14 December 2023

• GPAI: The Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence Summit concluded in New Delhi with 28 countries and the EU adopting the New Delhi Declaration, expanding GPAI's agenda to include agriculture as an AI priority.
• UAPA reform debate: A bail granted by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court to journalist Fahad Shah renewed scrutiny of Section 43-D(5) of the UAPA, which restricts bail even when charges are unproven.
• Myanmar opium: Myanmar became the world's largest opium producer in 2023 after Afghanistan's production collapsed under the Taliban ban.
• Valparai Plateau: The annual elephant migration from the Anamalai Tiger Reserve to the Valparai tea-garden estates began, triggering wildlife-community conflict protocols.

GS area: Science and Technology, International Relations

The Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) Summit concluded in New Delhi with the adoption of the New Delhi Declaration:

• GPAI: Founded in 2020 by Canada and France, GPAI is a multi-stakeholder initiative that guides the responsible development and use of AI. Members: 28 countries plus the EU. India joined in 2020.
• New Delhi Declaration focus: Two new priorities: AI governance frameworks for member countries and AI applications in agriculture. Agriculture was added as a thematic priority explicitly at India's push.
• Goal: Expand GPAI membership to include low and middle-income countries, addressing the risk that AI governance becomes a club of wealthy nations.
• India's interest: Agriculture employs roughly 45 per cent of India's workforce. AI applications include precision farming, crop disease detection, weather-based irrigation, and commodity price prediction.

Static linkage: Digital economy, agriculture, international tech governance.

GS area: Polity (civil liberties), Internal Security

The J&K High Court granted bail to journalist Fahad Shah who had been held under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act:

• UAPA, 1967: India's primary anti-terrorism and unlawful activity law. Sections on membership of banned organisations, financial support, and conspiracy are commonly invoked.
• Section 43-D(5): Courts may not grant bail if the public prosecutor opposes it and the court is of the opinion that prima facie allegations are true. This sets a very low bar for continued detention.
• Conviction statistics: Between 2015 and 2020, less than 3 per cent of UAPA arrests resulted in convictions. The gap between arrests and convictions is the primary criticism of the Act.
• J&K HC finding: Publishing articles, even critical ones, cannot constitute terrorism under the UAPA.

Static linkage: Civil liberties, anti-terrorism law, judicial oversight.

GS area: Internal Security, International Relations

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime reported that Myanmar became the world's largest opium producer in 2023:

• Myanmar production: 1,080 metric tonnes of opium in 2023.
• Context: Afghanistan had been the world's largest opium producer for decades. The Taliban government banned poppy cultivation after taking power in 2021, causing Afghan production to fall by about 95 per cent.
• Myanmar's Golden Triangle: The border region of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand known as the Golden Triangle has a long history of opium cultivation and is a key source of heroin entering South and Southeast Asia.
• India's exposure: India shares a long border with Myanmar. Narcotics from the Golden Triangle transit through Manipur and other northeast states into India and further west.

Static linkage: Internal security, India-Myanmar border, organised crime.

GS area: Polity (federalism)

The Rajamannar Committee, formed in 1969 by the Tamil Nadu government, drew renewed attention in the context of debates about fiscal federalism:

• Formation: Tamil Nadu CM C.N. Annadurai set it up in 1969 under P.V. Rajamannar, former Chief Justice of Madras High Court.
• Key recommendations: Greater devolution of revenues to states, transfer of several subjects from the Union List to the State List or Concurrent List, and creation of an Inter-State Council for resolving centre-state disputes.
• Significance: The Rajamannar Committee was one of the earliest systematic challenges to the centralising tendencies of the Sarkaria Commission era. It pre-dated the Sarkaria Commission (1983) by 14 years.
• Present relevance: Debates over GST compensation, cess funds not included in the divisible pool, and centrally sponsored scheme conditions echo Rajamannar's critique.

Static linkage: Federalism, centre-state relations, Polity.

GS area: Environment, Ecology

The annual elephant migration from the Anamalai Tiger Reserve to the Valparai tea-garden plateau in Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu began in December 2023:

• Valparai Plateau: Located in the Western Ghats, Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu. Part of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve.
• Migration pattern: Elephants move from the core reserve areas to the plateau tea gardens each year from September to March for water and fodder.
• Human-wildlife interface: Valparai is a managed agricultural landscape with a permanent human population. The annual migration creates predictable conflict hotspots.
• Management approach: Real-time elephant tracking systems and early warning alerts have been installed for Valparai residents, a model adopted by other coffee and tea-garden landscapes.

Static linkage: Biodiversity, human-wildlife conflict, Western Ghats.

GS area: Economy, Governance

The Madras High Court emphasised the need for clarity in applying Section 3 of the Patents Act to exclude certain inventions from patentability:

• Section 3(d): The most discussed exclusion in India's Patent Act. It bars patents on new forms of known substances unless they show enhanced efficacy. This provision blocked Novartis from patenting the cancer drug Glivec in the landmark 2013 Supreme Court case.
• Section 3(e): Excludes mixtures of known substances unless they show synergistic properties.
• India's approach: India's strict patentability standards are criticised by multinational pharmaceutical firms and praised by public health advocates who see them as protecting access to affordable medicines.

Static linkage: Intellectual property, pharmaceutical policy, WTO TRIPS.

• Nature-based Solutions ENACT: A partnership launched at COP27 in 2022 to protect 1 billion vulnerable people through ecosystem restoration and to secure 2.4 billion hectares of ecosystems. COP28 advanced its implementation agenda.
• IUCN Red List: 25 per cent of freshwater fish species at extinction risk globally. At least 17 per cent of assessed species directly affected by climate change. Saiga antelope and scimitar-horned oryx registered as recovery successes.