8 February 2024

• Polity: Uttarakhand passed the Uniform Civil Code Bill 2024. It bans polygamy and Nikah Halala and mandates marriage registration within 60 days.
• Culture: Zakir Hussain won three Grammy Awards in a single night for his collaboration with Shakti. First Grammy for Global Music Album in Indian classical music history.
• Geography: An underwater canyon 10 kilometres wide and 500 metres deep was discovered near Cyprus in the Mediterranean.
• Environment: Aldabra Giant Tortoises are being reintroduced to Madagascar after an absence of 600 years.

GS area: Polity (Constitutional Provisions, Personal Law)

The Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly passed the Uniform Civil Code Bill 2024, making Uttarakhand the first state in independent India to enact a UCC since Goa (which follows the Portuguese Civil Code inherited from colonial rule). The Bill now requires Presidential assent before coming into force.

Key provisions:

• Marriage: Minimum age is 18 for women and 21 for men, consistent with national law. All marriages must be registered within 60 days of solemnisation.
• Polygamy and Nikah Halala: Both explicitly banned. Polygamy is the practice of having more than one spouse simultaneously. Nikah Halala is the practice where a woman must marry another man and consummate that marriage before remarrying her former husband after a triple talaq.
• Succession: The distinction between ancestral and self-acquired property for Hindus is abolished. Both parents are classified as Class I heirs in intestate succession.
• Exemption: Scheduled Tribes in Uttarakhand are exempted from the UCC. This is significant because tribal customary law governs personal matters for tribal communities and is protected under the Constitution.
• Constitutional anchor: Article 44 (DPSP) directs the state to secure a UCC for citizens. It is in the Directive Principles, meaning it is not directly enforceable but is a constitutional aspiration.
• Concurrent List: Personal laws and marriage and divorce are in Entry 5 of the Concurrent List, allowing both Parliament and state legislatures to legislate.

Static linkage: Polity (Directive Principles, personal law, concurrent list, UCC debate).

GS area: Art and Culture

Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain won three Grammy Awards at the 2024 ceremony, the most by any Indian artist in a single night.

• Global Music Album: Shakti's album "This Moment" won in this newly created category. Shakti is a world music group formed in 1973, reforming in 2020. The band brings together Indian classical music (Zakir Hussain on tabla, Shankar Mahadevan on vocals/harmonium, V. Selvaganesh on percussion) with Western jazz guitar (John McLaughlin).
• Other wins: Hussain's other two Grammys were in World Music and Best Global Music Performance categories.
• Significance for culture: This is the first Grammy in the Global Music Album category for Indian classical music. The award recognises the global reach of Indian classical traditions through collaborative world music.

Static linkage: Culture (Indian classical music, tabla, world music, awards).

GS area: International Relations, Geography (Connectivity)

The Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project connects India's eastern coast to the landlocked northeastern states via Myanmar.

• Route: Goods travel by sea from Kolkata to Sittwe Port in Myanmar's Rakhine State. From Sittwe, they travel by inland waterway up the Kaladan River to Paletwa, then by road to Mizoram in India.
• Distance advantage: The route is approximately 1,328 kilometres shorter than alternative road routes through the Siliguri Corridor (the narrow strip of land connecting northeast India to the rest of the country).
• Status: The Sittwe Port became operational in 2023. The road link from Paletwa to Mizoram was approximately 98 per cent complete by early 2024.
• Strategic importance: It provides an alternative connectivity route for Northeast India, reducing dependency on the vulnerable Siliguri Corridor (also called the Chicken's Neck).
• Challenge: The security situation in Myanmar's Rakhine State, where armed conflict between the Arakan Army and Myanmar military has disrupted construction and operations.

Static linkage: International Relations (India-Myanmar relations, Act East Policy), Geography (connectivity projects, Northeast India, Siliguri Corridor).

GS area: Geography (Physical Geography, Oceanography)

A deep underwater canyon was discovered near Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and named after the ancient Greek mathematician Eratosthenes.

• Dimensions: Approximately 10 kilometres wide and 500 metres deep.
• Formation: The Eratosthenes canyon formed approximately 5.5 million years ago during the Messinian Event, a period when the Mediterranean Sea nearly dried up due to tectonic closure of the connection with the Atlantic Ocean.
• Significance: Submarine canyons are important pathways for sediment transport from continental shelves to the deep sea. They support unique ecosystems adapted to nutrient-rich deep-water environments.
• Cyprus: Island nation in the northeastern Mediterranean; third largest Mediterranean island.

Static linkage: Geography (Mediterranean, submarine geology, oceanography, Messinian Salinity Crisis).

GS area: Environment (Conservation, Rewilding)

A programme is reintroducing Aldabra Giant Tortoises to Madagascar, from which giant tortoises vanished approximately 600 years ago due to human hunting.

• Scientific name: Aldabrachelys gigantea. Native to the Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles.
• Lifespan: Over 150 years. One of the longest-lived animals.
• Ecological role: Giant tortoises are "megaherbivores" that reshape plant communities by grazing, dispersing seeds, and maintaining open habitats. Their extinction in Madagascar altered vegetation patterns.
• Rewilding concept: The programme uses the Aldabra species as a functional replacement for Madagascar's extinct giant tortoise species. This approach of using a closely related species to restore ecological function is called "ecological replacement."
• IUCN status: Vulnerable (but the Aldabra population itself is large and recovering).

Static linkage: Environment (rewilding, island ecosystems, species conservation, Indian Ocean islands).

• Invasive thrips (Thrips parvispinus): An invasive agricultural pest native to Thailand that has devastated chilli crops in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, causing up to 80 per cent crop loss in affected areas. It has spread rapidly across Southeast Asia and South Asia.
• Satyendra Nath Bose: Born 1 January 1894, died 4 February 1974. Indian physicist who collaborated with Albert Einstein to develop Bose-Einstein statistics, which describes the behaviour of bosonic particles (named Bosons in his honour). Awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian honour. Never awarded the Nobel Prize, a matter of ongoing scholarly discussion.