24 February 2023

• Polity: one-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale Ukraine invasion. China published a 12-point position paper. Russia suspended New START verification. The global nuclear risk was assessed.
• Polity: anti-defection law and Maharashtra's ongoing political disputes brought Tenth Schedule back into focus. Key Supreme Court judgments on the schedule reviewed.
• Science: third patient cured of HIV through bone marrow transplant. The CCR5-delta 32 mutation and its role in the cure discussed.
• Governance: National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP) by NITI Aayog reviewed for its role in democratising government data.

GS area: Polity

Maharashtra's prolonged political crisis (starting June 2022) drew fresh attention to the Tenth Schedule:

• Tenth Schedule added: 52nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1985.
• Ground 1 for disqualification: voluntarily giving up membership of the political party on whose ticket the member was elected.
• Ground 2: voting or abstaining from voting contrary to the direction issued by the party. Violation of a whip.
• Exception: a merger of at least two-thirds of the legislative party with another party exempts the merging members. This is the source of the "split vs merger" distinction.
• Speaker as judge: the presiding officer of the House (Speaker/Chairman) decides disqualification petitions.
• Key Supreme Court judgments:
  • Kihoto Hollohan v. Zachillhu (1992): upheld the Tenth Schedule. Speaker's decision on disqualification can be judicially reviewed.
  • Nabam Rebia v. Deputy Speaker (2016): the Speaker cannot decide a disqualification petition if a notice of motion to remove the Speaker is pending.
  • Keisham Meghachandra Singh (2020): set a 3-month deadline for Speakers to decide disqualification petitions.
• Maharashtra specific: Eknath Shinde led a faction of Shiv Sena that claimed to be the real party. The question was whether this was a split (permissible) or defection (punishable). The Supreme Court referred the matter to a Constitutional Bench.
• Unresolved structural tension: the Speaker is a party member deciding cases involving party members. The conflict of interest is inherent in the design.

Static linkage: Polity (Tenth Schedule, anti-defection, Maharashtra political crisis).

GS area: International Relations

24 February 2023 marked exactly one year since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022:

• Current military situation: Russia controlled approximately 17 per cent of Ukraine's territory after initial Russian gains and Ukrainian counteroffensives.
• China's 12-point position paper: released on 24 February. Called for a ceasefire and negotiations but did not condemn Russia's invasion. The US characterised it as cover for Russia.
• US position: committed to Ukrainian sovereignty. President Biden visited Kyiv on 20 February in a demonstration of support.
• India's position: continued strategic autonomy. Abstained on UN resolutions. Called for diplomacy and dialogue. The G20 Foreign Ministers' meeting in March 2023 was unable to agree on a joint statement on Ukraine.
• Global impact of the war: disruption to wheat and sunflower oil supplies from Ukraine affected food prices globally. India benefited from discounted Russian crude.

Static linkage: International Relations (Russia-Ukraine, India's strategic autonomy, G20 presidency).

GS area: Science and Technology (health)

A third patient was reported cured of HIV through a bone marrow transplant:

• The "Dusseldorf patient": received a bone marrow transplant from a donor with the CCR5-delta 32 mutation. HIV is now undetectable in his blood after stopping antiretroviral therapy.
• CCR5-delta 32 mutation: a rare natural mutation in the CCR5 gene. The CCR5 protein is the primary co-receptor that HIV uses to enter CD4 T-cells. The mutation blocks this entry. About 1 per cent of people globally (mostly Northern European populations) carry two copies of this mutation and are naturally resistant to most HIV strains.
• How the cure works: the transplant replaces the patient's immune system with one built from the donor's CCR5-delta 32 cells. The new immune system is HIV-resistant.
• Previous cases: the Berlin Patient (Timothy Ray Brown, 2009) and the London Patient (2019) were cured the same way.
• Limitations: bone marrow transplants are only done for life-threatening conditions like leukaemia. The procedure is too risky and expensive to be used as a routine HIV cure.
• Standard treatment: antiretroviral therapy (ART) suppresses HIV replication but does not cure. HIV-positive people on ART can live long lives but must continue therapy indefinitely.

Static linkage: Science and Technology (HIV, gene therapy, medical research).

GS area: Governance, Economy

NDAP was launched in 2022 by NITI Aayog:

• Purpose: to democratise access to publicly available government data. Makes it available in standardised, interoperable formats for researchers, policymakers, and citizens.
• Problem it solves: India's government data was "difficult to use" because it was fragmented across different ministry portals in different formats, with inconsistent metadata.
• 5-star data quality framework: NDAP rates datasets on a 5-star scale covering accuracy, completeness, timeliness and accessibility.
• What it enables: cross-departmental analysis. Linking health data with economic data with population data creates insights that single-ministry portals cannot.
• Comparison with Open Government Data (OGD) portal: the older OGD portal at data.gov.in hosts datasets but without NDAP's standardisation and interoperability.

Static linkage: Governance (digital governance, open data, NITI Aayog).

GS area: Environment (wildlife)

The Kaziranga National Park management ordered an audit of the rhino population enumeration:

• Kaziranga's rhino population: hosts more than 90 per cent of the world's greater one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis). Estimated at over 2,600 individuals in the park.
• Location: Assam's Golaghat and Nagaon districts. UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• IUCN status: Vulnerable. Population has recovered from near-extinction in the early 20th century to current levels through strict protection.
• Anti-poaching success: Kaziranga has used aggressive anti-poaching measures, including shoot-on-sight orders for poachers. India's Wildlife Crime Control Bureau coordinates.
• Flood vulnerability: Kaziranga's animals move to higher ground annually during Assam floods. The NH-37 (now NH-715) is sometimes closed to allow rhino migration.

Static linkage: Environment (wildlife, national parks, rhino conservation).

• Social Stock Exchange (SSE): NSE received approval for the Social Stock Exchange. Enables non-profits and social enterprises to list and raise capital. Minimum issue size is Rs 1 crore. Zero Coupon Zero Principal (ZCZP) instruments are specially designed instruments for ZCZP-based fundraising.
• Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission: QR-code based registration adopted by 365 hospitals and 5 lakh patients. Creates unique digital health identities.
• 22nd Law Commission: its term extended to 31 August 2024. The Commission is preparing reports on the Uniform Civil Code and other pending matters.