17 June 2024

• International: G7 summit in Italy concluded. India's PM participated in outreach sessions on AI, energy, Africa and the Mediterranean.
• Technology: Nagastra-1, India's first indigenous loitering munition (kamikaze drone), handed over to the Army. 75 per cent domestic content.
• Education: Implementation challenges in NEP 2020 highlighted: syllabus truncation, administrative overload, insufficient teacher training.
• Security: Divya Drishti AI biometric tool combining facial recognition with gait analysis developed with DRDO guidance.

GS area: International Relations, Economy

PM Narendra Modi attended the G7 Summit in Fasano, Puglia, Italy as an outreach participant. The 2024 summit focused on AI, clean energy, Africa and migration.

• G7 composition: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and United States. The European Union is a non-enumerated participant.
• India's outreach role: India is not a G7 member but is regularly invited for outreach sessions. India's inclusion reflects its status as the world's fifth-largest economy and the voice of the Global South.
• 2024 Italian presidency priorities: artificial intelligence governance (including the Hiroshima AI Process), debt relief for low-income countries, climate and clean energy, and support for Ukraine.
• AI governance: the Hiroshima AI Process (initiated at G7 Japan 2023) produced an international code of conduct for AI development. G7 2024 affirmed implementation.
• G7 and India's interests: India pushed for equitable AI access (opposing concentration in few corporations), faster green technology transfer, and increased representation of the global south in multilateral institutions.
• International Solar Alliance: India's solar initiative co-founded with France in 2015, discussed as a partnership model for the G7 clean energy agenda.

Static linkage: international relations, science and technology.

GS area: Science and Technology, Security

Economic Explosives Limited delivered Nagastra-1, India's first indigenously developed loitering munition, to the Indian Army.

• Loitering munition: also called a "kamikaze drone" or "suicide drone." It is an unmanned aerial vehicle that circles over a target area, identifies a target, and then dives into it with an explosive payload. It combines features of a drone and a guided missile.
• Nagastra-1 specifications: can loiter for 30 minutes, has a range of approximately 30 kilometres, carries a 1-kilogram precision warhead, and can be aborted and recovered if needed.
• Domestic content: 75 per cent made in India, qualifying under the Defence Acquisition Procedure's "Make in India" classification.
• Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020: governs procurement. Categories: Buy (Indian), Make in India (defence industry), and others. Indigenisation targets set by the Ministry of Defence.
• DRDO and private sector: India's push to open defence production to private players has increased. Nagastra-1 was developed by a private company (Economic Explosives Limited).
• Strategic relevance: loitering munitions provide precision strike capability without risking pilot lives. They are significant in high-altitude mountainous terrain (like the India-China LAC) where aircraft operations are constrained.

Static linkage: science and technology, internal security.

GS area: Governance, Education

Review reports flagged that NEP 2020 implementation faced challenges in content quality, teacher readiness and digital connectivity.

• NEP 2020 overview: replaces the 1986 National Policy on Education. Key structural change: the 10+2 system replaced by 5+3+3+4 (Foundational, Preparatory, Middle and Secondary stages). Curriculum framework redesigned to reduce rote learning.
• 5+3+3+4 structure: Foundational (3 years of preschool + Classes 1-2); Preparatory (Classes 3-5); Middle (Classes 6-8); Secondary (Classes 9-12).
• Mother tongue instruction: NEP emphasises teaching in mother tongue or regional language up to Class 5 and preferably up to Class 8.
• Challenges identified: syllabi were truncated in ways that removed cultural and literary content (the Walt Whitman example: a poem cut from 255 to 68 lines). Teacher compensation remains low. Digital connectivity in rural schools is inadequate.
• NIPUN Bharat: National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy. Aims to achieve foundational literacy and numeracy for all students by Class 3 by 2026-27.
• NCERT's New Textbooks: NCERT has been developing new textbooks under the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2023. The revision has been controversial over content choices.

Static linkage: governance, education.

GS area: Economy, Governance

Policy discussions around the G7 and the new government's agenda focused on India's Viksit Bharat (Developed India) 2047 target.

• Target: India aims to achieve developed-country status by 2047, the centenary of independence. The benchmark: per capita income above the World Bank's high-income threshold (approximately 14,000 US dollars in 2024).
• Current position: India's per capita income is approximately 2,500 US dollars (nominal). To reach the high-income threshold by 2047, India needs sustained high growth.
• Growth requirements: achieving Viksit Bharat status requires approximately 7.5 per cent growth in per capita income annually, needing overall GDP growth of 9 per cent or more.
• Structural challenges: 44 per cent of India's workforce is in agriculture, which contributes only 15 to 16 per cent of GDP. This productivity gap must close.
• Public debt: India's public debt stands at approximately 82 per cent of GDP. Reducing this while maintaining capital expenditure is a fiscal challenge.
• Infrastructure investment: India's capital expenditure increased from 4.39 lakh crore in FY 2021-22 to 11.11 lakh crore in FY 2024-25. Public investment is a driver of Viksit Bharat ambitions.

Static linkage: economy, governance.

GS area: Science and Technology, Security, Governance

Divya Drishti, an AI biometric tool combining facial recognition with gait analysis, was developed by a woman-led startup with guidance from DRDO.

• Gait analysis: identifying a person by their walking pattern. Unlike facial recognition, gait analysis works even when a person's face is obscured or they are wearing a mask.
• Multi-modal biometric: combining facial recognition (static identity) with gait analysis (behavioural biometric) reduces false positives and improves accuracy in crowded or obscured environments.
• Security applications: crowd surveillance, identification of persons of interest, monitoring of sensitive locations (airports, railway stations, border check posts).
• DRDO: the Defence Research and Development Organisation. India's premier defence R&D body under the Ministry of Defence.
• Privacy concerns: AI surveillance tools raise Article 21 (right to privacy) concerns. The Supreme Court's Puttaswamy judgment (2017) recognised privacy as a fundamental right. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 is the primary data governance framework.
• State use: several Indian states use facial recognition at railway stations and airports. Automated number plate recognition is in widespread use.

Static linkage: science and technology, security, governance.

GS area: Environment, Geography

Dead zones are areas of the ocean where oxygen levels drop so low that most marine life cannot survive. Their global count is growing.

• Hypoxia: oxygen depletion below 2 mg/L. At this level, fish, crustaceans and most mobile species flee. Bottom-dwelling species (worms, clams) suffocate.
• Causes: agricultural and urban nutrient runoff (nitrogen and phosphorus) causes algal blooms. When algae die and decompose, bacteria consume the oxygen.
• Scale: approximately 700 dead zones identified globally. The Baltic Sea and Gulf of Mexico (near the Mississippi River delta) are the largest.
• India's coastal concern: runoff from the Ganga-Brahmaputra basin and agricultural areas in coastal Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh contributes to oxygen depletion in parts of the Bay of Bengal.
• Climate connection: warming water holds less dissolved oxygen, making hypoxia worse under climate change. Stratification of water columns prevents oxygenated surface water from mixing with deeper layers.

Static linkage: environment and ecology, geography.

• Kavli Prize 2024: awarded for astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. Worth 1 million US dollars per category. Awarded biennially since 2008. Named after Fred Kavli, a Norwegian-American philanthropist.
• NIIMH: the National Institute of Indian Medical Heritage in Hyderabad functions as a WHO Collaborating Centre for traditional medicine research. It is under the Ministry of Ayush and was established in 1956.