11 December 2024

• Environment: Madhav Gadgil won the UNEP Champion of the Earth 2024 Lifetime Achievement award. His Western Ghats report remains the most contested ecological document in Indian policy.
• International: Syria's rebel government began opening the Saydnaya military prison. The post-Assad transition raised questions about Syria's future and the region's balance of power.
• Parliament: Winter Session disruption data showed 32 per cent of scheduled time lost in the current session, with productivity below 50 per cent in four consecutive sessions.
• History: Subramania Bharati's 142nd birth anniversary fell on 11 December 2024.

GS area: Environment, Awards

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) awarded the Champion of the Earth 2024 Lifetime Achievement award to Madhav Gadgil of India.

• Madhav Gadgil: Ecologist, conservation biologist and founder of the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. He has studied biodiversity, ecological governance and traditional ecological knowledge for over five decades.
• Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP): Gadgil chaired this panel, which submitted its report to the Ministry of Environment in 2011. The report recommended declaring roughly 64 per cent of the Western Ghats as Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA). The report was never implemented and was countered by the Kasturirangan panel's more moderate recommendation.
• UNEP award background: Established in 2005. Categories: Lifetime Achievement, Policy Leadership, Inspiration and Action, Science and Innovation, Entrepreneurial Vision.
• Other 2024 winners: Sonia Guajajara (Brazil, Policy Leadership) for indigenous rights; Lu Qi (China, Science and Innovation) for desertification reversal; SEKEM (Egypt, Entrepreneurial Vision) for sustainable agriculture.
• C. Rajagopalachari birth anniversary: Also fell on 10 December 1878 (one day prior). The last Governor-General of India (1948-50), first Chief Minister of Madras State, founder of Swatantra Party (1959), Bharat Ratna (1954).

Static linkage: Environment (Western Ghats, UNEP, ecologically sensitive areas).

GS area: Polity

The 2024 Winter Session (25 November to 20 December) recorded severe productivity losses.

• Current session loss: 32 per cent of scheduled parliamentary time was lost to disruptions.
• Full-year picture: The Budget Session 2024 saw Lok Sabha function at 45 per cent capacity and Rajya Sabha at 31 per cent. Productivity fell below 50 per cent in four consecutive sessions, the lowest in a decade.
• Walkouts: The opposition staged 17 walkouts during the 2024 sessions.
• Sole Bill passed: The Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak 2024 was the only legislation passed in the Winter Session. This is the lowest output in six Lok Sabha terms.
• Deputy Speaker vacancy: Unfilled since 2019. Article 93 of the Constitution requires Lok Sabha to "as soon as may be" choose a Deputy Speaker.
• Root causes (structural): Political polarisation, absence of pre-legislative consultation between government and opposition, unaddressed grievances of the opposition.
• Consequence: Emergency legislation cannot be passed efficiently, Question Hour is non-functional, private members' bills get no time.

Static linkage: Polity (Parliament, legislative functioning, democratic accountability).

GS area: International Relations

The day after Assad's fall, rebel forces and families began opening the Saydnaya military prison near Damascus.

• Saydnaya: Operated by Assad's military intelligence since the 1980s. Amnesty International estimated 13,000 executions there between 2011 and 2016. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the total at over 30,000 over the Assad era.
• HTS transition leadership: Ahmed al-Sharaa (previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani) positioned HTS as the caretaker administration in Damascus. He promised inclusive governance and religious pluralism.
• External actors and their positions:
  • Russia: Asylum for Assad, trying to preserve Tartus naval base and Khmeimim air base access.
  • Turkey: Backed some rebel factions. Key concern is Kurdish SDF control in northeastern Syria.
  • USA: Cautious welcome to Assad's fall. Still designates HTS as terrorist organisation.
  • Iran: Lost its land corridor to Hezbollah via Syria.
• India's position: Non-interference, calling for Syrian-led process, monitoring Indian nationals.

Static linkage: International relations (West Asia, Syria transition).

GS area: Environment

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) "Global Threat of Drying Lands" report, released at COP16 in Riyadh, quantified the scale of land degradation.

• Arable land affected: 40 per cent of Earth's arable land is degraded (5.7 million sq km).
• Drying trend: 77.6 per cent of Earth's land became permanently drier between 1961 and 2020.
• Crop loss projections by 2040: 20 million tonnes of maize, 19 million tonnes of rice, 8 million tonnes of soybeans and 21 million tonnes of wheat.
• Sub-Saharan Africa: Could lose up to 22 per cent of crop production by mid-century.
• India's commitments: Restore 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030 under the Nationally Determined Contribution.
• COP16 host: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. UNCCD COP16 was a distinct conference from the UNFCCC's COP29 (Baku, Azerbaijan).

Static linkage: Environment (desertification, UNCCD, land restoration).

GS area: Internal Security, Governance

Manipur's poppy cultivation declined 32.13 per cent in 2023-24 compared to 2021-22 levels.

• Cultivation figures: 28,598.91 acres in 2021-22 fell to 11,288.1 acres in 2023-24.
• Districts with most eradication: Kangpokpi (4,454 acres destroyed), Ukhrul (3,348 acres) and Churachandpur (2,713 acres).
• Cumulative eradication (2017 to January 2024): 19,135.6 acres destroyed.
• Context: Manipur shares a porous border with Myanmar (Golden Triangle). Poppy cultivation funds armed groups and feeds drug trafficking networks.
• NDPS Act: The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 prohibits poppy cultivation without a licence. Licensed cultivation for pharmaceutical use occurs in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
• Anti-drug strategy: The government's SAMVEDNA (a social awareness campaign) and DARPAN (real-time database for drug offences) complement enforcement.

Static linkage: Internal security (Northeast, drug trafficking, NDPS Act).

GS area: Modern Indian History, Art and Culture

Subramania Bharati's 142nd birth anniversary fell on 11 December 2024.

• Born: 11 December 1882, Ettayapuram, Tamil Nadu.
• Role: Revolutionary Tamil poet and freedom fighter who blended nationalism with social reform.
• Key works: Kuyil Pattu, Kannan Pattu (devotional songs to Krishna), Panchali Sabatham (Tamil rendering of Draupadi's oath from Mahabharata).
• Journalism: Founded India Weekly in 1906, the first Tamil newspaper to include political cartoons.
• Themes: Women's equality, caste abolition, national independence. He was among the first to write in favour of widow remarriage and against purdah in Tamil literature.
• Translation: Translated the Bhagavad Gita into Tamil.
• UPSC relevance: Bharati straddles modern history, Tamil literature and the freedom struggle syllabus.

Static linkage: Modern Indian history (freedom movement, Tamil Nadu).

• AgeXtend: An AI platform developed by IIIT-Delhi researchers that scans 1.1 billion chemical compounds to identify geroprotective (anti-ageing) substances. Validated in yeast, worm and human cell models. Available open-source.
• Dulcibella camanchaca: A new species of predatory amphipod discovered in the Atacama Trench (South Pacific Ocean, 7,902 metres depth). First large, active predatory amphipod found in that trench.