1 December 2024

• International: The INC-5 plastics treaty summit in Busan, South Korea concluded without a binding agreement on production caps. India opposed mandatory cuts.
• Economy: UPI recorded 16.58 billion transactions worth 23.49 lakh crore rupees in October 2024, consolidating India's position in global real-time payments.
• Governance: The Winter Session of Parliament (25 November to 20 December 2024) was in progress with the Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak 2024 pending Rajya Sabha passage.
• Environment: India's position at INC-5 stressed multilateral financing and technology transfer over production caps on virgin plastic.

GS area: Environment, International Relations

The fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) on plastic pollution concluded in Busan, South Korea, on 1 December 2024 without a global treaty. Nations could not agree on whether to cap plastic production at the source.

• Scale of the problem: Global plastic production reached 460 million tonnes in 2019, up from 234 million tonnes in 2000. Only 9 per cent of plastic is recycled globally. About 8 million tonnes enter the oceans each year.
• India's position: India opposed mandatory production caps. It called for a multilateral fund for developing nations, voluntary reduction targets, and technology transfer.
• Draft features under negotiation: A life-cycle approach covering production to disposal, extended producer responsibility (EPR), and regulation of roughly 3,000 chemicals of concern in plastics.
• Industry emissions: The plastic industry contributes about 3.4 per cent of global CO2 emissions.
• What INC-5 failure means: A fresh negotiating round will be needed. The UN Environment Assembly launched the process in Nairobi in 2022 with a deadline of 2024.

India's objection to production caps reflects a broader developing-country argument: consumption-side and waste-management obligations should not substitute for financing commitments from historically high-polluting nations.

Static linkage: Environment topics (plastic pollution, Basel Convention, UNEP).

GS area: Economy, Science and Technology

India's Unified Payments Interface processed 16.58 billion transactions worth 23.49 lakh crore rupees in October 2024.

• Launch and operator: UPI was launched in 2016 by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
• Global share: India accounts for about 49 per cent of the world's real-time payment transactions as of 2023.
• Geographic reach: UPI is now operational in seven countries: UAE, Singapore, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, France and Mauritius.
• Key features: Around-the-clock operations, single-click two-factor authentication, and no Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on most transactions.
• Transaction cap: Individual UPI transactions are capped at 2 lakh rupees.
• Challenges: Cybersecurity risks (129 crore rupees lost to digital fraud in 2022), infrastructure gaps in rural areas where about 45 per cent of households lack broadband, and a 20 per cent adult digital-literacy gap.

Static linkage: Economy (payment systems, fintech, NPCI).

GS area: Polity

The Winter Session ran from 25 November to 20 December 2024. Key legislative business included the Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak 2024 (the Aviation Bill to replace the Aircraft Act, 1934) and discussions on the Constitution at 75 years.

• Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak 2024: Passed by Lok Sabha in the Monsoon Session and awaiting Rajya Sabha passage. It modernises civil aviation regulation.
• Productivity context: Lok Sabha functioned about 52 per cent of scheduled time and Rajya Sabha about 39 per cent across 2024 sessions. Only one Bill was eventually passed in this session (the lowest in six Lok Sabha terms).
• Deputy Speaker vacancy: The post of Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha has remained vacant since 2019. Article 93 requires the House to elect a Deputy Speaker as soon as possible.
• Constitutional debate: Both Houses held a special discussion on 75 years of the Constitution on 13-14 December (Lok Sabha) and 16-17 December (Rajya Sabha).

Static linkage: Parliament and state legislatures (Polity).

GS area: Environment, Geography

The Aravalli Green Wall Project aims to create a green corridor across Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Delhi.

• Inspiration: Africa's Great Green Wall initiative, which targets the Sahel region.
• Target: Restore 1.15 million hectares by 2027.
• Specification: A belt approximately 1,400 km long and 5 km wide.
• Implementation: National Horticulture Board with public-private partnership mode.
• First-phase features: Indigenous afforestation, biodiversity conservation, and rejuvenation of 75 water bodies.
• Aravalli context: The Aravalli Range runs roughly 800 km from Gujarat through Rajasthan, Haryana to Delhi. It is one of the world's oldest fold mountain systems. Deforestation has made it a dust corridor feeding air pollution into the National Capital Region.

Static linkage: Indian geography (Aravalli), environment (afforestation, desertification).

GS area: Art and Culture, Polity

The Ajmer Sharif Dargah re-entered public debate in December 2024 over petitions claiming a Hindu temple once existed on the site.

• Historical background: The dargah was built in the 15th century under the Khalji rulers and later expanded by Mughal emperors Humayun and Akbar.
• Key structures: Buland Darwaza (Khalji era), white marble dome commissioned by Humayun in 1532, and the Akbari Masjid built in the 1570s.
• The saint: Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti was born around 1141 CE in Sistan (present-day Iran) and settled in Ajmer around 1191. He founded the Chishtiyya order in India. He is called "Gharib Nawaz" (protector of the poor).
• Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991: This Act freezes the religious character of all places of worship as of 15 August 1947. Section 3 prohibits conversion of a place of worship from one denomination to another. Section 4(2) abates all pending suits and bars fresh litigation. The Ram Janmabhoomi site is explicitly excluded. A three-judge Supreme Court bench was hearing challenges to the Act's constitutional validity.

Static linkage: Art and culture (Sufism, medieval architecture), Polity (Places of Worship Act).

GS area: Health, Social issues

India's HIV data for 2023 shows sustained progress while gaps remain.

• Prevalence: National adult HIV prevalence is 0.20 per cent.
• People living with HIV: 25.44 lakh as of 2023. Women account for 44 per cent and children for 3 per cent.
• AIDS-related deaths: Reduced by 79 per cent since the peak.
• Progress toward UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets: 81 per cent of people living with HIV know their status; 88 per cent of those are on antiretroviral therapy (ART); 97 per cent of those on ART have achieved viral suppression.
• High-prevalence states: Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana each have prevalence at or above 0.4 per cent.

Static linkage: Health topics (HIV-AIDS, UNAIDS, ART).

GS area: Agriculture, Government schemes

The Atmanirbhar Clean Plant Programme was launched to supply disease-free planting material for horticulture.

• Budget: 2,200 crore rupees over seven years to 2030.
• Ministry: Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
• Implementation: Under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), with the National Horticulture Board (NHB) and ICAR in public-private partnership mode.
• Infrastructure: Ten world-class Clean Plant Centres, fully Centre-funded.
• Recent financing: An additional 98 million dollars from the Asian Development Bank in 2024.
• Why it matters: Disease-free and climate-resilient planting material increases yields and reduces post-harvest losses. India is the world's second-largest horticulture producer after China.

Static linkage: Agriculture schemes, government welfare programmes.

• Georgia protests: Protests erupted in Tbilisi over the government's decision to suspend EU membership talks until 2028. Georgia became an EU candidate in December 2022. Its borders: Russia to the north and northeast, Azerbaijan to the east, Armenia and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the west.
• Aleppo falls to rebels: By 1 December, rebel forces led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) had captured Aleppo in northern Syria for the first time since 2016. The offensive would culminate in the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December.