19 August 2023

• Polity: The Supreme Court's 2022 Ashish Shelar ruling declared indefinite suspension of MPs unconstitutional. Parliamentary suspensions were a recurring issue in the Monsoon Session.
• Water: The Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act and Jal Jeevan Mission data showed 66 per cent of rural households now have functional tap connections, up from 17 per cent in 2019.
• Monsoon: India experienced its third-longest monsoon break of the 21st century, influenced by developing El Nino.
• Technology: India's Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) manufacturing achieved 38 new APIs under the PLI scheme for pharmaceuticals.

GS area: Governance, Social Justice, Water

Data on the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) showed that 66 per cent of rural households in India had functional tap water connections, up from 17 per cent when the mission began in 2019.

• JJM objective: Provide functional household tap connections (FHTCs) to every rural household by 2024. The target is approximately 19.27 crore rural households.
• States with 100 per cent coverage: Goa, Telangana, and Haryana.
• Union Territories at 100 per cent: Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Lagging states: Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh had the lowest coverage percentages.
• Urban JJM: Introduced in Budget 2021-22 under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Targets 100 per cent household water supply in all statutory towns.
• SDG 6 link: Safe and clean water for all is Sustainable Development Goal 6. JJM is India's primary instrument for achieving SDG 6.

Static linkage: Water and sanitation schemes, rural development (GS Paper 2).

GS area: Geography, Environment

India experienced its third-longest monsoon break of the 21st century in August 2023 (after 2002 and 2009).

• Monsoon break: A period when the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) shifts north of its normal position over India, suppressing rainfall over the plains while intensifying it near the Himalayas.
• El Nino: A periodic warming of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean that disrupts global weather. El Nino events typically suppress monsoon rainfall over India.
• 2023 El Nino: A developing El Nino contributed to the monsoon break. The all-India rainfall anomaly swung from plus 7 per cent to minus 6 per cent within a short period.
• Rice export ban: India imposed a ban on non-basmati white rice exports in July 2023, anticipating potential Kharif crop shortfalls. The ban coincided with the monsoon break period.
• Agriculture impact: Kharif sowing (primarily rice, soybean, cotton) depends on monsoon rainfall. Deficient rainfall in August delays sowing or reduces crop area.

Static linkage: Monsoon, El Nino, agriculture, India's geography (GS Paper 1).

GS area: Heritage, Disaster Management

The Kalka-Shimla Railway suffered significant damage from heavy rainfall and landslides in Himachal Pradesh in August 2023.

• Age: Built between 1898 and 1903, the railway is over 120 years old.
• UNESCO status: Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008 as part of the "Mountain Railways of India" inscription.
• Length: Approximately 96 km. It has 102 tunnels and 864 bridges.
• Related heritage railways: The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (West Bengal) and the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (Tamil Nadu) are the other two heritage mountain railways inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
• Himachal Pradesh floods: August 2023 saw particularly severe floods and landslides in Himachal Pradesh, damaging infrastructure including the Shimla-Manali national highway and multiple railway sections.

Static linkage: Natural heritage, disaster management, India's railways (GS Paper 1).

GS area: Economy, Health (pharmaceutical industry)

India achieved the domestic manufacture of 38 new Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) in the 18 months prior to August 2023, under the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for pharmaceuticals.

• API: The biologically active component in a drug. Most of India's API production had been imported, primarily from China.
• Dependence problem: Before the PLI scheme, India imported 95 per cent of certain APIs from China. The Doklam standoff in 2017 and then the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted this strategic vulnerability.
• PLI scheme for pharmaceuticals: Two schemes under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers: PLI-I (bulk drugs/APIs) and PLI-II (finished pharmaceuticals). The bulk drugs scheme has an outlay of approximately 6,940 crore rupees.
• India's pharma standing: India is the world's largest supplier of generic medicines by volume, supplying about 20 per cent of global generic medicine exports. It is the third-largest pharmaceuticals market by volume.

Static linkage: Pharmaceutical industry, Make in India, health security (GS Paper 3).

GS area: Governance, Education

The University Grants Commission (UGC) notified new regulations for the recognition of qualifications from foreign educational institutions.

• New regulations: "Recognition and Grant of Equivalence to Qualifications from Foreign Educational Institutions, 2023."
• What is recognised: Degrees awarded after regular, in-person instruction at institutions accredited in their home country.
• What is excluded: Distance learning, online degrees, and franchise arrangements with Indian institutions will not be recognised.
• Offshore campuses: Dual degree and joint programmes require in-person instruction and similar entry-level criteria to Indian programmes.
• UGC: Established under the UGC Act, 1956 under the Ministry of Education. It coordinates and maintains standards of higher education.

Static linkage: Higher education governance, regulatory bodies (GS Paper 2).

• Pig kidney transplant: In a medical first, a pig kidney genetically modified to remove the gene triggering human immune rejection was transplanted into a brain-dead human recipient and functioned for over a month, the longest such survival. It points to xenotransplantation as a solution for organ shortages.
• North Sea Transition Authority: The UK's North Sea oil and gas regulator announced over 100 new drilling licences to extend North Sea production. The North Sea is bordered by Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, and France.
• Canada wildfires: Yellowknife, capital of Canada's Northwest Territories, ordered a full evacuation due to nearby wildfires. August 2023 was a record-breaking month for wildfire area burned in Canada.