3 May 2024

• Polar affairs: India announced it would host the 46th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM 46) in Kochi, from 20 to 30 May 2024.
• Polity: A Supreme Court Constitution Bench took up Article 31C, examining whether private resources can be treated as "material resources of the community" under Article 39(b).
• Elections: The Election Commission ordered a repoll in six booths in Outer Manipur constituency following Phase 2 disturbances.
• Economy: SEBI issued regulations targeting front-running by asset management companies. The Nutrient-Based Subsidy scheme's design flaw regarding urea drew renewed attention.

GS area: International Relations, Environment (Polar Regions)

India announced it would host the 46th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM 46) and the 26th Committee on Environmental Protection (CEP 26) in Kochi, Kerala, from 20 to 30 May 2024.

• Organiser: Ministry of Earth Sciences, with the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) as the executing agency. NCPOR is headquartered at Vasco da Gama, Goa.
• Antarctic Treaty: Signed in December 1959 and entered into force in 1961. Its key provisions include peaceful use of Antarctica, freedom of scientific research, and a ban on military activities, nuclear explosions, and nuclear waste disposal.
• ATCM: The Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting is the treaty's governing forum. It meets annually among the Consultative Parties, who have voting rights by virtue of maintaining active scientific research programmes.
• India's involvement: India acceded to the Antarctic Treaty in 1983 and became a Consultative Party the same year. India has two active research stations: Maitri (operational since 1989) and Bharati (operational since 2012).
• Maitri-II: India announced plans to build a new research station, Maitri-II, to replace the aging Maitri facility.
• Antarctic Act 2022: India enacted the Antarctic Act in 2022 to regulate Indian activities in Antarctica and implement the obligations of the Antarctic Treaty and its Environmental Protocol domestically.
• Theme: The Indian hosting used the theme Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.

Static linkage: International environmental agreements, polar science, India's foreign policy in multilateral forums.

GS area: Polity (Constitutional Law)

A nine-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court took up questions surrounding Article 31C, specifically whether private resources can be treated as "material resources of the community" under Article 39(b) of the Directive Principles.

• Article 39(b): A Directive Principle directing the state to distribute material resources of the community to subserve the common good. The question is whether this covers privately held resources, not just state-owned ones.
• Article 31C: Inserted by the 25th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1971. It provides that laws enacted to implement Articles 39(b) and 39(c) cannot be challenged under Articles 14 and 19. This shields redistributive legislation from fundamental rights challenge.
• Article 39(c): Prevents the concentration of wealth and the means of production to the common detriment.
• Minerva Mills (1980): An earlier Supreme Court judgment that struck down part of Article 31C as violating the basic structure of the Constitution. The 1980 ruling remains relevant to the current bench's deliberations.
• Maharashtra law under review: Chapter VIII-A of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Act, 1976 was the immediate trigger. It allows acquisition of cessed buildings under the "material resources" rationale.
• Stakes: The verdict will define how far the state can go in treating private property as a community resource for redistribution without triggering fundamental rights constraints.

Static linkage: Fundamental Rights versus Directive Principles, property rights, constitutional amendments.

GS area: Polity (Elections)

The Election Commission of India ordered a repoll in six polling booths in Outer Manipur constituency following disturbances during Phase 2 voting on 26 April 2024.

• Section 57 of the RPA 1951: Empowers the Election Commission to declare the poll at a booth void and order a fresh poll if a natural calamity or violence renders the original poll invalid.
• Section 58(2) of the RPA 1951: Covers situations where voting machines are damaged or booth capturing occurs. The ECI may direct the poll to be recommenced.
• Section 52 of the RPA 1951: Addresses the death of a recognised political party's candidate between nomination and polling, requiring postponement of the poll.
• Outer Manipur constituency: A Scheduled Tribe reserved constituency in Manipur. Ongoing ethnic conflict in the state made polling difficult in several areas.
• ECI's power source: Article 324 of the Constitution vests the superintendence, direction, and control of all elections in the Election Commission of India.

Static linkage: Election law, RPA 1951, ECI's powers.

GS area: Economy (Financial Regulation)

SEBI amended the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Mutual Funds) Regulations 1996, introducing enhanced anti-front-running obligations for Asset Management Companies.

• Front-running: Executing trades for one's own account using advance knowledge of a pending client order, profiting from the price impact of the client's subsequent trade. It is a form of market abuse.
• SEBI's action: AMCs must implement enhanced surveillance systems and whistleblower mechanisms specifically designed to detect front-running by fund managers and dealers.
• AMFI: The Association of Mutual Funds in India. It is a self-regulatory industry body. SEBI directed AMFI to specify detailed compliance standards within its jurisdiction.
• Distinction: SEBI is the statutory regulator with rule-making power. AMFI is an industry association that sets codes of conduct within SEBI's framework. AMCs (like HDFC AMC, SBI MF, ICICI Prudential AMC) manage mutual fund assets.

Static linkage: SEBI's regulatory functions, mutual fund governance, market integrity.

GS area: Economy (Agriculture)

Renewed debate emerged around the design flaw in the Nutrient-Based Subsidy (NBS) scheme, specifically its exclusion of urea.

• NBS scheme: Covers phosphatic (P), potassic (K), and sulphur (S) fertilisers. Subsidy is linked to the nutrient content of the fertiliser rather than a fixed per-bag amount. The idea is to encourage balanced fertilisation.
• Urea excluded: Urea (the main nitrogen source) is priced separately under a different framework and is intentionally left out of the NBS. Its price is administratively capped at a very low level regardless of international prices.
• Consequence: Because urea is far cheaper than P and K fertilisers, farmers overuse urea and underuse P and K. This creates a skewed NPK ratio in soils, depleting phosphorus and potassium over time.
• Proposed fixes: Rationalise DAP and MOP prices, restrict fertiliser use by crop type, and shift to a more granular form of fertiliser delivery.
• Primary nutrients: Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K). Secondary nutrients include sulphur, calcium, and magnesium. Micronutrients include zinc, iron, boron, and others.

Static linkage: Agricultural subsidies, soil health, fertiliser policy.

• Covishield and TTS: AstraZeneca acknowledged in UK court proceedings (April 2024) that the Covishield vaccine can in rare cases cause Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS), also called Vaccine-induced Immune Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia (VITT). The mechanism involves blood clot formation combined with low platelet count. Covishield in India was manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
• Indonesia in focus: Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state, with more than 17,000 islands. It is India's largest ASEAN trading partner and a key node in India's Act East Policy. Indonesia's capital is relocating from Jakarta to Nusantara in East Borneo.