28 August 2024, The Hindu
SC stays AYUSH Ministry’s notification omitting key rule prohibiting misleading advertisements
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GS 2: Judiciary
- The Supreme Court on Tuesday (August 27, 2024) stayed a July 1, 2024 notification issued by the AYUSH Ministry in which Rule 170 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 was “omitted”.
- The Rule deals with the power to take action against objectionable or misleading advertisements about Ayurvedic, Siddha, and Unani drugs.
How will you tackle air pollution in NCR in winter, SC asks the chief of air quality panel
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GS 3: Environmental pollution and degradation
- The Supreme Court on Tuesday termed the pollution control boards of Delhi-NCR “ineffective” and asked the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) to explain how it proposes to tackle pollution and stubble burning, which are likely to spike with the onset of winter.
- The CAQM is responsible for air quality management in the national capital and adjoining areas.
The invisible lives of sanitation workers who clean Mumbai’s drains to keep it from drowning
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GS 2: Governance
- Shankara Colony, a slum in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar, serves as a temporary home to thousands of seasonal sanitation workers who travel from remote areas of Maharashtra to take part in the yearly ritual of desilting the stormwater drains before the dreaded monsoon arrives.
- Squatting on the footpath adjacent to the slum, Laxman Kale, 55, says they do whatever is asked of them. “We do all that we are told to do.
- That could be cleaning drains, getting into nullahs, climbing down manholes — whatever the job requires.”
Kerala SIT gears up to probe sexual abuse in film industry
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GS 1: Social empowerment
- The Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to investigate the alleged sexual exploitation in the Malayalam movie industry has reportedly prepared a road map for what portends to be a highly complex, legally challenging, public attention-rivetting and politically sensitive police probe.
- The high-profile criminal inquiry could draw several top stars, producers, directors, and at least one ruling front legislator to its centre, potentially putting them at risk of severe legal jeopardy.
Coordinated attacks
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GS 3: India and neighbourhood relations
- Ever since the Taliban, hosted by Pakistan’s security forces, recaptured Kabul in August 2021, Pakistan, especially in its Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces neighbouring Afghanistan, has seen a surge in terrorist attacks.
- In 2023 alone, there were over 650 recorded attacks, with 23% occurring in Balochistan, which is Pakistan’s largest province by landmass and a hotbed of separatist insurgency.
- But even in this new normal, Monday was one of the bloodiest days for Balochistan and Pakistan. On the 18th death anniversary of Nawab Akbar Bugti, a Baloch nationalist leader killed by the Pakistani military in 2006, separatists carried out coordinated attacks across the province.
- The Baloch Liberation Army has claimed responsibility for the many deaths.
- According to security officials, the separatists damaged infrastructure and executed migrant labourers from Punjab.
- That the attacks occurred in different parts of Balochistan show the growing reach and capability of the insurgency. Bugti’s death anniversaries have seen violent incidents in the past, but Pakistan’s military and intelligence services were caught off guard on August 26.
Reasonable limits
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Prelims: Current affairs of national and international importance
- That free speech is not absolute and is subject to certain restrictions for public order, morals and public health is something that has been codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- The founder and chief executive officer of Telegram, Pavel Durov, is a technology creator who has emphasised absolute free speech on his platform and has built an anti-establishmentarian image by risking the wrath of nation-states in allowing dissidents to use the messaging application.
- His detention and arrest by French authorities, in connection with investigations related to criminal activity on the app, has raised the question if this has been done to provide a chilling effect on freedom of expression on the Internet.
- But the answer is more complicated. His laissez-faire approach to content on the app has meant that it is host also to extremism, drug dealers, scammers and, according to France, child pornography as well.
- Mr. Durov has said, “privacy... is more important than our fear of bad things happening ...and that, to be truly free, you should be ready to risk everything for freedom”.
- But can it be done to override the responsibility to prevent consequences which could endanger people’s safety and freedom?
- This is a key question to ask about messaging apps and “free speech absolutists” such as Mr. Durov.
The continuing churn in the Chinese military
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GS 2: India and its neighborhood- relations
- August 1, 2024 marked the 97th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and the week was celebrated with pomp and show.
- But there were also sombre inspections and clandestine changes in the military leadership.
- More specifically, the Southern and Northern Theaters of the PLA witnessed a change in commanders, with General Wu Yanan and General Huang Ming, respectively, taking charge sometime in the last month.
- These new appointments, revealed rather silently in the provincial coverage of August 1 ceremonies, are the latest in a line of dismissals and replacements in the PLA, and are stirring the pot of speculations over potential reasons and implications.
Advancing equity, from COVID-19 to Mpox
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Prelims: Current Affairs of national and international importance
- Less than five years after the COVID-19 pandemic, the world faces the threat of another global health crisis.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) has, once again, declared mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), following its outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Africa, and subsequently spreading to over a dozen African countries.
- This comes on the heels of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s (AfricaCDC) declaration of a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS), marking the first instance where both regional and global health emergencies have been declared concurrently for the same disease.
- In the days following the PHEIC declaration, cases of mpox were identified in Sweden, Pakistan and the Philippines, indicating that the virus has likely spread beyond the African continent.
India needs to develop a care ecosystem
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GS 3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment
- Alow female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) has been the focus of the bulk of the discussion around women’s empowerment.
- According to the Economic Survey 2023-24, against a world average of 47.8% (2022), the FLFPR in India was 37% (2022-23).
- Although it increased from 23.3% in 2017-18, 37.5% of this share comprises “unpaid helpers in household enterprises”, that is, women who are not paid for the work they do, which is separate from domestic work.
- Women’s active participation in the economy is crucial for reducing gender inequality. A key reason for women’s low economic participation is the disproportionately high burden of care that they shoulder within the family.
- This ranges from childcare to the care of other household members, including the elderly, sick, and disabled.
- Added to these care responsibilities is other domestic work. In India, women aged 15-64 years spend about three times more time daily than men on unpaid domestic work.
On SEBI chairperson’s conflicts of interests
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GS 3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment
- It has been over two weeks since a Hindenburg Research report revealed serious conflicts of interests vis-a-vis the chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
- Two separate responses to the report were issued on August 11 — an unsigned statement from SEBI and a joint statement issued by Madhabi and Dhaval Buch.
- These statements in effect confirmed the veracity of Hindenburg’s revelations, casting more doubts over the regulator’s integrity.
- As the appointing authority of SEBI’s whole-time members, the Central government owes explanations to all stakeholders.
- The first conflict of interest revealed by Hindenburg relates to an investment worth $8,72,762 (over ₹5.6 crore at the 2015 exchange rate) made by Madhabi and Dhaval Buch in Bermuda based Global Dynamic Opportunities Fund [GDOF Cell 90 (IPEplus Fund 1)] through Mumbai-headquartered IIFL Wealth & Asset Management Limited (now renamed 360 One).
Correcting rumours can reduce support for vigilante
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GS 1: Communism
- Vigilante violence against minorities has been growing in recent years, especially in South Asia.
- It is well documented that such violence is often preceded by misinformation.
- In India, for instance, allegations of ‘love jihad’ or false rumours of cow meat transportation have culminated in public lynchings.
- Yet empirical studies on the link between misinformation and vigilante violence are scarce.
- This paper seeks to plug this gap by posing a critical question: if misinformation is an essential component of the circumstances leading to vigilante violence, then “can reducing the credibility of rumours via corrections decrease support for vigilante violence?”
Himachal makes 21 the minimum age of marriage for women
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GS 1: Society, Role of women and women’s organization
- The Himachal Pradesh State Assembly on Tuesday (August 27, 2024) passed a Bill increasing the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years in order to support gender equality and higher education.
- The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Himachal Pradesh Amendment) Bill, 2024 was introduced by Women Empowerment Minister Dhani Ram Shandil in the State Assembly during its ongoing monsoon session. The Bill was passed by voice vote.
‘India-Brazil strategic partnership deepened and diversified over years’
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GS 2: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests
- The India-Brazil strategic partnership has "deepened and diversified" over the years and now spans a very wide range of domains, including defence, space, security, technology and people-to-people relations, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Tuesday.
- In his opening remarks at the ninth India-Brazil Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) in Delhi, Mr. Jaishankar congratulated the Latin American country for conducting the G20 meetings successfully and, also on the first Ministerial consensus document released during a key meeting.
Sharif reiterates ‘unwavering resolve’ to root out terrorism from Pakistan
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GS 3: Security challenges and their management in border areas - linkages of organized crime with terrorism
- Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday (August 27, 2024) strongly condemned the terrorist attacks in the restive Balochistan province as he reiterated the unwavering resolve of his government to root out terrorism from the country.
- Heavily armed Baloch gunmen killed at least 37 people in separate attacks in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province on Monday (August 26, 2024), as insurgent attacks spiked in the region bordering Iran and Afghanistan.
