22 August 2023

• International: The 15th BRICS Summit opened in Johannesburg, South Africa. India, Brazil, Russia, China, and South Africa gathered with expansion of the bloc as the headline agenda item.
• Space: Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander was confirmed for a landing attempt on 23 August 2023 at 18:04 IST near the lunar south pole.
• Polity: The Mediation Bill was passed by both Houses of Parliament and received Presidential assent, creating a formal legislative framework for commercial mediation.
• Housing: The Amitabh Kant committee on stalled housing projects was finalising its recommendations, covering 4 lakh stressed dwelling units worth over 4 lakh crore rupees.

GS area: International Relations

The 15th BRICS Summit opened in Johannesburg, South Africa on 22 August 2023, under the theme "BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism."

• BRICS members: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. The grouping represents about 40 per cent of the world's population and approximately 26 per cent of global GDP (by purchasing power parity).
• PM Modi at summit: Prime Minister Modi attended and used the platform to propose a BRICS Space Consortium for space cooperation.
• Expansion agenda: Over 40 countries had formally expressed interest in BRICS membership. The summit was expected to decide on criteria and invite specific new members.
• India's contribution: India hosted BRICS Foreign Ministers earlier in 2023 and ran multiple BRICS working group meetings during its G20 presidency year.
• New Development Bank (NDB): The BRICS bank, headquartered in Shanghai, provides development finance to member countries and other emerging economies. India was one of the founders.

Static linkage: International organisations, BRICS, India's foreign policy (GS Paper 2).

GS area: Science and Technology (space)

ISRO confirmed the Vikram lander's powered descent was scheduled for 23 August 2023 at 17:45 IST with touchdown expected at 18:04 IST.

• The challenge: The south polar region has extreme terrain: craters, boulders, and slopes. The lander must navigate these autonomously during the final descent as the communication round-trip delay makes real-time human control impossible.
• Key improvements over Chandrayaan-2: Chandrayaan-3 had a wider, more robust lander with four legs (versus three in Chandrayaan-2), a larger landing zone (4 km by 2.5 km instead of 500 m by 500 m), improved software, and additional fuel margins.
• Luna-25's failure: Russia's Luna-25 had crashed on 20 August, partly due to a landing manoeuvre gone wrong. The south polar landing challenge was demonstrated dramatically.
• Mission objectives: Demonstrate safe and soft landing, rover roving, and in-situ science on the lunar surface.
• Pragyan Rover: A six-wheeled rover with LIBS and APXS instruments for elemental and mineral analysis. Designed for a 14-Earth-day operational life (one lunar day).

Static linkage: ISRO missions, space technology (GS Paper 3).

GS area: Economy, Urban Development

The committee chaired by former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant was preparing its report on stalled real estate projects.

• Scale: Approximately 4 lakh dwelling units in stressed projects across India, with a value exceeding 4 lakh crore rupees.
• Geographic concentration: 44 per cent of stressed projects are in the National Capital Region. 21 per cent are in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
• Recommendations (anticipated): Developers, homebuyers, and lenders accepting "haircuts" (reduced claims). A three-year completion timeline for developers. A "Zero Period" (April 2020 to March 2022) during which no interest or penalties accrue given COVID-19 disruption.
• RERA: The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 created the regulatory framework for the sector. RERA authorities can penalise developers for project delays.
• Homebuyers' rights: Under RERA, homebuyers are creditors and can initiate insolvency proceedings against defaulting developers. The Supreme Court and NCLT have settled several landmark cases.

Static linkage: Real estate, RERA, urban economy (GS Paper 3).

GS area: Society, Polity

Scholarly and policy discussion continued on caste-based discrimination and constitutional safeguards in August 2023.

• Article 15: Prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth.
• Article 17: Abolishes "untouchability" and makes its practice a punishable offence.
• Article 330 and 332: Provide reservation of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes respectively.
• De-caste approach: Scholars argue that reservation addresses access to opportunity but not stigma. Cultural interventions, education on Dalit history, and representation in leadership are needed alongside reservations.
• Rohini Commission relevance: The finding that 983 OBC communities have zero representation suggests that sub-categorisation within reservations is a live reform question.

Static linkage: Constitutional provisions, social justice, reservation policy (GS Paper 1, Paper 2).

GS area: History, Culture (Indian heritage)

A megalithic burial site in Kerala featuring "hat stones" (Thoppikkallu) was in the news as new studies revealed its antiquity and extent.

• Hat stones: Hemispherical laterite lids placed on burial urns. The distinctive dome shape resembles traditional headgear.
• Age: The site dates to approximately 2,000 years ago, the Iron Age in South India.
• Kerala megaliths: Kerala has the highest concentration of megalithic burials in South Asia. These include cist burials, topikals (hat stones), and umbrella stones.
• Significance: Megalithic cultures precede the historical period in South India and provide evidence of settled communities, metallurgy, and funerary practices.
• ASI role: The Archaeological Survey of India documents and protects such sites. Some sites in Kerala have received heritage protection status.

Static linkage: Prehistoric India, south Indian history (GS Paper 1).

• Mailara Cult: A Karnataka folk tradition involving the worship of a deity considered a manifestation of Shiva. 15th-to-17th-century sculptures of the Mailara deity were identified near Kundapura on the Kannada coast.
• Likaru-Mig La-Fukche road: The Border Roads Organisation completed a road at 19,400 feet in the Demchok sector of Ladakh, near the Line of Actual Control. It claimed to be the world's highest motorable road. Construction was supervised by an all-woman BRO unit.
• Pacific Islands and sea level rise: Sea levels in the Pacific are rising at approximately 4 mm per year. This threatens nations including Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands with inundation of low-lying land.