13 September 2023

• International: G20 post-summit analysis: India's diplomatic success and what the New Delhi Declaration means for global governance.
• Polity: The Supreme Court ruled that Section 6A of the DSPE Act was void retrospectively from 2003, opening up pre-2014 corruption cases involving senior officials.
• Science: A cancer detection breakthrough using hybrid gold and copper sulphide nanoparticles of less than 8 nm was reported.
• Society: Data on criminalisation of politics: 40 per cent of sitting MPs have pending criminal cases.

GS area: International Relations (India-Saudi Arabia)

On the sidelines of the G20 Summit, PM Modi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman chaired the first meeting of the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council.

• Establishment: the Strategic Partnership Council was set up in October 2019 during the Crown Prince's visit to India. India has similar councils with the UK, France and China.
• Two committees: the Council comprises a Political, Security, Social and Cultural Committee and an Economy and Investments Committee.
• West Coast Refinery: a proposed $50 billion joint refinery and petrochemicals complex in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. The project has faced land acquisition and environmental challenges.
• Trade: Saudi Arabia is India's second-largest crude oil supplier. Bilateral trade is around $52 billion. India runs a significant deficit due to oil imports.
• Indian expatriates: approximately 2.6 million Indians live and work in Saudi Arabia. Remittances from Saudi Arabia form a major part of India's overall remittance income.

Static linkage: international relations (India-Saudi Arabia, Gulf diaspora), economy (energy, trade).

GS area: Polity (anti-corruption institutions, judiciary)

The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court (five judges) ruled on the void Section 6A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946. The decision has implications for anti-corruption enforcement.

• Section 6A: required prior government sanction before the CBI could investigate officers at Joint Secretary level and above. It was inserted in 2003 via a notification.
• Struck down in 2014: an earlier ruling struck down Section 6A in 2014 (Dr Subramanian Swamy v. Director, CBI). The current five-judge bench confirmed this and determined that the void was retrospective from 2003.
• Article 14 violation: the Court held that protecting a class of officers from even being investigated, without any basis in constitutional text, amounted to arbitrariness violating equality before law.
• Effect: pre-2014 corruption cases involving senior officials that were stalled because the CBI lacked sanction can now proceed.
• DSPE Act and CBI: the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 is the CBI's parent statute. The CBI is under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.

Static linkage: polity (anti-corruption, CBI), fundamental rights (Article 14).

GS area: Geography (natural disasters), International Relations

The death toll from the 8-9 September earthquake near Marrakech rose past 2,400 as search and rescue operations continued. Morocco initially declined most international aid offers.

• Damage geography: the most devastated villages were in the High Atlas foothills between Marrakech and the epicentre near Ighil. Remote mountain villages were cut off by landslides on access roads.
• International response: Spain, France, Qatar and the UK sent rescue teams. Morocco initially accepted only four countries' assistance.
• Reconstruction challenge: the affected areas use traditional earthen and stone construction (pisé buildings). These collapse catastrophically in earthquakes. Rebuilding to earthquake standards in remote mountain areas is expensive.
• Libya comparison: Mediterranean storm Daniel simultaneously caused catastrophic flooding in Libya's Derna, killing an estimated 5,000-plus people. The back-to-back Morocco and Libya disasters made September 2023 the deadliest month for natural disasters in the region in decades.

Static linkage: geography (North Africa, disaster management), international relations.

GS area: Science and Technology (medicine, nanotechnology)

Researchers reported a hybrid nanoparticle combining gold and copper sulphide, smaller than 8 nm, capable of detecting and treating cancers.

• Properties exploited: the nanoparticle has photothermal (converts light to heat to destroy cancer cells), photoacoustic (generates sound waves for imaging) and oxidative stress (produces reactive oxygen species that kill cancer cells) properties.
• Size significance: at less than 8 nm, the particles can penetrate tumour tissue and are small enough to be cleared by the kidneys, reducing long-term toxicity.
• Cancer diagnosis context: conventional imaging (MRI, CT, PET) is expensive. Photoacoustic imaging using nanoparticles could provide a cheaper, high-resolution alternative.
• Theranostics: the combination of therapy and diagnostics in one agent is called theranostics, a growing area in oncology.

Static linkage: science and technology (nanotechnology, medicine).

GS area: Polity (elections, governance)

The Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch released data showing that 40 per cent of sitting MPs of the 17th Lok Sabha had declared criminal cases in their affidavits. Of these, 25 per cent faced serious charges including murder, kidnapping and crimes against women.

• Section 33A mechanism: candidates must disclose pending criminal cases in their nomination affidavits under Section 33A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, as upheld by the Supreme Court in 2002-03.
• Supreme Court directions: the Court has repeatedly directed political parties to publish reasons for fielding candidates with criminal antecedents. A 2020 direction required parties to publish reasons within 48 hours of candidate selection.
• Winnability factor: parties field candidates with criminal records partly because such candidates have name recognition, financial resources and the ability to mobilise voters, suggesting money-muscle-vote nexus persists.
• Electoral bond issue: the criminalisation data is often discussed alongside campaign finance opacity, as the two reinforce each other.

Static linkage: polity (elections, criminalisation), governance.

GS area: Economy (technology, manufacturing), Governance

MeitY's National Strategy for Robotics designated the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology as the nodal body for robotics development in India.

• India's rank: tenth globally in annual industrial robot installations according to International Federation of Robotics data for 2022.
• Core application areas: manufacturing, healthcare (surgical robots, prosthetics), agriculture (precision farming, harvesting) and national security (surveillance, bomb disposal).
• Labour concern: robotics automation raises concerns about job displacement in India's large manufacturing workforce. The strategy frames automation and skilling as complementary rather than substitutes.
• Robot density: India's robot density (robots per 10,000 workers) is extremely low compared to South Korea, Japan or Germany, suggesting significant growth headroom.

Static linkage: economy (manufacturing, technology), governance (MeitY).

• Ian Wilmut: the British embryologist who led the team that cloned Dolly the Sheep in 1996 using somatic cell nuclear transfer died in September 2023. Dolly was the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. The technique reprogrammed a mammary gland cell using electrical stimulation and chemicals.
• Mediterranean Storm Daniel: the storm that caused Libya's Derna floods was a medicane (a rare Mediterranean tropical cyclone). Derna's valley geography channelled the floodwater catastrophically, collapsing two dams.
• India-Saudi Arabia West Coast Refinery: the proposed $50 billion Ratnagiri refinery with Saudi Aramco has faced repeated delays. Land acquisition, environmental clearances and Ratnagiri residents' concerns have been the main obstacles.