27 August 2024

• Economy: PM Jan Dhan Yojana turned 10. The scheme has 52 crore accounts, over 55 per cent held by women. Average deposit per account has grown 4.12 times since 2015.
• Governance: the Unified Pension Scheme was announced for central government employees, effective April 2025. Based on T.V. Somanathan Committee recommendations.
• International: the Great Nicobar transhipment port project (Rs 72,000 crore) continued to generate debate on tribal rights and ecological impacts. The Shompen are a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group on the island.
• Environment: lithium mining in Chile's Atacama is causing the salt flat to sink at 1 to 2 cm per year. The global lithium supply chain has environmental costs alongside its EV benefits.

GS area: Economy, Government Schemes, Social Justice

PMJDY was launched on 28 August 2014, making August 2024 its tenth anniversary. The data at completion of the decade:

• Account scale: 52 crore (520 million) accounts by July 2024, crossing 500 million. This is more accounts than the combined population of USA and EU.
• Deposit growth: average deposit per account has grown 4.12 times. Zero-balance accounts fell from 8.52 crore in 2015 to 4.26 crore.
• Gender inclusion: over 55 per cent of accounts held by women.
• Geography: 67 per cent of accounts in rural and semi-urban areas, where formal banking had historically been absent.
• Insurance: RuPay debit cards issued with Rs 2 lakh accidental insurance and Rs 30,000 life insurance cover.
• Banking access: nearly 100 per cent of villages have a banking service within 5 km.
• DBT enabled: PMJDY accounts are the conduit for Direct Benefit Transfer. In 2022-23, over Rs 6.3 lakh crore was transferred directly to beneficiary accounts under various government schemes, cutting out intermediaries.
• What remains: 4.26 crore zero-balance accounts. Dormancy rates remain high in some states. Account having is not the same as financial inclusion; credit access, insurance usage and investment remain low.

Static linkage: financial inclusion, JAM trinity, welfare delivery.

GS area: International Relations

The India-US relationship, in the context of US political transition preparations:

• Trade: USD 118.28 billion bilateral trade in 2023-24. India has a trade surplus with the US.
• Defence partnership: US designated India a Major Defense Partner in 2016, a status that enables defence technology sharing similar to US treaty allies.
• Foundational agreements: LEMOA (Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement, 2016) allows use of each other's military facilities. COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement, 2018) enables secure military communications. BECA (Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-spatial Cooperation, 2020) allows sharing of real-time military geospatial data.
• STA-1 license: Strategic Trade Authorisation Tier 1 (2018) gives India access to advanced dual-use technology from the US, on par with US NATO allies.
• Quad: India, US, Japan and Australia. The Quad's focus is on a free, open, prosperous and secure Indo-Pacific. It operates through leaders, ministers and working group meetings.
• iCET: the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology, launched in 2022, covers semiconductors, AI, quantum, space and defence innovation.
• People-to-people: Indian Americans (4 million, 1.5 per cent of US population) are a major driver of bilateral ties.

Static linkage: India's bilateral partnerships, Indo-Pacific strategy, defence agreements.

GS area: Environment, Polity, Geography

The Rs 72,000 crore Great Nicobar integrated development project remained contested:

• Project components: a transhipment port (Rs 35,000 crore), military-civil dual-use airport, township and power plant. Implemented by ANIIDCO.
• Forest land: about 114 sq km of tribal reserve forest would be converted for the project.
• Shompen: a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group. About 250-300 individuals. A hunter-gatherer community with minimal contact with the outside world. The project threatens their territory and way of life.
• Nicobarese: a more numerous tribal community with some integration with the outside world, but also affected by the development plan.
• Strategic case: Great Nicobar's proximity to the Malacca Strait (through which over 80 per cent of China's oil imports pass) gives the transhipment port significant strategic value beyond commercial returns.
• Legal question: Forest Rights Act 2006 gives tribal communities rights over forest land and requires free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) for projects affecting them. Critics argue FPIC was not properly obtained.

Static linkage: tribal rights, biodiversity, strategic geography, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

• PM-JANMAN (Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan): targets 44 lakh individuals from 75 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups in 194 districts across 18 states and Andaman and Nicobar UT. Runs for 3 years. Nine ministries involved with 11 critical interventions covering housing, roads, drinking water, mobile medical units and educational centres.
• Anticipatory bail and SC/ST Act: Section 438 CrPC (now Section 482 BNSS 2023) governs anticipatory bail. The SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 applies when offences are committed on the basis of caste. Courts can conduct preliminary inquiry to determine whether the alleged offence is caste-based before deciding on anticipatory bail. This interplay between general criminal procedure and special protection laws is frequently tested.
• Sonoluminescence: a phenomenon where sound waves cause bubble collapse in liquids, generating light. Temperatures inside the collapsing bubble can reach thousands of kelvin. The pistol shrimp (family Alpheidae) uses this effect naturally: it snaps its claw so fast it creates a cavitation bubble whose collapse stuns or kills prey.
• Atacama salt flat: situated in northern Chile at elevations of 2,400 to 4,500 metres. The Atacama receives less than 1 mm of annual rainfall in parts. Brine extraction for lithium is causing measurable subsidence. Chile holds the world's largest lithium reserves in its salt flats.