5 July 2023

• Polity: The Uniform Civil Code debate accelerated as the 22nd Law Commission began examining the question.
• Health: WHO released guidelines to protect children from harmful food marketing, targeting childhood obesity.
• Environment: The IAEA declared Japan's plan to release treated water from Fukushima into the sea consistent with international safety standards.
• Connectivity: India's inland waterway network gained a new terminal at Bogibeel on the Brahmaputra, National Waterway 2.
• Ecology: Tamil Nadu announced an expansion of mangrove cover in the Pichavaram region.

GS area: Polity, Social Justice

The 22nd Law Commission of India began examining the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) question. The 21st Commission had earlier concluded that UCC is "neither necessary nor desirable at this stage."

• Article 44 (DPSP): Directs the state to endeavour to secure a uniform civil code for all citizens throughout India. It is a directive principle, not a fundamental right, so it is not directly enforceable in court.
• Goa as the exception: Goa retained a UCC based on the Portuguese Civil Code (the Goa Family Law) after its 1961 liberation. It is the only Indian state with a functioning uniform civil code.
• Key cases:
  • Shah Bano (1985): The Supreme Court directed Parliament to enact a UCC to remove inconsistencies across personal laws.
  • Sarla Mudgal (1995): Court emphasised that a UCC would prevent fraudulent conversions to circumvent personal law restrictions.
  • Shayara Bano (2017): Triple talaq declared unconstitutional; the judgment recommended parliamentary action on personal law reform.
• Constitutional tension: Article 25 (freedom of religion) and Article 26 (right of religious denominations to manage their own affairs) are the counterweights that communities cite in opposition to a UCC.

Static linkage: Directive Principles of State Policy, personal law, minority rights.

GS area: Health, International Organisations

The World Health Organisation released guidelines to protect children from the harmful effects of food marketing.

• The concern: Aggressive marketing of energy-dense, nutrient-poor food and beverages to children is associated with unhealthy dietary preferences and childhood obesity.
• Scope: The guidelines cover all forms of digital, broadcast, outdoor, and school-based food marketing.
• Global obesity trend: The WHO estimates that the number of obese children and adolescents globally rose tenfold between 1975 and 2016.
• WHO background: A specialised agency of the United Nations headquartered in Geneva, founded in 1948. It sets international health norms and standards.

Static linkage: Child health and nutrition, international health governance.

GS area: Environment, International Relations, Science and Technology

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published its final report concluding that Japan's plan to release treated water from the Fukushima Daiichi plant into the Pacific Ocean is consistent with international safety standards.

• Background: A 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused a loss of cooling power at the plant, leading to three reactor meltdowns. Over one million tonnes of contaminated water has since accumulated.
• Treatment process: Water is processed through the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), which removes most radionuclides but cannot remove tritium.
• Safety argument: The tritium concentration is diluted to regulatory standards before discharge. The IAEA assessed the radiological impact on people and the environment as negligible.
• IAEA: An intergovernmental organisation established in 1957, headquartered in Vienna. It promotes the peaceful use of nuclear energy and works to prevent its military application.
• Opposition: Fishing communities in Japan, as well as China and South Korea, expressed opposition to the release.

Static linkage: Nuclear technology, environmental law, Pacific geopolitics.

GS area: Geography, Infrastructure

The Union Minister for Ports, Shipping, and Waterways laid the foundation stone for an Inland Waterways Transport (IWT) terminal at Bogibeel in Dibrugarh, Assam.

• Waterway: Bogibeel lies on National Waterway 2, which follows the Brahmaputra River.
• Bogibeel Bridge: The existing road-cum-rail bridge at Bogibeel is the longest such bridge in India at 4.94 km.
• Policy target: The Maritime India Vision 2030 aims for inland waterways to carry 5 per cent of India's freight traffic.
• Pichavaram mangroves (Tamil Nadu): In the same period, Tamil Nadu's Forest Department announced plans to expand the Pichavaram mangrove forest in Cuddalore district by 100 hectares. Pichavaram is one of India's largest mangrove ecosystems at about 45 sq km.

Static linkage: National waterways, Brahmaputra, inland water transport.

GS area: Health, Science and Technology

The WHO launched a global research priority agenda for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) under its One Health approach. The research framework identifies 40 priority topics to generate evidence by 2030.

• One Health concept: Recognises that the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems are interconnected. AMR in livestock and the environment contributes to human drug resistance.
• Five pillars of the AMR agenda: Transmission; integrated surveillance; interventions; behavioural insights; economics and policy.
• India's AMR burden: India has one of the world's highest burdens of drug-resistant infections, partly attributable to indiscriminate antibiotic use in medicine and agriculture.
• HTFU context: AMR is a cross-paper topic in UPSC, appearing in GS-2 (health policy) and GS-3 (biotechnology, environment).

Static linkage: Public health, biotechnology, India's health indicators.

GS area: Science and Technology, Economy

The Bharat 6G Alliance (B6GA) was constituted as a collaborative platform for 6G technology development.

• Objective: Position India as a leading global supplier of 5G and 6G intellectual property and technology solutions by 2030.
• Composition: Public-sector companies, private industry, academic institutions, research bodies, and standards organisations.
• Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF): Allocates 5 per cent of the Universal Service Obligation Fund's annual collections to R&D in rural and frontier telecom technologies.

Static linkage: Telecommunications, Make in India, digital infrastructure.

• Trafficking in border areas: The Women and Child Development Ministry extended financial support to border states and UTs for victim rehabilitation homes. Article 23 of the Constitution prohibits trafficking and forced labour. Article 24 bars employment of children under 14 in hazardous work.
• TEJAS: Completed seven years of IAF service with the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) as the designer and HAL as the manufacturer.
• Fukushima: The ALPS system removes caesium, strontium, and most other radionuclides but cannot remove tritium. Japan's plan dilutes tritium to levels below regulatory limits before ocean release.
• Kenya logging ban: President William Ruto of Kenya lifted a six-year logging ban. Kenya is an East African country bordering the Indian Ocean, home to the Maasai Mara Reserve and Mount Kenya.