7 March 2024

• Society: International Women's Day on 8 March drew attention to the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam 2023, which reserves 33 per cent of Lok Sabha and state assembly seats for women but cannot take effect before the next delimitation exercise.
• Economy: India's remittances debate intensified with data showing USD 7-8 billion lost annually in transfer fees. The WTO proposal to cut this to under 3 per cent gained fresh attention.
• Environment: Air Quality Life Index data showed that pollution in India's Indo-Gangetic Plain shaves an average of 8 years from a resident's life expectancy.
• Polity: The pre-session period saw continuing discussion of the Supreme Court's MP bribery immunity ruling and its implications for pending prosecutions.

GS area: Polity (women's representation, constitutional amendment)

The Constitution (One Hundred and Sixth Amendment) Act 2023, called the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, was passed in the special session of Parliament in September 2023. Key provisions:

• Scope: reserves not less than one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha, all state legislative assemblies, and the Delhi legislative assembly for women.
• Rotation: the seats reserved for women will rotate after each delimitation.
• Sub-reservation: of the seats reserved for women, a proportionate share is reserved for SC and ST women.

Two critical conditions before it can operate:

• Delimitation: the reservation can only come into force after a fresh delimitation exercise is conducted. The last delimitation was based on the 2001 Census; the next will follow the 2021 Census (delayed) and would realistically apply from 2029 or later.
• Census prerequisite: the Census itself has been delayed. Until it is conducted and delimitation follows, the Act remains in abeyance.

Constitutional location: a new Article 330A (Lok Sabha) and Article 332A (state assemblies) were inserted.

Static linkage: Polity (Parliament, constitutional amendment, women's reservation).

GS area: Environment, Health

The Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) estimates how much life expectancy a person loses due to ambient particulate pollution. Key numbers for India:

• Indo-Gangetic Plain: residents lose an average of 8 years of life expectancy relative to a world meeting WHO PM2.5 guidelines.
• WHO PM2.5 guideline: 5 micrograms per cubic metre as an annual average.
• India's national standard: 40 micrograms per cubic metre, eight times the WHO guideline.
• Delhi: among the world's most polluted capital cities. Air Quality Report 2023 data confirmed only 10 countries globally met the WHO standard.

India ranks among the three worst countries for PM2.5 pollution, alongside Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Static linkage: Environment (air pollution), health.

GS area: Society, Economy

International Women's Day is an occasion for prelims to test labour market facts:

• Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFPR): rose from around 24 per cent in 2017-18 to over 37 per cent in 2022-23, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey.
• Gender Pay Gap: women earn roughly 80 paise for every rupee a man earns in formal sector employment.
• ILO Convention 189 (2011): the Domestic Workers Convention gives domestic workers the same basic labour rights as other workers. India has not ratified it.
• Domestic workers in India: approximately 5 million, of which around 3 million are women. Most have no formal contract, no social security and no grievance mechanism.

The Code on Social Security 2020 extended definitions but has not yet been brought into force.

Static linkage: Society (gender, labour), economy.

GS area: Geography, Science and Technology

New seamounts were detected off the coasts of Peru and Chile in the South Pacific Ocean. Seamounts are underwater mountains formed through volcanic activity on the ocean floor. Key facts:

• How detected: gravitational anomalies create measurable differences in ocean surface height. Satellite altimetry reads these differences.
• Height: the tallest of the newly detected seamounts rises over 1.5 miles (approximately 2.4 km) from the ocean floor.
• Ecological significance: seamounts concentrate marine life because upwelling currents bring nutrients to shallow plateau environments. They function as biodiversity hotspots.
• India's satellite: ISRO's SARAL satellite, developed jointly with France, contributes to seamount cataloguing through its altimetric measurements.

Static linkage: Geography (ocean floor), science and technology (ISRO).

• Nana Jagannath Shankarseth: Maharashtra cabinet proposed renaming Mumbai Central railway station after this reformer, who was a key figure in launching India's first railway (Boribunder to Thane, 1853) alongside Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy and David Sassoon. He also founded the Native School of Bombay (later Elphinstone College) in 1849 and the Bombay Association in 1852.
• Code on Social Security 2020: the fourth of India's four labour codes, it consolidates laws on provident fund, gratuity, maternity benefit and medical insurance. It gives gig and platform workers their first statutory definitions but treats them as self-employed, keeping them outside minimum-wage protections.