14 June 2024

• History: Dual anniversaries: 25 years since Kargil War began (1999) and 40 years since Operation Blue Star (1984). Key lessons for national security.
• Government: Cabinet approved construction of 30 million houses under PMAY: 20 million rural, 10 million urban.
• Environment: Global nitrous oxide emissions rose 40 per cent from 1980 to 2020. Agriculture accounts for 74 per cent. India is the second-largest emitter.
• Society: WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2024: India ranked 129th globally. Women earn 39.8 rupees per 100 rupees earned by men.

GS area: Governance, Economy

The Cabinet approved construction of 30 million (3 crore) additional houses: 20 million under PMAY-Gramin and 10 million under PMAY-Urban, with a central investment of 4 lakh crore rupees.

• PMAY-Gramin: Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin. Target: shelter for all rural households without pucca (permanent) houses. Central assistance is 1.2 lakh rupees per house in plains and 1.3 lakh rupees in hilly and difficult terrain.
• PMAY-Urban: targets the urban homeless and those living in inadequate housing. Provides 6.5 per cent interest subsidy on housing loans for up to 15 years for eligible categories (Economically Weaker Section and Low Income Group).
• Previous completion: 2.62 crore rural houses and 83 lakh urban houses completed under earlier phases.
• Why the housing deficit persists: land title disputes, poor implementation in some states, genuine shortage of construction materials in remote areas, and identification of beneficiaries through the Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011 data (now 13 years old).
• Pradhan Mantri Grameen Awas Yojana history: originally called Indira Awaas Yojana, launched in 1985. Renamed under PM Modi in 2016.
• Affordable Housing Fund: the National Housing Bank manages an Affordable Housing Fund that provides low-cost refinancing to housing finance companies lending to EWS and LIG borrowers.

Static linkage: governance, economy, social policy.

GS area: History (Modern), Internal Security

The 25th anniversary of the Kargil War (May to July 1999) brought renewed attention to national security lessons.

• Kargil War sequence: Pakistan's regular Army soldiers and paramilitary forces, disguised as militants, occupied high-altitude positions in the Kargil district between February and May 1999. India discovered the infiltration in early May.
• India's response: refused to cross the LoC even while conducting air strikes. This was a deliberate choice to limit the conflict and avoid international censure.
• Key battles: Tiger Hill, Tololing, Point 4875, Drass sector. Indian forces suffered high casualties retaking positions due to the severe terrain disadvantage.
• Pakistan's Operation Badr: Pakistan's code name for the infiltration plan. Its strategic objective was to cut off the Srinagar-Leh highway and isolate Ladakh.
• Nuclear backdrop: both India and Pakistan had tested nuclear weapons in May 1998. The Kargil conflict demonstrated that nuclear deterrence does not prevent limited conventional or sub-conventional conflict.
• Kargil Review Committee (2000): chaired by K. Subrahmanyam. Recommended a National Security Council, a Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff, a Defence Intelligence Agency, and the eventual creation of a Chief of Defence Staff.
• Diplomatic outcome: US pressured Pakistan to withdraw. General Pervez Musharraf, who planned the operation, later became Pakistan's President after a coup in October 1999.

Static linkage: modern history, internal security, international relations.

GS area: Environment, Science and Technology

A major study found global atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O) levels 25 per cent above pre-industrial levels. Emissions grew 40 per cent from 1980 to 2020.

• Nitrous oxide: a greenhouse gas approximately 265 times more potent than CO2 over a 100-year period. It is also the leading ozone-depleting substance still emitted in significant quantities.
• Sources: agriculture accounts for 74 per cent of global N2O emissions. The main sources are synthetic nitrogen fertilisers and animal manure.
• China, India, US: the three largest national emitters. China is the largest. India is the second largest.
• India's fertiliser use: India is one of the world's largest consumers of nitrogen fertilisers, primarily urea. The Nutrient Based Subsidy scheme covers DAP and complex fertilisers but urea remains under price control.
• 2050 target: a 20 per cent reduction in N2O emissions is needed to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
• N2O and the ozone layer: N2O breaks down in the stratosphere to produce nitric oxide, which destroys ozone molecules. Unlike CFCs (controlled under the Montreal Protocol), N2O is not yet subject to a global phase-down agreement.

Static linkage: environment, science and technology, international relations.

GS area: Society, Economy, International Organisations

The World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2024 ranked India 129th globally out of 146 countries, a decline of 2 places from 2023.

• Gender gap measurement: the GGI measures four dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity; Educational Attainment; Health and Survival; Political Empowerment. India's score was 64.1 per cent overall (meaning 64.1 per cent of the gender gap has been closed).
• Political Empowerment: India ranks among the top 10 globally on this dimension, driven by the high representation of women at the prime ministerial and presidential levels historically.
• Economic participation: India's weakest area. Women earn only 39.8 rupees for every 100 rupees earned by men. Female labour force participation remains low at around 22 per cent.
• Health and Survival: India's sex ratio at birth remains skewed. This pulls down the health score.
• Full parity horizon: at the current pace of progress, the WEF projects global gender parity will be achieved in 134 years.
• Beti Bachao Beti Padhao: government scheme to improve the Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and promote girls' education. Launched 2015. CSR had improved from 918 (2012) to 934 (2019-21) per 1,000 male births.

Static linkage: society, economy.

GS area: History (Modern), Internal Security

Operation Blue Star entered its 40th anniversary with continued significance for India's security discourse.

• Operation Blue Star (1 to 6 June 1984): Indian Army's operation to remove Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed followers from the Akal Takht inside the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar.
• Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale: a radical preacher who became the face of the Khalistan movement for a separate Sikh homeland. He was killed in the operation.
• Casualties: over 400 militants were killed. Indian Army casualties included hundreds killed and wounded. The Akal Takht, a historic religious structure, was severely damaged.
• Political aftermath: PM Indira Gandhi authorised the operation against strong advice that it would inflame Sikh sentiment. She was assassinated on 31 October 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh.
• 1984 anti-Sikh riots: widespread killings of Sikhs in Delhi and elsewhere followed Gandhi's assassination. The violence has been described as a pogrom by many civil society organisations. Legal accountability remained incomplete decades later.
• Air India bombing (June 1985): Flight 182 was bombed over the Atlantic Ocean, killing 329 people. It remains the deadliest aviation terrorism incident in Canadian history. Inderjit Singh Reyat, a Canadian Sikh with alleged Babbar Khalsa links, was the only person convicted.

Static linkage: modern history, internal security.

GS area: Polity

High-profile death penalty cases kept mercy petitions in the news.

• Article 72: empowers the President of India to grant pardons, reprieves, respites, remissions of punishment, or to commute sentences in all cases including those involving court-martial and death sentences.
• Article 161: empowers Governors to pardon, reprieve, respite, or commute sentences against state laws. Governors cannot pardon in cases of court-martial or death sentences under central law.
• Limitation: the President's and Governor's mercy powers are exercised on the advice of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet). The President does not act independently in mercy cases.
• Judicial review of mercy rejection: the Supreme Court has held that rejection of a mercy petition is subject to judicial review on grounds of arbitrariness, procedural irregularity, or relevant factors being ignored.
• Death sentence commutation: the Supreme Court has held that undue delay in deciding mercy petitions is a ground for commuting a death sentence to life imprisonment.

Static linkage: polity (judiciary, fundamental rights).

• Enterobacter bugandensis on ISS: a multi-drug resistant bacterium found on the International Space Station showing adaptations to microgravity and radiation. Raises questions about human health in long-duration space missions.
• Snow Leopard count: approximately 718 snow leopards estimated in India. Hemis National Park in Ladakh is the highest-density habitat and designated the Snow Leopard Capital of India. Snow Leopards also eat plants of the Myricaria genus, making them unusual for big cats.