26 September 2023

• Economy: Draft Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2023: key changes including shorter examination timelines and modified pre-grant opposition fees.
• Environment: State of Rhino Report 2023: India-Nepal-Bhutan collaboration increased the one-horned rhino population by 20 per cent over a decade.
• Defence: Exercise Yudh Abhyas-23, the 19th edition of the India-US Army joint exercise, began on 25 September in Auli, Uttarakhand.
• Science: NASA's OSIRIS-REx capsule returned the largest asteroid sample ever collected, from asteroid Bennu.

GS area: Economy (intellectual property), Governance

The government released draft amendments to the Patent Rules, 2003 under the Patents Act, 1970. Several changes affect the patent examination process.

• Shortened examination timeline: the window to file a Request for Examination was reduced from 48 months to 31 months from the priority date. This accelerates patent grant or rejection.
• Pre-grant opposition fee: a variable fee structure was proposed for pre-grant opposition, which was previously free. The change was criticised by patent watchers as potentially reducing third-party challenges to questionable patents.
• Reply timeline: the time to respond to an examiner's objection was reduced from six months to two months, putting pressure on applicants to respond faster.
• Disclosure removed: the requirement to disclose where a patented invention would be manufactured and its price was proposed for removal, loosening transparency.
• India's patent framework: the Patents Act, 1970 with its Section 3(d) (preventing trivial pharmaceutical modifications from being patented) and compulsory licensing provisions is globally known for balancing innovation with public interest.

Static linkage: economy (intellectual property, patents), governance (regulation).

GS area: Environment (wildlife, conservation)

The State of Rhino Report 2023 found that the greater one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) population in India, Nepal and Bhutan grew approximately 20 per cent over the past decade.

• Current population: approximately 4,014 greater one-horned rhinos in the wild. India hosts the majority in Kaziranga National Park (approximately 2,613), Orang, Pobitora and other Assam and West Bengal parks.
• IUCN status: Vulnerable (improving from Endangered due to conservation success).
• Kaziranga: a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Assam's flood plains of the Brahmaputra. It hosts two-thirds of the world's one-horned rhinos. It was a successful anti-poaching model.
• Anti-poaching success: enhanced surveillance with camera traps, armed forest guards (with shoot-at-sight orders during the park's peak poaching years) and informant networks drove the recovery.
• Threats that remain: habitat loss outside the protected park, rising floods that force rhinos into unprotected areas, and international horn trafficking continue to threaten the species.

Static linkage: environment (wildlife, rhino conservation, Kaziranga).

GS area: Science and Technology (space, planetary science)

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft returned a capsule containing approximately 4.5 ounces (about 250 grams) of material from asteroid Bennu in September 2023. It is the largest asteroid sample ever returned to Earth.

• OSIRIS-REx: Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer. Launched in 2016; reached Bennu in 2018; collected sample in October 2020.
• Bennu: a near-Earth, carbonaceous (C-type) asteroid. C-type asteroids are among the most primitive bodies in the solar system, preserving materials from the early solar system's formation.
• Scientific value: the sample will help understand the composition of early solar system materials and whether asteroids may have delivered organic compounds to Earth.
• Extended mission: after releasing the capsule, OSIRIS-REx (renamed OSIRIS-APEX) continued to asteroid Apophis, which will pass unusually close to Earth in 2029.
• ISRO comparison: India's Chandrayaan-3 returned no samples but collected in-situ data. Sample-return missions are technologically more complex.

Static linkage: science and technology (space, planetary science, asteroid science).

GS area: International Relations (defence), Science and Technology (military)

Exercise Yudh Abhyas-23, the 19th India-US Army joint exercise, began in Auli, Uttarakhand (September 25 to October 8). It focused on high-altitude mountain warfare under a UN peace operations mandate.

• Yudh Abhyas: the annual India-US Army bilateral exercise, alternately hosted by each country. The 2023 edition was held in India at an altitude of approximately 10,000 feet in Garhwal.
• Scenario: both armies practised joint operations in high-altitude terrain, counter-terrorism operations and peacekeeping under a UN mandate.
• Significance: the high-altitude focus is a deliberate signal given India's strategic requirement for mountain warfare capability along the LAC with China.
• HIMARS: the US has sold M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) to several allies. The exercise included joint artillery coordination, a capability-building dimension relevant to India's artillery modernisation.

Static linkage: international relations (India-US defence), geography (Himalayas).

GS area: Environment (tiger reserves, wildlife)

Madhya Pradesh notified the Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve, becoming the state's seventh tiger reserve.

• Location: in the Damoh, Narsinghpur and Sagar districts of Madhya Pradesh, in the Vindhya hill ranges.
• Named after: Rani Durgavati, the 16th-century Gond queen who ruled the Gondwana region and resisted the Mughal Empire.
• Madhya Pradesh's tiger count: the state hosts 785 tigers as per the 2022 tiger census, making it India's tiger state with the highest count.
• India's tiger population: 3,167 tigers in 2022, a 200 per cent increase since Project Tiger was launched in 1973. India now has over 70 per cent of the world's wild tigers.
• Project Tiger: launched in 1973 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Managed by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Static linkage: environment (tiger conservation, Project Tiger, wildlife reserves).

GS area: Science and Technology (geospatial), Governance

India's National Geospatial Policy 2022 set a framework for the civilian use of geospatial data, which was previously heavily restricted.

• What geospatial intelligence is: collection, analysis and use of data about geographic locations, including satellite imagery, aerial photography, GPS data and remote sensing.
• Applications: emergency preparedness, disaster response (flood mapping, cyclone tracking), urban planning, agricultural monitoring, border surveillance and environmental monitoring.
• 2022 policy liberalisation: before 2022, detailed satellite maps of India below a certain resolution were restricted to government use. The 2022 policy opened high-resolution mapping to private companies and startups, enabling a domestic geospatial industry.
• National Remote Sensing Centre: ISRO's NRSC is the nodal agency for satellite-based remote sensing data in India.

Static linkage: science and technology (geospatial, ISRO), governance.

• Kaobal Gali-Mushkoh Valley: a former Kargil War battlefield in the Drass Sector of Ladakh opened to limited tourism. The highest pass in the area reaches 4,167 metres. The 1999 Kargil War was fought partly over the heights in this valley.
• OSIRIS-APEX on way to Apophis: after releasing the Bennu sample capsule, the spacecraft is heading to Apophis, which will pass within 32,000 km of Earth in 2029, providing a rare opportunity for orbital study of an asteroid.
• Swachh Bharat Mission ODF Plus status: 75 per cent of Indian villages had achieved Open Defecation Free Plus status by September 2023, an improvement from 100 per cent ODF which many had reached in 2019.