12 June 2024

• Governance: Fast Track Special Courts for rape cases extended to 2026. Criminal justice system reforms discussed: 5 crore pending cases, only 21 judges per million population.
• Science and Technology: Artificial General Intelligence debate in India. IndiaAI Mission approved March 2024 for five years.
• Environment: Urban water crisis in India. 91 million Indians lack safe water access. Jal Jeevan Mission progress reviewed.
• Economy: GAAR (General Anti-Avoidance Rules) tested in a bonus stripping case before Telangana High Court.

GS area: Polity, Governance

A false rape accusation case in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh focused attention on systemic failures in India's criminal justice system. The government extended Fast Track Special Courts (FTSC) until 2026.

• Pendency: over 5 crore (50 million) cases were pending across courts in India as of July 2023. District courts account for the bulk.
• Judge-population ratio: India has only 21 judges per million population as of December 2023. The Law Commission has recommended 50 judges per million as a target.
• Undertrial proportion: 75 per cent of India's prison population are undertrials, meaning they have not been convicted. They are in prison because they could not secure bail.
• Police custody deaths: 175 deaths in police custody were recorded between 2021 and 2022.
• Fast Track Special Courts: established under a Central Sector Scheme to handle rape and POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) cases on priority. Courts hear evidence and deliver judgments on a dedicated schedule.
• Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 reform: the new criminal laws mandate that judgments be delivered within 30 days of the conclusion of arguments in a trial. The three new laws take effect from 1 July 2024.
• Law Commission's 268th Report: recommended reforms to bail law, including a presumption of bail for undertrial prisoners in cases where the maximum sentence is less than seven years.

Static linkage: polity (judiciary), governance.

GS area: Science and Technology, Economy

A policy discussion on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) assessed India's readiness and strategic options.

• AGI definition: a system that can perform any intellectual task that a human can, with comparable learning, reasoning and creativity. It differs from narrow AI (which excels at specific tasks) in its generality.
• IndiaAI Mission: approved by the Cabinet in March 2024 with a five-year mandate. Key components: building compute infrastructure (10,000 GPUs), developing foundational AI models in Indian languages, creating an AI safety framework, and training 5 million people in AI skills.
• AIRAWAT: AI Research Analytics and Knowledge Assimilation Platform. India's national AI supercomputing cluster, part of the National Supercomputing Mission. Based at C-DAC Pune.
• Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI): an international initiative that India joined in 2020. It promotes responsible AI development with input from governments, industry and civil society.
• US-India AI Initiative: part of the iCET (Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies) framework. Focuses on joint research on trustworthy AI.
• Risks identified: job displacement, reduced human oversight, existential risks from misaligned super-human AI, environmental impact (AI data centres consume large amounts of energy and water).
• AI governance: India's position at international forums emphasises equitable access, transparency and avoiding concentration of AI capability in a few corporations.

Static linkage: science and technology, economy, governance.

GS area: Environment, Governance

A review of India's urban water situation highlighted that 91 million Indians lack safe water access despite significant government investment.

• India's water resources: India receives approximately 4,000 billion cubic metres of rainfall annually. It has 4 per cent of the world's freshwater resources but 18 per cent of the world's population.
• Seasonal concentration: 70 per cent of India's rainfall falls in 3 to 4 months of the monsoon. Storing and managing this water is the core challenge.
• Groundwater depletion: overextraction has lowered water tables by up to 4 metres in some regions. India is the world's largest user of groundwater.
• Polluted rivers: 311 polluted river stretches across 279 rivers identified by CPCB. Most pollution is from municipal sewage and industrial effluent.
• Economic cost: water scarcity could reduce India's GDP by 6 per cent by 2050, according to NITI Aayog projections.
• Jal Jeevan Mission: launched 2019. Target: tap water connection to all 19.3 crore rural households by 2024. As of 2024, over 14 crore connections provided, leaving a significant shortfall.
• Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABHY): a central scheme for groundwater management in seven water-stressed states. Focuses on community-led conservation and data monitoring.
• National Water Mission: one of India's eight national missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change. Aims to achieve 20 per cent improvement in water use efficiency.

Static linkage: environment, governance, geography.

GS area: Economy, Environment, International Organisations

The FAO's biennial State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) 2024 report highlighted India's prominence in global aquatic animal production.

• Blue Transformation: the FAO's strategic vision to sustainably expand aquatic food systems to meet global protein demand.
• India's position: India is among the world's top producers of freshwater fish and shrimp. It is the second-largest aquaculture producer globally after China.
• India's inland fisheries: India has 3.15 million kilometres of rivers and canals, 0.79 million hectares of estuaries and backwaters, and 2.36 million hectares of reservoirs. This is a vast inland resource base.
• PMMSY: Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana. A 20,050-crore rupee scheme (2020-25) for fisheries development. Aims to increase fish production from 14 million tonnes (2020) to 22 million tonnes by 2024-25.
• FIDF: the Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund. Provides concessional loans for infrastructure in the fisheries sector.
• Marine fisheries: India's 8,118-kilometre coastline supports a large marine fishing community. Mechanised trawlers and traditional fishing communities coexist and often conflict over fishing grounds.

Static linkage: economy, environment, geography.

GS area: Economy, Polity

The Telangana High Court's ruling on a "bonus stripping" tax avoidance strategy tested the scope of the General Anti-Avoidance Rules.

• Bonus stripping: an arrangement where a shareholder receives bonus shares from a company, immediately sells the original shares at a loss (since the price drops after bonus issue) to set off capital gains, and retains the bonus shares.
• GAAR: in force from 1 April 2017 under the Income-tax Act. Authorises the tax authority to deny tax benefits to any arrangement whose main purpose is obtaining a tax benefit and that lacks commercial substance.
• GAAR vs. SAAR: GAAR (General Anti-Avoidance Rules) gives broad power to disregard tax-avoidance structures. SAAR (Specific Anti-Avoidance Rules) target specific identified schemes (like Section 94(8) on bonus stripping).
• Burden of proof: GAAR shifts the burden of proof. Once the Commissioner invokes GAAR, the taxpayer must show that the arrangement has commercial substance beyond tax saving.
• Apple Inc. case relevance: transfer pricing adjustments and profit-shifting arrangements are the most common GAAR triggers for large multinationals.

Static linkage: economy (taxation).

GS area: Science and Technology, Economy

CSIR's Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT) identified Chlorella sorokiniana microalgae as a viable protein supplement with higher protein content than soy.

• Chlorella sorokiniana: a freshwater green microalgae. Contains 50 to 60 per cent protein by dry weight, which exceeds soy meal (approximately 44 per cent) and matches casein.
• Chlorella Growth Factor (CGF): a complex of nucleotides, peptides, polysaccharides and glycoproteins unique to Chlorella. Associated with rapid cell division and potential health benefits.
• Sustainable protein: microalgae grow on CO2, sunlight and water. They can grow on non-arable land and do not compete with food crops for agricultural area.
• CSIR: Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. India's largest publicly funded R&D organisation. 37 national laboratories under the CSIR umbrella.
• Protein deficiency in India: the National Nutrition Survey 2016-18 showed that 73 per cent of Indians are protein deficient. Affordable plant-based protein alternatives are a policy priority.

Static linkage: science and technology, health, economy.

• Apple Intelligence (generative AI): Apple announced its AI system for iPhones, iPads and Macs at WWDC 2024. Features include Writing Tools, Email Management summaries, enhanced Siri, and creative AI tools. Relevant as a science and technology prelims fact.
• Cold lava (Lahar): Mount Kanlaon volcano in the Philippines erupted. A lahar is a hazardous flow of volcanic debris and water. It travels like wet concrete and can be triggered even after an eruption ends, when rain mixes with volcanic ash on slopes.