PM IAS AUG 02 CURRENT EVENTS

Parliamentary Panel Reviews Goa Civil Code

Context

A parliamentary panel has reviewed Goa’s uniform civil code, and some of its members feel that there are some peculiar and outdated provisions related to matrimony in it.

Relevance:

 GS II- Polity and Governance

Dimensions of the Article:

1. What is Goa Civil Code?
2. What is Uniform Civil Code (UCC)?
3. Positive aspects of Uniform Civil Code include
4. Challenges in Implementing Uniform Civil Code Include
5. Does India not already have a UCC for civil matters?
6. How does the idea of UCC relate to the Fundamental Right to religion?

What is Goa Civil Code?

• The Goa Civil Code is a set of civil laws that governs all residents of the coastal State irrespective of their religion and ethnicity.
• Citing various positives of the Goa Civil Code, Goa CM had urged that it could be a model for implementing the UCC across the country.
  • GCC has come under focus amid a call for the implementation of a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) across the country.
• The UCC features prominently on the present regime’s ideological agenda, and the party had made promises on it in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019.
• This had an intimidating impact on certain sections of the population whose archaic provisions of personal laws were untouched for the sake of appeasement.

What is Uniform Civil Code (UCC)?

• The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in India proposes to replace the personal laws based on the scriptures and customs of each major religious community in the country with a common set governing every citizen.
• The constitution has a provision for Uniform Civil Code in Article 44 as a Directive Principle of State Policy which states that “The State shall endeavor to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.”
• Article 44 is one of the Directive Principles of State Policy. These, as defined in Article 37, are not justiciable (not enforceable by any court) but the principles laid down therein are fundamental in governance.
• Fundamental Rights are enforceable in a court of law. While Article 44 uses the words “state shall endeavour”, other Articles in the ‘Directive Principles’ chapter use words such as “in particular strive”; “shall in particular direct its policy”; “shall be obligation of the state” etc.
• Article 43 mentions “state shall endeavour by suitable legislation”, while the phrase “by suitable legislation” is absent in Article 44. All this implies that the duty of the state is greater in other directive principles than in Article 44.

Positive aspects of Uniform Civil Code include

• UCC will divest religion from social relations and personal laws and will ensure equality in terms of justice to both men and women regardless of the faith they practice.
• There will be uniform laws for all Indians with regard to marriage, inheritance, divorce etc.
• It will help in improving the condition of women in India as Indian society is mostly patriarchal
• Informal bodies like caste panchayats give judgements based on traditional laws. UCC will ensure that legal laws are followed rather than traditional laws.
• It can help in reducing instances of vote bank politics. If all religions are covered under same laws, politicians will have less to offer to communities in exchange of their vote.

Challenges in Implementing Uniform Civil Code Include

• Implementation of UCC might interfere with the principle of secularism, particularly with the provisions of Articles 25 and 26, which guarantee freedom relating to religious practices.
• Conservatism by religious groups, which resist such changes as it interferes with their religious practices.
• It is difficult for the government to come up with a uniform law that is accepted by all religious communities. All religious groups- whether majority or minority have to support the change in personal laws.
• Drafting of UCC is another obstacle. There is no consensus regarding whether it should be a blend of personal laws or should be a new law adhering to the constitutional mandate.

Does India not already have a uniform code in civil matters?

• Indian laws do follow a uniform code in most civil matters — Indian Contract Act, Civil Procedure Code, Sale of Goods Act, Transfer of Property Act, Partnership Act, Evidence Act, etc.
• States, however, have made hundreds of amendments and, therefore, in certain matters, there is diversity even under these secular civil laws. Recently, several states refused to be governed by the uniform Motor Vehicles Act, 2019.
• If the framers of the Constitution had intended to have a Uniform Civil Code, they would have given exclusive jurisdiction to Parliament in respect of personal laws, by including this subject in the Union List. But “personal laws” are mentioned in the Concurrent List.
• In 2020, the Law Commission concluded that a Uniform Civil Code is neither feasible nor desirable.

How does the idea of a Uniform Civil Code relate to the fundamental right to religion?

• Article 25 lays down an individual’s fundamental right to religion; Article 26(b) upholds the right of each religious denomination or any section thereof to “manage its own affairs in matters of religion”; Article 29 defines the right to conserve distinctive culture. An individual’s freedom of religion under Article 25 is subject to “public order, health, morality” and other provisions relating to fundamental rights, but a group’s freedom under Article 26 has not been subjected to other fundamental rights.
• In the Constituent Assembly, there was division on the issue of putting Uniform Civil Code in the fundamental rights chapter.
• The matter was settled by a vote. By a 5:4 majority, the fundamental rights sub-committee headed by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel held that the provision was outside the scope of Fundamental Rights and therefore the Uniform Civil Code was made less important than freedom of religion.

Indian Antarctic Bill 2022

Context:

Recently, Parliament passed the Indian Antarctic Bill, 2022, which aims at having India’s own national measures for protecting the Antarctic environment as also the dependent and associated ecosystem.

Relevance:

GS II- Government policies and Interventions

Dimensions of the Article:

1. What is the Antarctica Bill?
2. What is the Antarctica Treaty?
3. What are the main provisions of the Bill?
4. What are the prohibitions?
5. What is the penalty system that has been introduced?

What is the Antarctica Bill?

• The draft bill is the first domestic legislation with regard to Antarctica in India.
• Twenty-seven countries including Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Russian Federation, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay and Venezuela already have domestic legislations on Antarctica. Many others, such as India, are now following suit.
• While India has been sending expeditions to Antarctica for the past 40 years, these expeditions have been circumscribed by international law.
• The Bill now puts into place a comprehensive list of regulations related to Antarctica, for such scientific expeditions, as well as for individuals, companies and tourists.
• The Ministry has explained that it expects activity in Antarctica to increase in the coming years, making the enforcement of a domestic set of protocols essential.
• A domestic legislation will further provide more validity to the Antarctic Treaty, and subsequent protocols, of which India is a signatory.
• The most significant part of the Bill is extending the jurisdiction of Indian courts to Antarctica, for crimes on the continent by Indian citizens, or foreign citizens who are a part of Indian expeditions.
• So far there was no recourse for crimes committed during an expedition, including crimes against the environment.

What is the Antarctica Treaty?

• The Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959 by 12 countries — Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, French Republic, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Union of South Africa, USSR, the UK of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the US of America, and came into force in 1961.
• The Treaty covers the area south of 60°S latitude.
• Currently, 54 nations are signatories to the Antarctic Treaty, but only 29 nations have a right to vote at the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings – this includes India.
• India signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1983 and received consultative status the same year.
• The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) was set up in 1980 for the protection and preservation of the Antarctic environment and, in particular, for the preservation and conservation of marine living resources in Antarctica.
• The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1991 and came into force in 1998.
  •  It designates Antarctica as a “natural reserve, devoted to peace and science”.

Objectives of the treaty:

To demilitarize Antarctica and establish it as a zone used for peaceful research activities and to set aside any disputes regarding territorial sovereignty, thereby ensuring international cooperation.

What are the main provisions of the Bill?

Extending of jurisdiction of Indian courts:

• While the most significant provision of the Bill remains the extending of jurisdiction of Indian courts to Antarctica, and the investigation and trial for crimes committed on the Arctic continent, the Bill is a comprehensive document of regulations, particularly keeping in mind environmental protection and the fragile nature of the region.

Permit system:

• The Bill introduces an elaborate permit system for any expedition or individual who wishes to visit the continent.
• These permits will be issued by a Committee that will be set up by the government.
• The Committee will comprise of the Secretary Earth Sciences ministry and will also have officials from Defence, Ministry of External Affairs, Finance, Fisheries, Legal Affairs, Science and Technology, Shipping, Tourism, Environment, Communication and Space ministries along with a member from the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research and National Security Council Secretariat and experts on Antarctica.
• The permits can be cancelled by the Committee if deficiencies are found or activities in contravention of the law are detected.

Commercial fishing

• While India does not carry out commercial fishing in the area, since every country has an allotted quota, the Bill now provides for this activity.
• However, strict guidelines are in place in accordance with international law.

Tourism activity

• Like fishing, while India does not carry out any tourism activity in the region, and very few Indian tourists visit Antarctica, when they do, they do so through foreign tour operators.
• Antarctica receives a number of tourists from foreign countries.
• The Bill now enables Indian tour operators to operate in Antarctica, although, like for commercial fishing, this is circumscribed by strict regulations.
• The Bill further enlists elaborate standards for environmental protection as well as waste management.

What are the prohibitions?

• The Bill prohibits drilling, dredging, excavation or collection of mineral resources or even doing anything to identify where such mineral deposits occur — the only exception is for scientific research with a granted permit.
• Damaging of native plants, flying or landing helicopters or operating vessels that could disturb birds and seals, using firearms that could disturb the birds and animals, remove soil or any biological material native to Antarctica, engage in any activity that could adversely change the habitat of birds and animals, kill, injure or capture any bird or animal have been strictly prohibited.
• The introduction of animals, birds, plants or microscopic organisms that are not native to Antarctica are also prohibited. Extraction of species for scientific research needs to be done through a permit. The central government can also appoint an officer to carry out inspections.

What is the penalty system that has been introduced?

• The draft Bill proposes the setting up of a separate designated court to try crimes committed in Antarctica.
• The Bill further sets high penal provisions — the lowest penalty comprising an imprisonment between one-two years and a penalty of Rs 10-50 lakh.
• Extraction of any species native to Antarctica, or introduction of an exotic species to the continent can draw imprisonment of seven years and a fine of Rs 50 lakh.
• For dumping of nuclear waste or a nuclear explosion, the imprisonment can range between 20 years to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs 50 crore.

What Are Electoral Bonds

Context:

Recently, the State Bank of India (SBI) shared data reporting that Donations to political parties through electoral bonds (EBs) have crossed the Rs 10,000-crore mark.

Relevance:

GS-II: Polity and Governance (Governance and Government Policies)

Dimensions of the Article:

1. What are Electoral Bonds?
2. Why have they attracted criticism?
3. Government’s response defending the Electoral Bonds scheme

What are Electoral Bonds?

• An electoral bond is like a promissory note that can be bought by any Indian citizen or company incorporated in India from select branches of State Bank of India.
• The citizen or corporate can then donate the same to any eligible political party of his/her choice.
• The bonds are similar to bank notes that are payable to the bearer on demand and are free of interest.
• An individual or party will be allowed to purchase these bonds digitally or through cheque.

Why have they attracted criticism?

• The central criticism of the electoral bonds scheme is that it does the exact opposite of what it was meant to do: bring transparency to election funding.
• For example, critics argue that the anonymity of electoral bonds is only for the broader public and opposition parties.
• The fact that such bonds are sold via a government-owned bank (SBI) leaves the door open for the government to know exactly who is funding its opponents.
• This, in turn, allows the possibility for the government of the day to either extort money, especially from the big companies, or victimise them for not funding the ruling party — either way providing an unfair advantage to the party in power.
• Further, one of the arguments for introducing electoral bonds was to allow common people to easily fund political parties of their choice but more than 90% of the bonds have been of the highest denomination (Rs 1 crore).
• Moreover, before the electoral bonds scheme was announced, there was a cap on how much a company could donate to a political party: 7.5 per cent of the average net profits of a company in the preceding three years. However, the government amended the Companies Act to remove this limit, opening the doors to unlimited funding by corporate India, critics argue.

Government’s response defending the Electoral Bonds scheme

• The Government said that the Electoral Bond Scheme allowed anonymity to political donors to protect them from “political victimisation”. The earlier system of cash donations had raised a “concern among the donors that, with their identity revealed, there would be competitive pressure from different political parties receiving donation”.
• The Ministry of Finance’s affidavit in the top court had dismissed the Election Commission’s version that the invisibility afforded to benefactors was a “retrogade step” and would wreck transparency in political funding.

What Is AlphaFold?

Context:

DeepMind, a company based in London and owned by Google, announced this week that it had predicted the three-dimensional structures of more than 200 million proteins using AlphaFold.

Relevance:

GS III- Science and Technology

Dimensions of the Article:

1. What is AlphaFold?
2. How does AlphaFold work?
3. What are the implications of this development?
4. Is AlphaFold one-of-a-kind tool in predicting protein structures?

What is AlphaFold?

• AlphaFold is an AI-based protein structure prediction tool.
• It is based on a computer system called deep neural network.
• Inspired by the human brain, neural networks use a large amount of input data and provides the desired output exactly like how a human brain would.
• The real work is done by the black box between the input and the output layers, called the hidden networks.
• AlphaFold is fed with protein sequences as input.
  • When protein sequences enter through one end, the predicted three-dimensional structures come out through the other. It is like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

How does AlphaFold work?

• It uses processes based on “training, learning, retraining and relearning.”
• The first step uses the available structures of 1,70,000 proteins in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) to train the computer model.
• Then, it uses the results of that training to learn the structural predictions of proteins not in the PDB.
• Once that is done, it uses the high-accuracy predictions from the first step to retrain and relearn to gain higher accuracy of the earlier predictions.
• By using this method, AlphaFold has now predicted the structures of the entire 214 million unique protein sequences deposited in the Universal Protein Resource (UniProt) database.

What are the implications of this development?

• Proteins are the business ends of biology, meaning proteins carry out all the functions inside a living cell.
  • Therefore, knowing protein structure and function is essential to understanding human diseases.
•  Scientists predict protein structures using x-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, or cryogenic electron microscopy.
  • These techniques are not just time-consuming, they often take years and are based mainly on trial-and-error methods.
• The development of AlphaFold changes all of that. It is a watershed movement in science and structural biology in particular.
  • AlphaFold has already helped hundreds of scientists accelerate their discoveries in vaccine and drug development since the first public release of the database nearly a year back.

Is AlphaFold one-of-a-kind tool in predicting protein structures?

• AlphaFold is neither flawless nor the only AI-based protein structure prediction tool.
• RoseTTaFold, developed by David Baker at the University of Washington in Seattle, U.S., is another tool. Although less accurate than AlphaFold, it can predict the structure of protein complexes.
• The development of AlphaFold is sure to make many scientists feel vulnerable, especially when they compare their efforts from years of hard work in the lab to that of a computer system. However, this is the time to adjust and take advantage of the new reality.

Lumpy Skin Disease

Context:

With the lumpy skin disease spreading fast among bovines in western and northern Rajasthan, cattle-rearers in the State are suffering heavy losses. The infection has spread to about 25,000 cattle in the last couple of months and resulted in the death of more than 1,200 animals.

Relevance:

Focus: GS-III Science and Technology

About Lumpy Skin Disease

• It is caused by infection of cattle or buffalo with the poxvirus Lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV).
• The virus is one of three closely related species within the genus capripoxvirus, the other two species being Sheeppox virus and Goatpox virus.

Symptoms:

• It appears as nodules of two to five-centimetre diameter all over the body, particularly around the head, neck, limbs, udder and genitals.
• The lumps gradually open up like large and deep wounds.

Transmission:

• The LSD virus easily spreads by blood-sucking insects like mosquitoes, flies and ticks and through saliva and contaminated water and food.

Spread: 

• Historically, LSD has remained confined to Africa, where it was first discovered in 1929, and parts of West Asia.
• LSD was first reported in Asia and the Pacific region in 2019 in north west China, Bangladesh and India. 

Treatment: 

• No treatment is available for the disease so prevention by vaccination is the most effective means of control.

African Swine Fever

---

Context:

Barely a week after about 500 pigs were culled in Kerala’s Wayanad district to prevent the spread of African swine fever detected there, new cases of the disease have been reported from there and Kannur.

Relevance:

Focus: GS-III Science and Technology

 Dimensions of this Article:

1. What is African Swine Fever?
2. What are the symptoms of African swine fever?

What is African Swine Fever?

• African Swine Fever (ASF) does not affect humans but can be catastrophic for pigs.
• In 2019, the outbreak of the disease swept through pig populations in China — which is the largest exporter and consumer of pork — leading to large-scale cullings.
• ASF is a severe viral disease that affects wild and domestic pigs typically resulting in an acute haemorrhagic fever.
• The disease has a case fatality rate (CFR) of almost 100 per cent.
• Its routes of transmission include direct contact with an infected or wild pig (alive or dead), indirect contact through ingestion of contaminated material such as food waste, feed or garbage, or through biological vectors such as ticks.
• Any country with a pig sector is at risk of the spread of the disease and its spread is most likely via meat arriving aboard ships and planes, which is incorrectly disposed of and by meat carried by individual travellers.

What are the symptoms of African swine fever?

• High Fever
• Weakness and Difficulty Standing
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Red or blue blotches on the skin (Particularly around ears and snout)
• Coughing or labored breathing