29 August 2024

• Polity: Himachal Pradesh passed a Bill raising the minimum marriage age for women from 18 to 21 years, equalising it with men. It requires Presidential assent as it amends a central law.
• Governance: Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France for failing to moderate illegal content. The case triggered debate on platform liability and free speech.
• National Sports Day: observed on 29 August, Major Dhyan Chand's birth anniversary. He won three Olympic gold medals (1928, 1932, 1936) in field hockey and is known as the Hockey Wizard.
• Health: the Union government banned 156 fixed-dose combination drugs as "irrational," including popular cold and pain formulations.

GS area: Polity, Social Justice, Governance

The Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed the Prohibition of Child Marriage (Himachal Pradesh Amendment) Bill 2024, raising the minimum marriage age for women from 18 to 21:

• What changes: the definition of "child" under the Himachal Pradesh version will be anyone under 21, eliminating the current gender difference (18 for women, 21 for men).
• Time limit for annulment: extended from 2 years to 5 years after the party turns 21.
• Presidential assent requirement: marriage law falls under the Concurrent List. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 is a central law. State amendments to Concurrent List subjects require Presidential assent under Article 254(2).
• National context: the Jaya Jaitly Committee (2020) recommended raising women's minimum marriage age to 21, which led to the proposed Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill at the central level. The central bill is pending.
• Current statistics: per NFHS-5, 23 per cent of women aged 20-24 were married before turning 18.
• Legal history: the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 set 14 for girls and 18 for boys. The 1978 amendment raised it to 18 and 21. The 2006 Act replaced the restraint framework with a prohibition but retained 18 and 21 as thresholds.
• Impact debate: raising the legal age for women has been supported on public health grounds (maternal mortality, child nutrition) but critiqued if not accompanied by girl education and economic independence.

Static linkage: marriage laws, Article 254, social legislation, constitutional provisions.

GS area: Governance, Science and Technology, Ethics

Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram, was arrested in France on 24 August 2024 on charges related to Telegram's alleged failure to moderate illegal content:

• Charges: Durov faced allegations including complicity in the distribution of child sexual abuse material, drug trafficking communications, fraud and money laundering facilitated through the platform.
• Platform's defence: Telegram argued it cannot monitor all 800 million users' messages due to encryption and scale. Durov and supporters including Elon Musk and Edward Snowden framed the arrest as an attack on free speech.
• Indian parallels: WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption vs government traceability demands in India; TikTok's ban in India (2020); Twitter/X's repeated clashes with Indian authorities over content takedown orders under Section 69A of the IT Act.
• Intermediary liability: Section 79 of India's IT Act (and the IT Intermediary Rules 2021) defines the conditions under which platforms are liable for user-generated content. Safe harbour protection is conditional on compliance.
• Article 19: in India, freedom of speech (Article 19(1)(a)) can be restricted under Article 19(2) on grounds including sovereignty, security, public order, decency and morality.
• EU Digital Services Act: holds large platforms legally accountable for illegal content hosted or facilitated. Failure to comply can result in fines up to 6 per cent of global revenue.

Static linkage: IT Act, digital governance, free speech.

GS area: Sports, Art and Culture

National Sports Day is observed on 29 August, the birth anniversary of Major Dhyan Chand:

• Dhyan Chand: born 29 August 1905. Field hockey player from 1926 to 1949. Three Olympic gold medals: Amsterdam (1928), Los Angeles (1932) and Berlin (1936). Known as the "Magician of Hockey" and "Hockey Wizard" for his extraordinary ball control.
• National Sports Day: established in 2012 by the Government of India. Promotes sports culture and physical fitness. Government awards including the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award (renamed in 2021) are announced on this day.
• Berlin 1936: at the Berlin Olympics, Dhyan Chand's performance is said to have so impressed Adolf Hitler that Hitler reportedly offered him a high rank in the German army. Dhyan Chand declined.
• RESET Programme: the Retired Sportsperson Empowerment Training programme was launched on National Sports Day 2024. It is led by Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education (LNIPE), Gwalior. Open to athletes aged 20-50 with significant national or international achievements. Provides hybrid courses, internships and placement assistance.

Static linkage: sports history, government schemes, national awards.

• FDC drug ban: the Union government banned 156 fixed-dose combination (FDC) drugs. FDCs combine two or more drugs in a single pill. "Irrational" FDCs combine drugs at wrong doses, provide no added benefit or increase side effects. Cheston Cold (an antihistamine-decongestant combination) and Foracet (paracetamol-caffeine) were among the named examples. FDC regulation under Schedule H of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules 1945.
• Hillchol (BBV131) cholera vaccine: Bharat Biotech launched India's first domestically produced oral cholera vaccine in partnership with Hilleman Labs. Two-dose oral treatment. Global demand exceeds 100 million doses annually, far outstripping supply. Cholera is a waterborne diarrhoeal disease caused by Vibrio cholerae.
• Unified Lending Interface (ULI): under development by the Reserve Bank of India. Designed to streamline credit access for MSMEs and farmers by integrating data from multiple sources (land records, tax data, bank accounts) to speed up credit appraisal. Analogous to UPI's revolution in payments. Currently in pilot stage.
• Codon deoptimization vaccine: Indian Immunologicals Limited (Hyderabad) developed a needle-free intranasal COVID-19 booster using codon deoptimization technology (in collaboration with Griffith University, Australia). The technique modifies viral genetic sequences to create a live-attenuated, safe vaccine that is administered as a nasal spray.