6 June 2023

• Environment: A CERN discovery confirmed a rare Higgs boson decay, validating the Standard Model of particle physics at higher precision.
• Water: Groundwater depletion in India reached a critical threshold with 95 per cent of groundwater in the northern plains declining over the last two decades.
• Regulation: The government banned 14 fixed-dose combination drugs for lacking therapeutic justification.
• Geography: The Jhelum River's microplastic pollution was documented in a new study.

GS area: Environment and Ecology, Geography

India accounts for a quarter of the world's groundwater extraction. A new assessment showed the severity of depletion.

• Scale of extraction: India is the world's largest user of groundwater. Agriculture accounts for the bulk: it uses 89 per cent of all freshwater withdrawn.
• Northern plains: Approximately 95 per cent of groundwater in north India has been depleted between 2002 and 2022, primarily due to paddy cultivation in Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh.
• Projection: 80 per cent of potable water sources could be threatened within two decades if extraction continues to exceed natural recharge rates.
• Climate interaction: Climate change raises evapotranspiration, reducing the share of rainfall that reaches aquifers. This makes the groundwater crisis and the climate crisis inseparable.
• Central Ground Water Authority: The statutory body that regulates groundwater extraction in over-exploited aquifers. Its enforcement has been criticised as inadequate.
• Atal Bhujal Yojana: A World Bank-supported scheme launched in 2020. It is being implemented in 8,350 gram panchayats across seven water-stressed states through community-led groundwater management.
• Jal Shakti Abhiyan: A nationwide campaign for water conservation, rainwater harvesting, and traditional water body restoration.

Static linkage: Indian geography (rivers, water resources); environment; government schemes.

GS area: Science and Technology

Scientists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider confirmed the Higgs boson decaying into a Z boson and a photon. This is one of the rarest decay channels predicted by the Standard Model.

• The Higgs boson: The elementary particle that gives other particles their mass through the Higgs mechanism. First detected at CERN in 2012 (Peter Higgs and François Englert received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics).
• Why photons have no mass: Photons do not interact with the Higgs field; this is why they travel at the speed of light and have no mass.
• The decay confirmed: Higgs decaying to Z boson plus photon. Z bosons are also elementary particles, mediators of the weak nuclear force.
• Significance: The confirmation at increased statistical precision validates the Standard Model's predictions and rules out some theories that predict different decay rates.
• LHC: The Large Hadron Collider is the world's most powerful particle accelerator, located on the France-Switzerland border. It operates at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN).

Static linkage: Science and technology (physics, space science).

GS area: Economy (energy), Environment

The International Renewable Energy Agency published a report on scaling blended finance for energy transition in developing countries.

• The gap: Solar and onshore wind are now commercially competitive. The bottleneck is in offshore wind, green hydrogen electrolysers, and grid-scale energy storage, which require patient capital and higher initial outlay.
• India's targets: 175 GW of renewable energy installed by 2022 (partially achieved); 500 GW of non-fossil-fuel capacity by 2030.
• IREDA: The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency was established in 1987. It is the nodal agency for renewable energy financing in India.
• Sovereign Green Bonds: India issued its first sovereign green bonds in 2022-23 to fund renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other green projects.
• Blended finance: A model combining concessional public money (grants, guarantees) with commercial private capital to bring down the overall cost of financing for otherwise risky projects.

Static linkage: Energy security; Indian economy; environment.

GS area: Science and Technology (health), Governance

The central government banned 14 fixed-dose combination drugs on the ground that they posed a risk to human beings and that no therapeutic justification existed for them.

• FDCs: Drugs that combine two or more active pharmaceutical ingredients in a fixed ratio in a single formulation. They can be clinically appropriate when the combination has been properly studied, or irrational when combinations are created only to command a premium price.
• Legal basis: The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, Section 26A gives the central government power to prohibit the manufacture, sale, and distribution of drugs in public interest.
• Regulator: Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Its head is the Drug Controller General of India.
• Background: In 2016, India banned 344 FDCs on the recommendation of the Kokate Committee. Many manufacturers challenged the ban in courts. This June 2023 action is part of the ongoing clean-up of irrational combinations.

Static linkage: Health; governance; science and technology.

• Jhelum River microplastics: A study documented microplastic pollution in the Jhelum River. The Jhelum originates at Verinag spring in Kashmir, flows through the Wular Lake (India's largest freshwater lake), crosses into Pakistan, and joins the Chenab at Trimmu. The study linked pollution to solid waste sites along the banks.
• Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON): Provides 1.5 GB of free daily internet at 15 Mbps to 20 lakh Below Poverty Line families in Kerala. Phase 1 of KFON is complete.
• Deepfakes: The government and CERT-In raised concern about synthetic media created using artificial intelligence techniques. India does not yet have dedicated legislation targeting deepfakes.
• Shanan Hydropower Project: A 110 MW hydropower facility on the Uhl River, a tributary of the Beas, in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. Its 99-year lease to Punjab expired in March 2024. Himachal Pradesh and Punjab dispute its ownership.