16 October 2024

• Governance: The Central Consumer Protection Authority issued guidelines against greenwashing. Companies must now substantiate environmental claims with credible evidence.
• Society: A UN Women report found 2 billion women and girls globally lack access to social protection. Only 18 per cent of 1,000 reviewed social protection measures focus on women's economic security.
• Energy transition: A study by iFOREST found India requires over 84 lakh crore rupees (roughly 1 trillion dollars) to phase out coal dependency fully, with 52 per cent of costs for green energy development.
• Technology: India Mobile Congress 2024 (8th edition) focused on 6G, AI, semiconductors, and quantum computing.

GS area: Governance, Economy (Consumer Protection)

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) issued guidelines against greenwashing in 2024, which came into active enforcement in October.

• What greenwashing is: Making misleading or false claims about a product's or service's environmental benefits. Common examples include claiming a product is "eco-friendly," "green," "sustainable," or "carbon neutral" without factual basis.
• CCPA's legal basis: The Consumer Protection Act, 2019, gives the CCPA power to prevent unfair trade practices. Greenwashing is classified as an unfair trade practice.
• Key requirements under the guidelines:
  • All environmental claims must be substantiated with credible, verifiable evidence.
  • Vague terms like "green," "natural," or "Earth-friendly" without qualification are prohibited.
  • Claims about carbon offsets must be independently verified.
  • Comparative claims (e.g. "greener than before") must state what is being compared.
• Scope: Applies to manufacturers, service providers, traders, and advertisers across all platforms.

Static linkage: Consumer protection, environmental regulation, advertising standards (Governance).

GS area: Society, International Relations (Gender)

A UN Women report released in October 2024 documented the gap in social protection coverage for women globally.

• Scale of the gap: 2 billion women and girls lack access to any form of social protection.
• Maternity benefits: 63 per cent of women who give birth globally do so without any maternity protection. Maternity benefit coverage is among the most basic labour rights.
• Poverty concentration: Women aged 25 to 34 are 25 per cent more likely to live in extreme poverty than men of the same age. This age bracket covers the peak childbearing years.
• Policy gap in design: Of 1,000 social protection measures reviewed by the report, only 18 per cent were designed with women's economic security as a specific objective.
• India's context: Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 extended paid maternity leave to 26 weeks for women in establishments with 10 or more employees. The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana provides 5,000 rupees in conditional cash transfers to pregnant women for their first child.

Static linkage: Social protection, gender equity, labour law (Society and Governance).

GS area: Economy (Energy Transition), Environment

The independent research organisation iFOREST estimated that India requires over 84 lakh crore rupees to fully transition away from coal.

• Cost breakdown: 52 per cent of the total (approximately 44 lakh crore rupees) is for green energy development: solar, wind, storage, and grid infrastructure. 48 per cent covers non-energy transition: livelihood support for 60 lakh coal workers, rehabilitation of 343,504 hectares of coal mining land, and community development in coal-dependent regions.
• Coal's current role: Coal provides over 70 per cent of India's electricity. India is the world's second-largest coal producer and consumer.
• Just Transition: The concept of a just transition requires that workers and communities dependent on fossil fuels are not left behind in the shift to clean energy. India signed the Energy Transition Working Group's just transition framework at G20 2023.
• Timeline challenge: India's 2070 net-zero target implies coal exit by the 2040s or 2050s for a smooth transition.

Static linkage: Energy transition, just transition, coal economy (Economy and Environment).

GS area: Polity (Elections)

The legal framework governing exit polls was discussed in the context of Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir elections.

• What exit polls are: Surveys of voters conducted immediately after they leave polling stations. They ask voters how they voted and are used to predict election results.
• Legal restriction: Section 126A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, prohibits exit polls from being conducted, published, or broadcast during the period of an election. The restriction applies from the start of polling until the end of the last phase of voting.
• Rationale: Premature publication of exit poll results could influence voters in constituencies still to poll in multi-phase elections.
• Penalties: Violation can attract imprisonment up to 2 years, or a fine, or both.

Static linkage: Electoral law, Representation of the People Act, Election Commission (Polity).

GS area: Science and Technology, Economy (Manufacturing)

State-owned BEML (Bharat Earth Movers Limited) was announced as the manufacturer for India's first indigenous high-speed train capable of 280 kilometres per hour.

• What BEML is: Founded in 1964 as a public sector undertaking. It is Asia's second-largest earthmoving equipment manufacturer. It also builds metro rail coaches, diesel electric locomotives, and airport ground support equipment.
• Current Indian train speeds: The Vande Bharat Express operates at 160 km/h. The planned high-speed rail on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor targets 350 km/h using Japanese Shinkansen technology.
• The 280 km/h train: A new indigenous platform between Vande Bharat and full high-speed rail. Not confirmed to be the same as the Mumbai-Ahmedabad project.

Static linkage: Manufacturing, Make in India, railway technology (Economy and Science).

GS area: Science and Technology (Chemistry), Economy (Agriculture)

The ongoing DAP fertiliser shortage prompted a refresher on the chemistry of fertiliser production.

• Haber-Bosch Process: Converts atmospheric nitrogen (N₂) and hydrogen (H₂) to ammonia (NH₃). This is the basis for all synthetic nitrogen fertiliser production.
• Conditions: High pressure (150 to 200 atmospheres) and moderate temperatures (400 to 500 degrees Celsius) with an iron catalyst.
• Scale: Roughly half of the nitrogen in proteins in human bodies today comes from ammonia produced by the Haber-Bosch process. It feeds approximately 50 per cent of the world's population.
• India's context: India produces urea domestically from the Haber-Bosch route but imports DAP (di-ammonium phosphate) heavily. In 2024, DAP sales fell 27.2 per cent due to import disruptions and price issues.

Static linkage: Fertiliser chemistry, food security, agricultural inputs (Science and Economy).