6 February 2023

• Disaster: A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Turkey at 4:17 AM local time, followed by a 7.6 magnitude aftershock hours later. Southern Syria was also devastated. Thousands died in the first hours.
• India: India immediately announced it would send NDRF teams, medical personnel and relief supplies. Operation Dost was launched.
• Polity: Supreme Court ruled on tax exemptions for Sikkim residents and struck down a discriminatory provision affecting Sikkimese women married outside the state.
• Economy: Fiscal deficit and mangrove budget data from the Budget week continued to generate analysis. MISHTI scheme details were examined.

GS area: Geography, Disaster Management

On 6 February 2023, a sequence of devastating earthquakes struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria:

• Main shock: magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale. Epicentre at Pazarcik district near Gaziantep, a major city close to the Syria border. Struck at 4:17 AM local time when most people were asleep.
• Depth: approximately 18 km beneath the surface. Shallow earthquakes cause far greater surface damage than deep ones.
• Second major shock: magnitude 7.6 struck approximately nine hours later, centred near Elbistan. A third shock of magnitude 6.0 followed.
• Tectonic setting: southeastern Turkey sits at the junction of the African, Arabian and Eurasian plates. Three fault lines converge here: the North Anatolian Fault (running east-west), the East Anatolian Fault, and the Dead Sea Transform Fault.
• Building failure: structures collapsed in "pancake style," floors falling directly on one another. Non-compliance with seismic building codes, combined with the shallow depth and a population asleep in concrete buildings, maximised casualties.
• Death toll: exceeded 50,000 across Turkey and Syria in the weeks that followed. The worst earthquake in Turkey since 1939.

Static linkage: Physical Geography (earthquakes, plate tectonics, disaster management).

GS area: International Relations, Disaster Management

India launched Operation Dost (meaning "friend" in Hindi and Turkish) within hours of the earthquake:

• NDRF deployment: the first Indian Air Force C-17 aircraft reached Adana, Turkey on 7 February with 47 NDRF personnel, senior officers, and trained search-and-rescue dogs.
• By 9 February: six C-17 aircraft had completed missions. India sent a total of seven flights during the operation.
• Army Field Hospital: an 89-member medical team including critical care specialists set up a 30-bed mobile field hospital in Iskenderun, one of the worst-hit cities in Turkey's Hatay province.
• Equipment: chip cutters, stone cutters, heartbeat-detection radar for locating survivors, ECG machines, ventilators, X-ray equipment.
• Garuda Aerospace drones: deployed for victim identification and supply delivery in collapsed building zones.
• Aid to Syria: India sent over 6 tonnes of emergency supplies to Syria on 8 February. A seventh flight delivered 23 tonnes to both countries on 12 February.
• Return: Indian Army medical teams returned on 20 February after two weeks.

India was among the first countries to offer help. Turkey acknowledged India's rapid response.

Static linkage: India and the world (India-Turkey relations, humanitarian assistance, NDRF).

GS area: Polity (judiciary, taxation)

The Supreme Court addressed a challenge to Section 10(26AAA) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, which grants tax exemptions to long-term settlers in Sikkim:

• Section 10(26AAA): exempts income earned by Sikkimese individuals from income tax. The exemption covers all Indian citizens who were domiciled in Sikkim on or before 26 April 1975, the date Sikkim merged with India.
• The discriminatory provision struck down: the section excluded Sikkimese women who married non-Sikkimese men from the benefit. The Court found this violated Articles 14 (equality), 15 (non-discrimination on grounds of sex), and 21 (right to life and dignity).
• Ruling: the exclusion of married women is unconstitutional. All Sikkimese women, regardless of whom they marry, retain the tax exemption.
• Historical note: the Sikkim Income Tax Manual of 1948 (pre-merger) did not discriminate by gender. The post-merger provision introduced the discrimination, which the Court has now removed.

Static linkage: Polity (fundamental rights, taxation, Sikkim's constitutional status).

GS area: Polity (judiciary)

6 February marked the 73rd anniversary of the Supreme Court of India:

• Established: 28 January 1950, two days after the Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950.
• Original composition: the Chief Justice and 7 puisne judges. Current sanctioned strength is 34, including the Chief Justice.
• Jurisdiction: original (inter-state and Centre-state disputes), appellate (from High Courts and certain tribunals), and advisory (Article 143 presidential references).
• PIL evolution: the court expanded access to justice through Public Interest Litigation from the late 1970s under Chief Justice P.N. Bhagwati and others. Previously only an aggrieved party could approach the court.
• Constitutional interpreter: in Kesavananda Bharati (1973), the court established that Parliament cannot abridge the Basic Structure of the Constitution even through amendment.

Static linkage: Polity (Supreme Court, constitutional history, judicial review).

GS area: Environment

The MISHTI scheme (Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats and Tangible Incomes), announced in Budget 2023-24, generated detailed analysis this week:

• India's mangrove cover: 4,992 sq km as of the State of Forest Report 2021. This is an increase from 4,046 sq km in 1987, reversing decades of loss.
• State-wise: West Bengal has the highest cover at 2,114 sq km, followed by Gujarat (1,177 sq km) and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Ecological role: mangroves act as storm surge buffers, nurseries for fish, and carbon sinks. They store carbon at a rate disproportionately higher than terrestrial forests.
• MISHTI implementation: through MGNREGA (providing labour) and CAMPA Fund (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority, providing financing). Convergence of two existing mechanisms rather than a new fund.

Static linkage: Environment (mangroves, coastal ecology, climate mitigation).

• Andhra Pradesh Guaranteed Pension Scheme: announced this week. Combines elements of the old defined-benefit pension (OPS) and the National Pension System (NPS). Two options: 33 per cent guaranteed pension with 10 per cent employee and 10 per cent state contribution, or 40 per cent guaranteed pension with 14 per cent employee and 14 per cent state contribution.
• Visva-Bharati University: founded by Rabindranath Tagore in 1921, will become the world's first "living heritage university" to receive UNESCO recognition. The tag covers a functioning institution, not just a monument.
• Radon contamination in Bengaluru: groundwater in parts of Bengaluru detected with radon at 50 to 100 times the permissible limit. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas. Long-term exposure increases lung cancer risk.