28 October 2023

• Qatar Navy death row: the Indian government was in active diplomacy to secure the release of eight former Indian Navy officers on death row in Qatar.
• Surrogacy ruling: the Supreme Court struck down a 2023 amendment to the Surrogacy Regulation Act that had banned the use of donor gametes.
• Indian multilingualism: a cultural article highlighted India's linguistic plurality ahead of the UNESCO mother language celebrations.
• Gulf of Guinea exercise: INS Sumedha participated in India's first joint maritime exercise with the EU in the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa.

GS area: International Relations, Governance

Eight former Indian Navy officers were sentenced to death by a Qatari court in October 2023 on espionage-related charges.

• Background: the officers had worked for Dahra Global, a private Qatari defence services company, providing training to the Qatari Emiri Naval Force. They were arrested in August 2022 on undisclosed charges. The sentence was announced in October 2023.
• Charges: the Qatari government did not formally disclose all charges, but espionage and passing classified information to a foreign government (reportedly Israel) were cited in reports.
• India's response: the Ministry of External Affairs said India was "deeply shocked" by the verdict; described the case as being given the "highest priority." Consular access was provided. Legal representation secured through Indian government support.
• India-Qatar relations: Qatar is the world's largest LNG (liquefied natural gas) exporter. India imports significant volumes of LNG from Qatar. Bilateral trade stands at approximately USD 15 billion. About 800,000 Indian nationals live in Qatar, making it a remittance-significant bilateral.
• Za'ir Al-Bahr: the joint India-Qatar bilateral naval exercise held periodically.
• Prisoner Transfer Agreement 2016: India and Qatar signed a prisoner transfer agreement in 2016 that allows convicted nationals to serve sentences in their home country. However, the death penalty sentence must first be appealed and commuted.
• Subsequent development: the death sentences were later commuted to prison terms in February 2024 after sustained Indian diplomatic efforts.

Static linkage: International relations.

GS area: Polity, Society, Governance

The Supreme Court struck down a 2023 amendment to the Surrogacy (Regulation) Rules that had prohibited intending couples from using donor gametes (eggs or sperm).

• Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021: permitted only "altruistic surrogacy" (unpaid surrogacy by a close relative). Commercial surrogacy (paying a surrogate) is banned. The intending couple must be married for 5+ years; the surrogate must be a close relative; both gametes (egg and sperm) must come from the intending couple.
• 2023 amendment to the Rules: further tightened the requirement, preventing even medical necessity exceptions for donor gametes.
• The case: a woman with MRKH syndrome (Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome), a congenital absence of the uterus and one or both ovaries, was denied surrogacy because she needed a donor egg.
• MRKH syndrome: a condition where the uterus, cervix, and upper vagina do not develop normally; the ovaries may be absent or non-functional.
• Supreme Court ruling: the 2023 Rule amendment prohibiting donor gametes was ultra vires the parent Act (which already allowed certain exceptions) and violated Article 21's right to reproductive autonomy.
• Status of commercial surrogacy in India: effectively banned since the 2021 Act. India was once a major global commercial surrogacy destination before the ban.

Static linkage: Polity, society.

GS area: Polity, Art and Culture

India has 22 constitutionally recognised official languages and more than 19,500 mother tongues (per the 2011 Census).

• Official language framework:
  • Article 343: Hindi in Devanagari script is the official language of the Union. English was to continue for 15 years; the Official Languages Act 1963 continued English indefinitely as an "associate language."
  • Article 344: Official Languages Commission.
  • Article 345: states may adopt any language or Hindi as the official state language.
  • Articles 346-347: language rights in inter-state communication and rights of a section of the population.
  • Articles 350-350B: right to submit representations in any official language; mother tongue instruction in primary education; Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities.
  • Articles 29-30: cultural and educational rights of minorities (protection of distinct language, script, and culture).
• Eighth Schedule (22 languages): Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu. (4 added in 2003: Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Santali.)
• Classical Languages: Tamil (2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada (2008), Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013), Odia (2014).

Static linkage: Polity, art and culture.

GS area: International Relations, Defence

INS Sumedha (an Indian Coast Guard and Navy patrol vessel) participated in India's first joint naval exercise with the European Union in the Gulf of Guinea (West Africa) in October 2023.

• Gulf of Guinea: the northeastern tropical Atlantic Ocean, off the western coast of Africa. Borders countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Benin, and Togo.
• Security issues: the Gulf of Guinea is the world's highest-risk area for maritime piracy and armed robbery at sea. Attacks on oil tankers, fishing vessels, and cargo ships are frequent.
• EU's Operation Atalanta / Coordinated Maritime Presences (CMP): the EU coordinates naval presence in African waters for anti-piracy. The Gulf of Guinea Coordinated Maritime Presences programme was the framework for this exercise.
• India-EU maritime cooperation: this was the first India-EU joint maritime exercise. India is expanding its maritime security cooperation with the EU, reflecting India's growing interest in West African security (trade routes, energy imports from West Africa).
• INS Sumedha: a Coast Guard Offshore Patrol Vessel. The vessel was on a long-range deployment (Indian Ocean Region to the Atlantic).
• SAGAR doctrine: India's "Security and Growth for All in the Region" maritime vision. India aspires to be a net security provider in the Indian Ocean and beyond.

Static linkage: International relations, defence.

GS area: Economy, International Relations

The OECD International Migration Outlook 2023 (released October 2023) showed India as the top source of emigrants to OECD countries.

• Key findings: over 6 million people received permanent residency in OECD countries in 2022. India was the leading source country with approximately 400,000 permanent immigrants (6.5 per cent of the total).
• India's position: India overtook China as the leading source of OECD-bound emigrants, driven by Indian students converting to work visas in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.
• Top destination countries: USA (1 million+ permanent settlers in 2022), UK, Germany, Canada, Australia.
• H-1B dependency: the US H-1B visa is the primary route for Indian IT professionals. About 70-75 per cent of all H-1B petitions are filed by Indian nationals.
• Brain drain concern: India loses significant skilled talent (doctors, engineers, scientists, IT professionals) to emigration. Remittances are the return flow; India is the world's largest recipient of remittances (USD 111 billion in 2022).
• Indian diaspora: approximately 32 million persons of Indian origin (PIOs) and non-resident Indians (NRIs) worldwide as of 2023.

Static linkage: Economy, international relations.

• Vajra Mushti Kalaga (Karnataka): the traditional Veeragase martial art of Karnataka came to attention this month. Vajra Mushti (diamond fist) is a classical combat art from the Mysore region, traditionally practised by the Jangama community. It uses a knuckle-duster made of ivory or horn.
• Thallium poisoning: news of alleged poisoning in Maharashtra drew attention to thallium (atomic number 81), a soft heavy metal with no taste or smell. Prussian blue (ferric hexacyanoferrate) is the standard antidote; it traps thallium in the gut for excretion.