27 January 2024

• Defence: a committee led by Prof. K. Vijay Raghavan reviewed DRDO restructuring, recommending forming a Defence Technology Council headed by the Prime Minister.
• International: NATO's Steadfast Defender 2024 exercise began with 90,000 troops, the largest since the Cold War.
• Health: the WHO pressed ahead with a pandemic preparedness treaty, targeting agreement at the 77th World Health Assembly in May 2024. "Disease X" preparedness was a key concern.
• Welfare: 27 January is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marked globally with the theme "Recognising the Extraordinary Courage of Victims and Survivors."

GS area: Defence, Governance (S&T institutions)

A committee led by Prof. K. Vijay Raghavan (former Principal Scientific Adviser) reviewed DRDO's functioning and recommended major restructuring.

• DRDO: the Defence Research and Development Organisation was established in 1958. It is the R&D wing of the Ministry of Defence with over 50 laboratories. Motto: "Balasya Mulam Vigyanam" (Strength comes from science).
• Key recommendations: form a Defence Technology Council headed by the PM; create a new Department of Defence Science, Technology, and Innovation; restructure 41 labs into 10 national labs in major cities; hire 100 campus graduates annually; lower the median employee age to 35.
• Main problems: inadequate budgetary support, manpower constraints, cost and time overruns (the LCA Tejas programme took decades), and prolonged testing phases.
• Comparison with ISRO: critics noted DRDO lacks the focused mission-orientation and accountability culture that enables ISRO to deliver on schedule.

Static linkage: defence technology, DRDO, Atmanirbhar Bharat.

GS area: International Relations, Health (global governance)

The World Health Organisation was working towards a legally binding pandemic preparedness agreement, targeting conclusion at the 77th World Health Assembly in May 2024.

• Why needed: the COVID-19 pandemic exposed severe gaps in the global health architecture, particularly in equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics.
• Key provisions sought: mandatory data sharing on outbreaks, transparent IP arrangements for vaccines, equitable procurement mechanisms, and strengthened health systems.
• Disease X: a placeholder designation for an unknown future pathogen. The WHO estimates Disease X could be 20 times more deadly than SARS-CoV-2 if it emerges with similar transmissibility.
• Challenge: negotiations between high-income countries (concerned about IP and sovereignty) and low-income countries (concerned about access) were contentious. No treaty was finalised by May 2024.

Static linkage: global health, WHO, international law.

GS area: Defence, International Relations

Multiple military exercises were underway in late January 2024.

• Operation Sarvashakti: India's counter-terrorism operation in Jammu and Kashmir targeting militant networks in the Rajouri-Poonch-Reasi belt.
• Exercise Desert Knight: Indian Air Force exercise with France and the UAE air forces, demonstrating Indo-Pacific partnership depth.
• NATO Steadfast Defender 2024: a 90,000-troop NATO exercise, the alliance's largest since the Cold War. Involves all 32 NATO members. Signals resolve in the face of Russia's continued war in Ukraine.

Static linkage: India's defence posture, NATO, geopolitics.

GS area: International Relations, Modern World History

27 January is the UN-designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day, adopted by Resolution A/RES/60/7 in November 2005.

• What is commemorated: the Holocaust (Shoah) was the systematic genocide of six million Jews and millions of others (Roma, disabled persons, political prisoners) by Nazi Germany during World War II.
• Date choice: 27 January 1945 was the date Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in German-occupied Poland.
• First observance: 27 January 2006.
• 2024 theme: "Recognising the Extraordinary Courage of Victims and Survivors."
• India's position: India voted for the 2005 UN resolution. India was not a participant in World War II as a nation (it was under colonial rule) but Indian soldiers served in the British Indian Army in European and other theatres.

Static linkage: modern world history, international organisations, human rights.

• Alpine Ibex behaviour shift: scientists reported that Alpine Ibexes in the Alps are shifting to nocturnal feeding due to extreme summer heat, increasing their vulnerability to wolf predation. The Himalayan Ibex, found in Ladakh, J&K, and Himachal Pradesh, faces similar climate pressures. The Alpine Ibex is IUCN Least Concern; the Himalayan Ibex is not separately assessed.
• National Girl Child Day follow-up (January 24): the 2024 observance highlighted data showing 20.1 per cent of women aged 20-24 were married before 18, and the rural figure is 23.3 per cent, per NFHS-5.