26 July 2023

• Legislation: The government withdrew the DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019, stating that existing laws under the Criminal Procedure Identification Act 2022 now cover the same ground.
• Governance: The National Commission for Women was established in 1992 under the NCW Act, but critics have long called it a "toothless tiger" lacking enforcement powers.
• Labour: India has approximately 23.5 million gig workers. They remain outside the Code on Wages and do not have statutory minimum wage or social security protections at the central level.
• Fuel: India's ethanol blending with petrol reached 10.17 per cent in 2022-23, with a target of 20 per cent by 2025-26.
• Trade: India has not ratified the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies despite being among the world's top fishing nations.

GS area: Polity, Science and Technology

The government withdrew the DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill 2019 from Parliament.

• What the Bill proposed: A national DNA data bank for convicted persons, suspects, undertrials, and missing persons. Standards for DNA testing facilities. A National DNA Data Bank regulated by a board.
• Reason for withdrawal: The government stated that the Criminal Procedure Identification Act 2022 (CPI Act) already provides a legal basis for collecting biological samples, including DNA, from arrested persons, convicts, and undertrials.
• CPI Act 2022: Replaced the Identification of Prisoners Act 1920. Allows police to take measurements (fingerprints, iris scans, photos, biological samples including DNA) from any arrested person. Extends to those remanded in custody for any offence.
• Privacy concern: The DNA Bill had faced criticism for the width of the proposed database, covering not just convicts but also suspects and undertrials (presumed innocent). The Puttaswamy judgment (2017) established informational privacy as a fundamental right under Article 21.

Static linkage: Privacy, criminal law, legislation.

GS area: Polity, Social Justice

The National Commission for Women (NCW) was established in 1992 under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990. It is a statutory body.

• Statutory versus constitutional: A statutory body is established by an Act of Parliament. A constitutional body is established by the Constitution itself. NCW is statutory; the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, for example, is constitutional (Article 338).
• Functions: Examining and reviewing legal safeguards, recommending amendments, handling complaints, undertaking studies on women's status, and advising the government on policy.
• Criticism: The NCW lacks independent powers of inquiry or prosecution. It can only make recommendations. Its chairperson and members are appointed by the central government, raising questions about independence. Critics call it a "toothless tiger" because it cannot enforce its orders.
• Key laws related to women: Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2013 (POSH), Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006.

Static linkage: Women's rights, statutory bodies, social justice.

GS area: Economy, Social Justice, Labour

India's gig workforce is estimated at 7.7 million in 2020-21 and projected to reach 23.5 million by 2029-30, according to NITI Aayog's report on India's booming gig and platform economy.

• What gig workers are: Workers who engage in flexible, project-based, or task-based work outside traditional employer-employee relationships. They include platform-based delivery riders, cab drivers, freelancers, and on-demand service providers.
• Regulatory gap: India's four labour codes (Wages, Social Security, Industrial Relations, and Occupational Safety) were enacted between 2019 and 2020. Gig workers are mentioned in the Code on Social Security 2020 but are not covered by the Code on Wages. Minimum wage protections do not apply to them.
• Rajasthan first: The Rajasthan Platform-Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act 2023 was the first state law in India providing social security registration and a welfare fund for gig workers. Funded by a welfare fee levied on each transaction on platforms.
• Global context: The EU Directive on Platform Work (proposed) would reclassify many gig workers as employees if the platform exercises control over them. India has not moved in this direction.

Static linkage: Labour codes, gig economy, social security.

GS area: Economy, Environment

India's Ethanol Blended Petrol Programme achieved 10.17 per cent blending in 2022-23, the highest ever at that point.

• National Policy on Biofuels 2018: Sets the 20 per cent ethanol blending target by 2025-26 (preponed from 2030 after 2021 revision).
• Feedstock: Indian ethanol is produced primarily from sugarcane (C-heavy molasses, B-heavy molasses, sugarcane juice) and, increasingly, from surplus food grains (maize, broken rice).
• Benefits: Reduces import dependence on petroleum, lowers vehicular emissions, and provides additional revenue to sugar mills.
• Implementation: Oil marketing companies (Indian Oil, BPCL, HPCL) procure ethanol from distilleries at government-set prices and blend it with petrol before dispatch to pumps.
• Urea Gold: Sulphur-coated urea fertiliser, providing both nitrogen and sulphur. Indian soils are increasingly sulphur-deficient, making conventional urea less efficient. A single bag of Urea Gold (50 kg) provides benefits equivalent to approximately 67 kg of conventional urea.

Static linkage: Biofuels, energy policy, agriculture.

GS area: Economy, International Relations, Environment

The WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies entered into force after being adopted at the WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12) in Geneva in June 2022. However, India had not ratified it by mid-2023.

• What the agreement does: Prohibits subsidies for Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing; for fishing in overfished stocks; and for fishing in the high seas without management measures.
• India's concern: India is among the world's top five fishing nations by volume. Indian fishermen receive significant subsidies for diesel and fishing equipment from the central and state governments. India argued that developing countries' small-scale fisheries should be exempt from subsidy prohibitions.
• Special and Differential Treatment: India and other developing countries sought stronger provisions allowing them to continue subsidising small-scale fisheries for subsistence and livelihood. The final text included some differential treatment but India considered it insufficient.
• PM-WANI: A government scheme for public Wi-Fi access. Unrelated to fisheries; do not confuse in MCQs.

Static linkage: International trade, fisheries, WTO.

GS area: Governance, Science and Technology

The PM Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI) was launched by the Department of Telecommunications to create a network of public Wi-Fi hotspots, especially in rural and semi-urban areas.

• Model: Any shop, kiosk, or business can become a Public Data Office (PDO), offering Wi-Fi to customers through a standardised technical protocol. PDOs do not require a licence.
• Purpose: Bridge the digital divide by making internet access affordable and widespread in areas where mobile data may be expensive or unreliable.
• Interoperability: Users can roam between PM-WANI hotspots from different providers without separate logins, similar to a seamless carrier network.

Static linkage: Digital India, telecommunications, rural development.

• Kargil Vijay Diwas: Observed on July 26 annually, marking India's victory in the Kargil War (1999) with Pakistan. The war lasted from May to July 1999 and resulted in the eviction of Pakistani intrusions from Indian territory in Jammu and Kashmir.
• NCW Act 1990: Note the distinction: the National Commission for Women was established in 1990 (Act) but became operational in January 1992. UPSC MCQs have tested this date distinction.
• Code on Social Security 2020: Extends to gig and platform workers for the first time. The central government may frame welfare schemes for them under this Code.
• Sulphur deficiency in Indian soils: An estimated 40 to 50 per cent of Indian agricultural soils are sulphur-deficient. Sulphur is the fourth major plant nutrient after nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.