4 September 2023

• Science: LIGO-India, the planned gravitational wave observatory in Maharashtra's Hingoli district, was discussed in the context of India's growing astrophysics capacity.
• International: China's Nine-Dash Line claim over approximately 90 per cent of the South China Sea remained a live dispute at the Association of South East Asian Nations discussions.
• Education: The DIKSHA platform's Personalised Adaptive Learning module was highlighted as an AI-driven tool for customising school education.
• Society: A study in the International Social Work journal found that extreme weather events intensify child marriage rates as families use marriage as an economic coping strategy.

GS area: Science and Technology (physics, astronomy)

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, India (LIGO-India) is under construction in Hingoli district, Maharashtra. It will be the third major LIGO facility, alongside the two in the United States.

• What LIGO does: detects gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime predicted by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity (1915). These waves are produced by violent cosmic events such as merging black holes or neutron star collisions.
• First detection: gravitational waves were first directly detected in September 2015 by the US LIGO facilities (Hanford, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana). The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for this discovery in 2017.
• Triangulation advantage: a third detector in India will allow scientists to locate the source of a gravitational wave far more precisely. Two detectors give a wide arc in the sky; three allow triangulation to a small patch.
• Approval: the Indian government approved LIGO-India in 2016. Construction in Hingoli was cleared after environmental and site assessments.
• Funding and collaboration: LIGO-India is a collaboration between ISRO, the Department of Atomic Energy, and the Science and Engineering Research Board, in partnership with the LIGO Scientific Collaboration.

Static linkage: science and technology (physics), India's scientific institutions.

GS area: International Relations (South China Sea, maritime disputes)

China's Nine-Dash Line claim, which asserts Chinese sovereignty over approximately 90 per cent of the South China Sea, continued to feature in diplomatic discussions at ASEAN-related forums.

• What it is: a series of dashes drawn on Chinese official maps that demarcate a vast maritime area claimed by China. The claim predates the People's Republic but was inherited and formalised by it.
• UNCLOS context: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) limits coastal states to a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea and a 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone. China's Nine-Dash Line extends far beyond these limits.
• 2016 arbitral ruling: the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in 2016 (Philippines vs. China) that the Nine-Dash Line has no legal basis under UNCLOS. China rejected the ruling.
• Countries affected: Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines all have overlapping claims. The area is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
• India's interest: India has investments in Vietnamese offshore blocks in disputed areas and has consistently called for freedom of navigation and UNCLOS compliance.

Static linkage: international relations (maritime disputes, ASEAN, Indo-Pacific), geography (South China Sea).

GS area: Governance (education technology)

The Ministry of Education's DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing) platform added Personalised Adaptive Learning (PAL) capabilities, powered by artificial intelligence.

• DIKSHA: a national digital infrastructure for teachers and students launched in 2017. It hosts textbooks, assessments and teaching resources aligned with the National Curriculum Framework.
• PAL mechanism: the AI system tracks a student's responses to questions, identifies gaps and automatically adjusts subsequent content to address those gaps. Students progressing faster receive more advanced material.
• NEP 2020 linkage: the National Education Policy 2020 explicitly calls for technology-enabled personalised learning to address India's large variation in learning levels within a single classroom.
• Scale: DIKSHA is available in 36 languages and has been used by over 300 million learners.

Static linkage: governance (education), National Education Policy 2020.

GS area: Society, Gender

A study in the International Social Work journal found a correlation between extreme weather events and rising child marriage rates in climate-vulnerable communities.

• Mechanism: during floods, droughts or cyclones, poor families face income loss and food insecurity. Marrying off a daughter reduces the number of dependants and sometimes brings a bride price, making marriage an economic survival strategy.
• Scale of the problem: approximately 12 million girls are married before the age of 18 annually worldwide. The Global Slavery Index 2023 found this burden is disproportionately concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• India's position: India has the largest absolute number of child marriages globally. The legal minimum age under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 is 18 for women and 21 for men. A proposed amendment to raise the women's age to 21 was pending.
• Climate-gender nexus: this is a cross-cutting UPSC theme. Climate change worsens gender inequality by disrupting livelihoods that women depend on and creating conditions where patriarchal coping mechanisms prevail.

Static linkage: society (gender, child rights), environment (climate change impacts).

GS area: International Relations (soft power, diaspora)

The Indian diaspora, numbering over 32 million, is the world's largest. It carries increasing geopolitical and economic weight.

• Non-Resident Indians and Persons of Indian Origin: the Ministry of External Affairs distinguishes between NRIs (Indian citizens abroad) and PIOs (foreign citizens of Indian descent). The Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card gives PIOs key rights in India short of voting.
• Economic remittances: India was the world's largest remittance recipient in 2022 at approximately $111 billion, according to World Bank estimates.
• Political representation: Rishi Sunak became UK Prime Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam was elected Singapore's President in September 2023, and Vivek Ramaswamy was running for US President. These mark a new visibility for the diaspora in politics.
• Soft power tool: Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is the government's annual convention for the diaspora, used to deepen ties and leverage their influence in host countries.

Static linkage: international relations (soft power, diaspora).

GS area: Economy (trade, strategic goods), International Relations

The Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment and Technologies (SCOMET) list governs India's export controls on dual-use items and munitions.

• What SCOMET covers: items that have both civilian and potential military or weapons-of-mass-destruction applications. Exporting any item on the list requires a licence.
• Administered by: the Directorate General of Foreign Trade under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act.
• Multilateral regimes: India is a member of three of the four multilateral export control regimes: the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Australia Group (chemical and biological weapons precursors) and the Wassenaar Arrangement (conventional arms and dual-use goods). India is not yet a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
• Policy significance: SCOMET compliance is a prerequisite for India to be admitted to the NSG.

Static linkage: international relations (export controls, NSG), economy (trade).

• Gramodyog Vikas Yojana: a KVIC (Khadi and Village Industries Commission) scheme distributing toolkits to artisans engaged in village industries. Aimed at strengthening the handicraft and cottage sector.
• Mitakshara school of Hindu law: one of the two major schools of Hindu personal law (the other being Dayabhaga, followed in West Bengal and Assam). Mitakshara governs succession and coparcenary rights for the rest of India. The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 gave daughters equal coparcenary rights under Mitakshara.