24 March 2023

• Governance: A parliamentary committee demands a fresh statute for the CBI and flags 1,709 vacant posts in the agency.
• Diplomacy: India-Japan ties sit at the Special Strategic and Global Partnership level with trade topping USD 20 billion and a joint Moon mission on the drawing board.
• Technology: UNCTAD's Technology and Innovation Report 2023 names India as the biggest overperformer globally across 17 green and frontier technologies.
• Health: The Supreme Court rejects Janssen's patent extension for Bedaquiline, the last-resort TB drug, upholding Section 3(d) of the Patents Act.
• Security: Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungal pathogen with a 30-53 per cent mortality rate, draws fresh regulatory attention.

GS Paper II: Statutory bodies, governance and accountability.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel released its report on the Central Bureau of Investigation, identifying chronic vacancies and the absence of a dedicated statute as the agency's core structural defects.

• Establishment: CBI was set up in 1963 on the recommendation of the Santhanam Committee on Prevention of Corruption. It inherited the Delhi Special Police Establishment, which dates to 1946, as its governing legislation.
• Governing law: The Delhi Special Police Establishment Act 1946 still defines the CBI's powers. The agency has no standalone CBI Act, which critics argue keeps its mandate ambiguous and its accountability diffuse.
• Consent withdrawal: Nine states have withdrawn general consent for CBI investigations as of March 2023. Without state consent, the CBI cannot investigate cases within that state unless a court orders it.
• Vacancy crisis: The panel found 1,709 posts vacant against a sanctioned strength of 7,295. That is a vacancy rate of roughly 23 per cent.
• Director tenure: The Vineet Narain judgment of 1997 fixed the CBI Director's tenure at a minimum of two years to insulate the post from political pressure. The same protection was later codified in the Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Act 2014.
• Key recommendations: The committee called for a new standalone CBI legislation, quarterly monitoring of vacancy-filling, and the creation of a centralised case database for transparency.

The deeper problem is institutional: a law-enforcement agency that operates under a 77-year-old colonial ordinance lacks the legal architecture to function as a modern investigative body. The committee's call for fresh legislation has been made before. What is different now is the scale of state withdrawals, which effectively limits the CBI to Union territories and court-referred cases in nearly a third of the country.

Revises: Statutory and quasi-judicial bodies; Federalism and Centre-State relations.

GS Paper II: India's bilateral relations; multilateral groupings.

India and Japan reviewed their Special Strategic and Global Partnership, with both sides chairing major multilateral forums in 2023 and a joint lunar mission in the pipeline.

• Partnership tier: Elevated to Special Strategic and Global Partnership in 2014 under Prime Ministers Modi and Abe. This is the highest bilateral designation Japan confers.
• Trade: Bilateral goods trade exceeded USD 20 billion in 2022. The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) has governed trade since 2011.
• 2+2 Dialogue: India and Japan hold a Foreign and Defence Ministers' Dialogue (2+2 format) which coordinates security and defence cooperation.
• ODA relationship: India is historically the largest recipient of Japanese Official Development Assistance. Infrastructure projects including the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail use Japanese ODA and soft loans.
• LUPEX mission: The Lunar Polar Exploration mission is a joint ISRO-JAXA project targeting the lunar south pole to prospect for water ice. Both agencies are contributing spacecraft components.
• Multilateral convergence: Japan holds the G7 presidency in 2023; India holds the G20 presidency. Both forums are engaging on debt relief, climate finance and supply-chain resilience.

Revises: India's foreign policy; Multilateral bodies (G7, G20).

GS Paper III: Science and technology; international reports and indices.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development published its Technology and Innovation Report 2023, assessing 166 countries on readiness to adopt and benefit from green and frontier technologies.

• Scope: The report analysed 17 technologies including solar photovoltaics, electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, gene editing and drone delivery.
• India's ranking: India performs 67 positions better than its income level would predict, making it the world's greatest overperformer in the readiness index.
• R&D spending gap: Developed countries and the EU spend approximately 3 per cent of GDP on research and development. Developing countries spend roughly 1 per cent of GDP on average. The report identifies this gap as the primary barrier to frontier technology absorption.
• Recommendation: UNCTAD calls for a new global fund for science, technology and innovation to help developing nations leapfrog into green technologies without replicating the fossil-fuel development path.

Revises: Science and technology policy; India in global rankings.

GS Paper III: Science and technology; telecommunications policy.

The Department of Telecommunications released the Bharat 6G Vision document, outlining India's plan to be a major developer and exporter of sixth-generation wireless technology by 2030.

• Nodal body: The Technology Innovation Group on 6G (TIG-6G) operates under the Department of Telecommunications. It coordinates research between academia, industry and government.
• Core principles: The vision document commits to three principles for 6G: affordability (ensuring access is not restricted to premium users), sustainability (net-zero energy design from the outset) and ubiquity (coverage for rural and remote areas).
• Key technologies: 6G will rely on terahertz communication (frequencies above 100 GHz), tactile internet (latency below 1 millisecond enabling remote physical touch), and quantum communications for secure data transfer.
• Implementation phasing: The first phase focuses on exploratory research and standard-setting. The second phase, targeting 2025 onwards, moves to commercialisation and export of India-developed 6G products and patents.
• Rollout target: Commercial 6G deployment is aimed at 2030. India has set a goal of holding a significant share of global 6G patents, unlike with 4G and 5G where Indian industry was largely a buyer of foreign intellectual property.

Revises: Telecommunications; Digital India; Science and Technology.

GS Paper III: Environment and ecology; forest governance.

The question of whether compensatory afforestation is an adequate substitute for natural forest loss came under scrutiny, with a Haryana plan to use CAMPA funds from the Great Nicobar deforestation project for a curated safari.

• Legal framework: The Forest Conservation Act 1980 requires non-forest use of forest land to be compensated by afforestation elsewhere. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) was established in 2002 to manage these funds. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act 2016 gave CAMPA statutory backing.
• Funds unspent: The Comptroller and Auditor General reported in 2019 that approximately Rs 47,000 crore in CAMPA funds sat unspent across central and state accounts. The CAG observed that delayed planting undermines the ecological purpose of compensatory afforestation.
• IPCC warning: The IPCC's Sixth Assessment Synthesis Report cautions that preserving existing natural ecosystems is far more effective for carbon storage and biodiversity than replanting. Plantations monocultures store a fraction of the carbon held in old-growth forests.
• Haryana controversy: Haryana is planning a safari park using CAMPA money that originated from the felling of forests in the Great Nicobar Island development project. Critics argue that using forest-loss compensation funds for a tourism facility defeats the statutory intent of the 1980 Act and the 2016 CAMPA Act.

Revises: Environment and ecology; Forest Conservation Act; CAG.

GS Paper I: Indian culture; ancient architecture and inscriptions.

The twin rock-cut cave complexes of Khandagiri and Udaygiri near Bhubaneswar, Odisha, were in the news as heritage sites facing encroachment pressures.

• Origin: Carved during the reign of Kalinga King Kharavela in the 1st to 2nd century BCE. The Hathigumpha inscription on the Udaygiri hill records Kharavela's conquests and administrative achievements in Brahmi script.
• Religious phases: Originally Jain in character under Kharavela. Converted to Buddhist use from the 7th to the 12th centuries CE. Today, a shrine at the top of Udaygiri hill is active as a Hindu site.
• Cave count: Udaygiri has 18 caves; Khandagiri has 15 caves. The caves served as residential cells for Jain monks and as ceremonial spaces.
• Scripts: Both Brahmi and later Devanagari inscriptions are found across the caves. Brahmi is the oldest deciphered script of the Indian subcontinent.
• Location: Situated in the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, Odisha, approximately 7 km from the city centre. Protected under the Archaeological Survey of India.

Revises: Ancient India history; Jainism; Epigraphy.

GS Paper II: Health; intellectual property law.

The Intellectual Property Appellate Board rejected Janssen Pharmaceutica's (Johnson and Johnson) application to extend the patent on Bedaquiline, the only new TB drug approved in 40 years, under the provisions of Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act.

• Drug importance: Bedaquiline is the primary treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis. India carries approximately one-quarter of the global DR-TB burden. Losing affordable access would effectively remove the best-available treatment from public programmes.
• Section 3(d): Section 3(d) of the Patents Act 1970 prohibits granting patents for new forms of a known substance unless the applicant demonstrates enhanced efficacy. It was inserted by the Patents (Amendment) Act 2005 specifically to prevent evergreening.
• Evergreening: Pharmaceutical companies extend patent protection by making minor modifications to existing molecules (different salt forms, polymorphs, dosage forms) and filing fresh patents. Section 3(d) is India's legal bulwark against this practice.
• Janssen application: The company sought a patent extension on a modified form of Bedaquiline. The authority found no evidence of significantly enhanced therapeutic efficacy over the original compound and rejected the claim.
• Access implications: Generic manufacturers can now produce affordable Bedaquiline. The treatment cost under the patent was prohibitive for most public health systems in low- and middle-income countries.

Revises: Health policy; Intellectual property; Patents Act 1970.

GS Paper II / III: Public health; antimicrobial resistance.

Candida auris drew global health-authority attention after outbreaks in multiple countries, with the United States CDC classifying it as an urgent antimicrobial resistance threat.

• What it is: Candida auris is a drug-resistant fungal pathogen first identified in Japan in 2009. Unlike most Candida species it spreads through hospital surfaces and equipment rather than mainly through patient-to-patient contact.
• Mortality: Clinical mortality ranges from 30 to 53 per cent in hospitalised patients. The wide range reflects variation in patient immune status and the antifungal drugs available at the treating facility.
• Drug resistance: Most strains are resistant to fluconazole (the first-line antifungal). Many are also resistant to amphotericin B and echinocandins. Resistance to all three main antifungal classes has been documented.
• Spread mechanism: The pathogen colonises hospital surfaces, bedrails and medical devices. Standard disinfectants do not reliably eliminate it. Patients in intensive care units with central lines are most at risk.
• CDC classification: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention places Candida auris in its Urgent Threat category alongside carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, indicating the highest level of concern for human health.

Revises: Public health; Antimicrobial resistance.

GS Paper I: Modern Indian history; freedom struggle.

India observed Shaheed Diwas on 23 March, marking the 92nd anniversary of the execution of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru in 1931.

• The execution: All three were hanged at Lahore Central Jail on 23 March 1931. They were convicted for the killing of British police officer John Saunders in 1928.
• The intended target: The three revolutionaries had planned to kill James A. Scott, the Senior Superintendent of Police who ordered the lathi charge that fatally injured Lala Lajpat Rai during protests against the Simon Commission. Saunders was identified and killed by mistake.
• Political context: The killing deepened the split within the Indian National Congress between Gandhian nonviolence and the revolutionary nationalist current. Bhagat Singh's execution transformed him into a mass symbol for a generation of young Indians.
• Significance of date: 23 March is observed as Shaheed Diwas (Martyrs' Day) specifically for Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru. A separate Martyrs' Day is observed on 30 January for Mahatma Gandhi's assassination.

Revises: Modern Indian history; Freedom movement.

• DigiClaim module (PMFBY): The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana launched a DigiClaim module providing farmers with real-time digital tracking of their crop-insurance claims. It removes the need for physical follow-up at district offices.
• India-Japan CEPA (2011): The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement remains the legal foundation for bilateral trade. It reduced tariffs on over 90 per cent of goods traded between the two countries.
• Vineet Narain judgment (1997): The Supreme Court directed that the CBI Director must serve a minimum two-year tenure to prevent mid-term transfers being used as political tools.