty (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
A judgment on November 17, 2023 by the Division Bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court cleared the last hurdle for the release of journalist Fahad Shah. Mr. Shah, who had been granted bail in three cases already and had also seen preventive detention orders against him quashed, was in custody because of allegations in Case FIR No.1/2022 P.S. JIC/SIA Jammu.
Charges had been framed by the trial court in the case earlier this year, and he was standing trial for various offences under the Penal Code and Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), 2010, as well as offences punishable under Sections 13 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) 1967.
The High Court, in its November 17 judgment, has not only granted Mr. Shah bail but also partially set aside the order framing charge, as it has found no grounds to charge him for any offences other than Section 13 of the UAPA, and under the FCRA.
While doing so, the High Court made notable observations on the interpretation and application of UAPA, India’s primary anti-terror statute, in matters of personal liberty.
Patent exclusions — Madras High Court shows the way (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
In the realm of pharmaceutical patents, which have profound implications for access to medicines, it is important to have clarity as to the precise boundaries of the scope of patent protection.
Such clarity is critical in ensuring that all stakeholders are aware of the extent to which patent protection can and cannot be granted for a particular invention, thus advancing both innovation and accessibility.
One area where this is especially important relates to the exclusions to patentability set out in Section 3 of the Patents Act. This provision contains a set of filters that every invention must pass through for it to be patentable.
Apart from the famous Novartis judgment from the Supreme Court of India on one such exclusion relating to Section 3(d) — on the need for an invention to showcase enhanced therapeutic efficacy — Indian courts have not offered bright line rules on the interpretation of other such exclusions.
Opinion
Online impersonation cases toughest to investigate (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The recently released annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows that the number of reported cybercrime cases in India shot up significantly in 2022.
Telangana, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra recorded the highest number of cases and Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa recorded the highest cybercrime rates (cybercrimes per lakh population).
‘Cheating by impersonation by using computer resources’ was the cybercrime head under which most cases were filed last year.
This includes anyone who impersonates someone through a communication device or a computer resource. Online impersonation was not only among the toughest crimes to investigate, but also one which recorded the lowest conviction rate.
An analysis of the police’s charge-sheeting rate and conviction rate in courts shows that these figures remain low across most other cybercrime heads too.
Text & Context
India’s extreme rainfall ‘corridor’ (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 1, Geography)
The Indian monsoon has well-known features, such as the onset of the monsoon, the withdrawal, the active and break periods, and the low-pressure systems (or monsoon depressions). Every aspect of the monsoon has been affected by global warming.
The total seasonal rainfall has also trended downwards for more than seven decades, due to the differential heating of the land versus the ocean due to global warming.
However, this trend has been distributed unevenly through the monsoon season — as manifest in the longer duration but lower intensity of dry spells and the greater intensity of wet spells.
While the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has made progress in forecasting extremes, multiple factors can combine to still produce devastating heavy rain events that remain hard to anticipate.
India’s monsoon forecasts rely heavily on its relation to the El Niño and the La Niña phenomena, although this relation holds only about 60% of the time.
We also know of other global relations but translating them to better predictions requires careful modelling experiments.
Researchers are also continuing to search for additional process understanding, especially for high-impact extreme rainfall events.
A new study (of which the author was part) has found that despite all these seemingly disparate changes in different aspects of the monsoon dynamics, a remarkable stationary element exists in terms of where the synchronised extreme rainfall events occur.
News
Shah introduces redrafted criminal Bills in Lok Sabha (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduced three redrafted Bills in the Lok Sabha to replace the existing British-era criminal laws after withdrawing the three Bills that were introduced in August.
The new Bills incorporate the changes recommended by a parliamentary committee, the Minister said. He said the reintroduced Bills had changes in only five sections.
Grammatical and language errors have been corrected. The Bills were examined at length by the standing committee and it was necessary to include the suggestions. There are no major changes.
Had we continued with the old Bills, several official amendments would have had to be made, so we decided to introduce new Bills instead.
Adequate time, 48 hours, has been given to members to study the Bills...We do not want to pass such important pieces of legislation in a hurry.
The Minister said the Bills would be taken up for discussion on Thursday. Speaker Om Birla said 12 hours would be allotted for discussion.
RS passes Bill to appoint Chief Election Commissioner (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Rajya Sabha passed the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, which will guide the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the Election Commissioners (ECs) in future.
Denying the Opposition’s charges that the Supreme Court was being kept away from the process of selecting the CEC and the ECs, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said the Bill had been prepared following a direction from the Supreme Court.
Mr. Meghwal said that so far the appointments had not been guided by any laws, and the Bill made the process transparent.
The Law Minister said the 1991 Act did not have a clause related to the appointment of the CEC and ECs. He said the names of the commissioners had so far been decided by the government, and from now on, a search-and-selection committee would look over the process.
Apparently accepting suggestions from former CECs, the Centre brought two amendments, bringing the protocol of the CEC and ECs on a par with Supreme Court judges, with similar salaries and emoluments.
74% Indians could not afford healthy diet in 2021: report (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
More than 74% of Indians could not afford a healthy diet in 2021, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said. In 2020, the percentage was 76.2.
In Pakistan, the figure was 82.2% and in Bangladesh, 66.1% of the population faced difficulties in finding healthy food.
Rising food costs, if not matched by rising income, would lead to more people being unable to afford a healthy diet, the report, “Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2023: Statistics and Trends.
If food costs rise at the same time incomes fall, a compounding effect occurs that can result in even more people unable to afford healthy diets.
The FAO report is a glimpse of the progress in meeting Sustainable Development Goals and World Health Assembly (WHA) global nutrition targets.
It said that during the pandemic and the “5Fs” crisis – food, feed, fuel, fertilizer, and finance – the Asia Pacific region witnessed harrowing statistics.
World
Deadlock at COP-28 climate talks forces negotiations into ‘overtime’ (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
With countries unable to resolve differences in language over what the final version of the Dubai COP-28 agreement should look like, deliberations are likely to extend into.
COP Director General Majid Al Suwaidi said that the COP team was facing “the most demanding agenda of all time.” On the state of deliberations he said: “We need to keep 1.5°C within reach that is our North Star...part of this is to include language on fossil fuels in the text.”
Parties (delegations) have deeply held and deeply split views, especially the language around fossil fuels.”
1.5°C refers to an increase in the average global temperature that science now considers the upper ceiling to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
Business
Base effects boosted IIP growth to 11.7% in October (Page no. 18)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India’s factory output grew at a 16-month high rate of 11.7% in October, recovering from a three-month low rate of 5.8% in September, thanks to base effects from last year when output had dropped 4.1%.
Manufacturing output grew 10.4%, as opposed to a 5.8% contraction in October 2022, but was merely 0.4% over this September. 19 of 23 manufacturing sectors grew in October.
On end-use basis, all six segments grew in October, with double-digit growth in four sectors—capital goods (22.6%), consumer durables (15.9%), primary goods (11.4%) and construction goods (11.3%). Capital goods and consumer durables had contracted 2.9% and 18.9% a year earlier, and their output levels this October were 5.1% and 1.4% below September 2023, respectively.
Consumer non-durables’ production was up 8.6%, vis-à-vis a 13% contraction last October.