14 AUGUST 2023

Topic 1: National Medical Commission’s new guidelines

Context: These are some of the guidelines for the professional conduct of registered doctors of modern medicine recently notified by the ethics and medical registration board under the country’s apex regulator National Medical Commission (NMC).

About the guidelines:

• On commissions:
  • The guidelines warn against receiving commissions from pharmacies or diagnostic laboratories or attending conferences sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry.
• On birth control and abortions:
  • The comprehensive guidelines specifically mention that no doctor can deny birth control measures or abortions based on religious beliefs.
• On social media:
  • The document for the first time provides an 11-point guideline on doctors using social media.
  • It says that doctors may provide information or make announcements online, but the information should be verifiable and not mislead people.
  • The doctors have been asked not to discuss the specifics of the treatment of their patients or post their scans online.
  • The guideline also forbids doctors from purchasing likes, followers, or any fees to boost their profile on search algorithms.
  • Doctors should not participate in telemedicine platforms that provide ratings, reviews, and promotions of certain doctors by any means.
  • It adds that the educative material that doctors put out on social media must relate to their own field of expertise.
  • Doctors have also been asked to follow decorum when interacting online or speaking about their colleagues.
• On prescriptions and treatments
  • Doctors have been asked to write prescriptions in legible, capital letters.
  • They have been asked to prescribe only generic medicines, except for cases where medicines have a narrow therapeutic index and other exceptional cases.
    • Therapeutic index means drugs where a small difference in dosage may lead to adverse outcomes.
  • The guidelines also urge judicious use of fixed-dose combinations, with doctors being asked to prescribe only the approved, rational combinations.
  • They further ask doctors to educate people on generics being equivalent to branded medicines, urge pharmacies to stock them, and encourage people to purchase drugs from Jan Aushadhi Kendras and other generic drug outlets.
  • The telemedicine guidelines also list the type of drugs by the type of consultation provided.
• Doctor’s right to refuse treatment:
  • The guidelines give doctors the right to refuse treatment when patients or their family members are abusive, unruly, or violent.
  • The doctors have also been given the right to refuse treatment if the patient cannot pay them.
  • The guidelines forbid doctors from refusing treatment, however, in cases of medical emergencies.
  • They have been asked not to discriminate based on gender, race, religion, caste, social, economic or cultural grounds.
• Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
  • For the first time, the regulator has made it mandatory for doctors to continue to learn throughout their active years.
  • The guidelines say that doctors should have studied 30 credit points in their relevant fields at the time of renewal of their license every five years.
  • Even professors at medical college hospitals have to undergo such training despite staying in touch with academics.
  • There are guidelines for institutes that can provide these continuous training courses, which again have to be registered with NMC.
• Doctors participating in conferences
  • While the guidelines make it mandatory for doctors to undergo CPD, they say that none of these educational sessions or conferences can be sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry.
  • So if a doctor speaks at a symposium sponsored by the pharma companies, the doctor becomes liable.
  • Doctors should not be involved in any third-party educational activity like CPD, seminar, workshop, symposia, conference, etc which involves direct or indirect sponsorships from pharmaceutical companies
  • The guidelines say doctors or their families should not receive any gifts, travel facilities, hospitality, cash or monetary grants, consultancy fee or honorariums, or access to entertainment or recreation from pharmaceutical companies under any pretext.
  • This restriction does not apply to the salaries of doctors working for such companies.

About National Medical Commission National Medical Commission (NMC) is a regulatory body which regulates medical education and medical professionals.It replaced the Medical Council of India in 2020.The Commission:grants recognition of medical qualifications,gives accreditation to medical schools,grants registration to medical practitioners,monitors medical practice andassesses the medical infrastructure in India.

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Topic 2: Luna 25 vs Chandrayaan 3

Context: Russia’s Luna 25 could land on the moon days before Chandrayaan-3

Key details:

• Luna-25 was launched almost a month after the launch of Chandrayaan-3.
• It will reach before Chandrayan-3 because the Russian mission was able to follow a more direct trajectory towards the moon, owing to its lighter payload and more fuel storage.
• The lift-off mass for Luna 25 is just 1,750 kg as compared with the 3,900 kg of Chandrayaan-3.

How do the missions differ?

• Luna-25 does not carry a rover.
  • Chandrayaan-3 has a rover capable of moving around 500 metres.
• Payloads:
  • The Russian lander has eight payloads mainly to study the soil composition, dust particles in the polar exosphere, and most importantly, detect surface water.
  • The Indian mission also has scientific instruments to study the lunar soil as well as water-ice.
• About the lander:
  • The lander will carry four experiments on-board.
    • The Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA)
      • It will study these properties near the surface of the moon and how they change over time.
    • The Chandra’s Surface Thermo physical Experiment (ChaSTE) will study the thermal properties of the lunar surface near the polar region.
    • The Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) will measure the lunar quakes near the landing site and study the composition of the moon’s crust and mantle.
    • The LASER Retroreflector Array (LRA) is a passive experiment sent by NASA on-board the mission.
      • LRAs are optical instruments that act as a target for lasers and can be used for very precise tracking by spacecrafts in the lunar orbit.
• There are two scientific experiments on the rover.
  • The LASER Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) will determine the chemical and mineral composition of the lunar surface.
  • The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) will determine the composition of elements such as Magnesium, Aluminium, Silicon, Potassium, Calcium, Titanium, and Iron in the lunar soil and rocks.
• Time difference:
  • The main difference between the missions is that the India mission is built to last only one lunar day or 14 earth days.
    • This is because it does not have a heating mechanism to keep the electronics safe from the extreme cold temperatures during the lunar night.
  • The Russian mission, on the other hand, will work for a year, meaning it has heating mechanism as well as a power source other than just solar panels.

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Topic 3: Three bills to overhaul India’s Criminal Justice system (updated from 12^th August 2023)

Context: Union Home Minister introduced three bills in the Lok Sabha to replace the Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill respectively.

Changes in CrPC:

• Greater use of technology
  • Trials, appeal proceedings, recording of depositions including those of public servants and police officers, may be held in electronic mode.
  • The statement of the accused too can be recorded through video-conferencing.
  • Summons, warrants, documents, police reports, statements of evidence can be done in electronic form.
  • The search and seizure of articles and properties, the visit to a crime scene, and the recording of the victim’s statement shall be audio-videographed.
  • The name and address of an arrested accused and the nature of the offence will be maintained by a designated officer, and shall be prominently displayed including in digital mode in every police station and district headquarters.
  • Information to police too can be sent electronically, and it shall be taken on record on being signed by the person sending it, within three days.
• Communication devices
  • On the directions of a court or police officer, a person is required to produce any document and now devices that is likely to contain digital evidence for the purpose of an inquiry.
  • Electronic communication is defined as the communication of any written, verbal, pictorial information or video content transmitted (whether from one person to another, from one device to another or from a person to a device or from a device to a person).
• Use of handcuffs
  • A police officer may be permitted to use handcuffs while arresting a person if he is a habitual, repeat offender who escaped from custody, or has committed:
    • an organised crime,
    • terrorist act,
    • drug-related crime,
    • illegal possession of arms,
    • murder, rape, acid attack,
    • counterfeit currency,
    • human trafficking,
    • sexual offence against children or
    • offences against the state.
• Specific safeguards
  • Section 41A of CrPC — which has a prominent safeguard against arrests — will get a new number, Section 35.
  • It has an additional provision:
    • no person can be arrested without prior permission of an officer, not below the rank of a deputy SP, in cases where the offence is punishable with less than three years, or if the person is infirm above 60 years of age.
  • On receiving information in cognizable cases where the offence attracts 3-7 years, the police officer will conduct a preliminary inquiry to ascertain whether there exists a prima facie case to proceed within 14 days.
• Mercy petitions
  • There is a provision on procedures for the timeframe to file mercy petitions in death sentence cases.
  • After being informed by jail authorities about the disposal of the petition of a convict sentenced to death, he, or his legal heir or relative can submit a mercy petition within 30 days to the Governor.
  • If rejected, the person can petition the President within 60 days.
  • No appeal against the order of the President shall lie in any court.
• Sanction to prosecute
  • A decision to grant or reject sanction to prosecute a public servant must be reached by the government within 120 days of receiving a request.
  • If the government fails to do so, the sanction will be deemed to have been accorded.
  • No sanction is required in cases including sexual offences, trafficking, etc.
• Arms in procession
  • Section 144A of the CrPC gives the district magistrate the power to prohibit the carrying of arms in any procession, mass drill or mass training, to preserve the public peace.
  • While the provisions granting powers to the DM to pass orders in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger remain as they are in Section 144 of the CrPC, the provision to prohibit carrying arms does not find a mention.
• Samples without arrest
  • The Bill has provisions for the magistrate to order any person to give samples of his signature, handwriting, voice or finger impressions for the purpose of investigation without being arrested.
• Detention by police
  • There are provisions for police to detain or remove any person resisting, refusing or ignoring, or disregarding directions given as part of preventive action.
• The court can proceed in the absence of the accused:
  • A person accused of crime can be tried and convicted in his absence, as if he was present in court and has waived his right to a fair trial for all offences.
  • The Bill provides that if the accused is not present, the court can proceed to try him 90 days after the date on which charges are framed.
  • A trial in absentia is prescribed in stringent anti-terror legislation such as The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) where an alternative criminal law framework applies.
  • In such laws, the burden of proof is reversed with the onus on the accused to prove himself not guilty rather than the state carrying the duty to prove guilt against the accused.

Changes in IPC:

• New clause on false promise to marry
  • Within the proposed Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, is a clause on using “deceitful means” to promise to marry a woman.
  • Such a section does not exist in the IPC of 1860.
  • Deceitful means will include the false promise of employment or promotion, inducement or marrying after suppressing one’s identity.
  • Difference between a false promise to marry & breach of promise
    • Where the promise to marry is false, and the intention of the maker at the time was not to abide by it from the beginning itself, but to deceive the woman to convince her to engage in sexual relations, there is a misconception of fact that vitiates the woman’s consent.
    • Meanwhile, a breach of a promise itself cannot be said to be a false promise.
• Changes in numbers:
  • IPC Section 420: Cheating
    • IPC Section 420 – Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property has been replaced by section 316 in the proposed bill.
    • There is no section 420 in the current bill.
  • IPC Section 124A which relates to Sedition has been replaced by the same number section 124 but now it relates to the offence of wrongful restraint.
    • The word sedition does not exist in the proposed Sanhita.
    • Offences of the nature described as “sedition” in the IPC are covered in Section 150 of the proposed Sanhita, as “Acts endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India”.
  • IPC Section 302: Murder
    • IPC Section 302 prescribes the punishment for murder.
    • In the proposed bill, Section 302 describes the offence of “Snatching”.
    • In the proposed Sanhita, murder is covered under Section 99, which identifies the distinction between culpable homicide and murder.
    • Punishment for murder is laid down in Section 101 which also includes lynching.
  • IPC Section 307: Attempt to murder
    • Section 307 in the proposed Sanhita describes the offence of robbery and the punishment for it.
    • Attempt to murder is covered under Section 107 of the proposed Sanhita, which also prescribes the punishment for the offence.
  • IPC Sections 375 and 376: Rape
    • IPC Section 375 defines the offence of rape, and what constitutes rape and it includes the key exception for “marital rape.
    • IPC Section 376 lays down the punishment for rape, which is seven years to life imprisonment, with separate, tougher punishments for some kinds of convicts.
    • The proposed Sanhita does not have a Section 376.
    • The offence of rape is defined under Section 63 of the proposed Sanhita.
    • The exception for marital rape has also been retained.
  • IPC Section 120B: Criminal conspiracy
    • In the proposed Sanhita, Section 120 relates to “voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt on provocation”.
    • Criminal conspiracy is covered by Section 61(1).
  • IPC Section 505: Statements creating or promoting enmity
    • There is no section 505 in the proposed Sanhita.
    • Section 194 in the proposed Sanhita describes the offence of promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.
  • IPC Section 153A: Promoting enmity between different groups
    • Section 153 in the proposed Sanhita describes the offence of “Receiving property taken by war or depredation mentioned in sections 153 and 154”.
    • The offence of promoting enmity in the proposed Sanhita is covered under Section 194.
  • IPC Section 499: Defamation
    • The proposed new Sanhita does not have Section 499.
    • The offence of defamation is covered under Section 354 (1) of the new Sanhita.
    • Section 354(2) of the proposed Sanhita describes the punishment for defamation, and includes “community service”.
• Absence of IPC Section 309.
  • It punishes an attempt to die by suicide with a prison term and/ or a fine.
  • The law, brought by the British in the 19th century, reflected the thinking of the time when killing or attempting to kill oneself was considered a crime against the state as well as against religion.
  • Although the new Bill seemingly removes this section from the statute books, it doesn’t entirely decriminalise the offence of attempting to die by suicide.
  • Section 224 of the proposed BNS says that an attempt to commit suicide remains a punishable offence if it is made to stop a public servant from acting.
    • An example could be of a protester who attempts self-immolation to stop police from arresting other protesters.
  • Also, Section 224 of the proposed BNS allows community service as punishment, which is not available in IPC Section 309.
• Position of Section 377:
  • In the IPC, Section 377 — which mentioned carnal inter­course against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal did offer protection to non-minor males from rape.
  • Now, in the proposed BNS, this section is gone.
  • The absence of this section in the BNS can leave adult male victims of sexual assault without much recourse in the law.
  • However, the proposed BNS does mention “unnatural lust” in at least two places.
    • Section 38 says the right of private defence of one’s body will extend to the voluntary causing of death or any other harm to the assailant if the offence that occasions the exercise of the right is an assault with the intention of gratifying unnatural lust.
    • Section 138(4) punishes kidnapping or abducting a person to subject them to or put them in danger of being subjected to grievous hurt, or slavery, or to the unnatural lust of any person.
  • The proposed BNS does not define the term “unnatural lust”.

How was Section 377 decriminalized?In 2018, a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court led by then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra unanimously decriminalised consensual sex between two adults irrespective of their gender and partially struck down Section 377 of the IPC.However, in its ruling, the court also made it clear that other aspects dealing with unnatural sex with animals and children still remained in force, and that it was confining its order to consenting acts between two adults.

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Topic 4: How to make Urea more efficient as a fertilizer

Context: Recently, Prime Minister of India officially launched ‘Urea Gold’ fertiliser.

What are fertilisers?

• Any material of natural or synthetic origin mixed with soil or apply to plant tissues to provide plant nutrients is fertiliser.
• Some of the fertilisers are urea, Di-ammonium phosphate(DAP) and Muriate of Potash.

About Urea Gold:

• It is developed by the state-owned Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd (RCF).
• It is basically urea fortified with sulphur.
• Normal urea contains 46% of a single plant nutrient: Nitrogen or N.
• Urea Gold has 37% N plus 17% sulphur or S and aims at two things.
  • The first is to deliver S along with N.
    • Indian soils are deficient in S, which oilseeds and pulses – the country is significantly import-dependent in both – particularly require.
  • The second is to improve the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) of urea.
    • Coating of S over urea ensures a more gradual release of N.
    • By prolonging the urea action, the plants stay greener for a longer time.
    • Farmers tend to apply urea when they notice the leaves turning yellowish.
    • If the crop retains greenness for an extended period, they would reduce the frequency of application and use.

The problem with urea:

• Urea is India’s most widely used fertiliser.

• There are two concerns over rising urea consumption.
  • The first is imports, which accounted for 7.6 mt out of the total 35.7 mt sold last fiscal.
    • Even with regard to domestically-manufactured urea, the feedstock used – natural gas – is mostly imported.
    • India’s nearly 36-mt annual consumption of urea is today next only to China’s 51 mt, with the latter’s production largely coal-based.
  • The second concern is NUE.
    • Barely 35% of the N applied through urea in India is actually utilised by crops to produce harvested yields.
    • The balance 65% N is unavailable to the plants, much of it lost through release into the atmosphere as ammonia gas or leaching below the ground after conversion into nitrate.
    • Declining NUE, from an estimated 48% in the early 1960s, has resulted in farmers applying more and more fertiliser for the same yield.

The solution: Urea Gold

• India cannot sustain the above increase in consumption of urea – or even di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), muriate of potash and other fertilisers containing just primary nutrients: N, P (phosphorus) and K (potassium).
• India hardly has any natural gas or rock phosphate, potash and sulphur reserves.
• Hence it shouldn’t encourage the consumption of these commodity fertilisers. 
• Instead, they must be coated with secondary nutrients (S, calcium and magnesium) as well as micronutrients (zinc, boron, manganese, molybdenum, iron, copper and nickel).
• Benefits of coating:
  • Coating allows urea or DAP to be used as “carrier products” for delivering secondary and micro nutrients to crops.
  • It improves their own N and P use efficiency through synergetic effects and controlled release.
  •  In the case of urea, it helps reduce losses through ammonia volatilisation and nitrate leaching.

Consumption of fertilizer in India

• India has consumed about 500 LMT of fertilizer over the last ten years.
• Farmers prefer to use an excessive amount of urea as non-urea varieties such as MoP, DAP, and complex are relatively expensive.
• Higher cost also leads to excessive use of urea and adverse impact on crops.
• India is a major buyer of Diammonium Phosphate (DAP).
• India is the second-largest consumer and the third-largest producer of urea in the world.
• India consumes around 33 million tonnes of urea annually, of which almost 70% is domestically produced and the rest is imported from other countries.

Fertiliser subsidy by the government

• The Agriculture sector in India accounts for 15% of the USD 2.7 trillion economy and over 60 per cent of the Indian population’s source of income comes from the sector.
• To make fertilisers affordable to the farmers, the government of India pays a subsidy to fertiliser producers which allows farmers to buy fertilisers at below-market rates.
• The government has taken numerous steps to reduce urea consumption by introducing neem-coated urea and also promoting organic and zero-budget farming.

Recent challenges

• During the Covid-19 pandemic, China, the major exporter of fertiliser, reduced their exports due to a dip in production, which impacted India as the country was  importing 40–45% of its phosphatic imports from China.
• The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has also affected the global price as the supply of urea is derived from natural gas (Russia is the major supplier).
• The demand for fertilisers has grown in different parts of the world including the US, Brazil and Europe.

What is a nano urea liquid?

• Nano urea liquid is a nanotechnology-based fertilizer to increase the growth of crops by restoring nitrogen to plants as an alternative to conventional urea.
• It enhances the nutritional quality and productivity of the crop along with improving the underground water quality. 
• The Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), a cooperative society, has developed and patented nano urea liquid technology.
• When sprayed on leaves, Nano Urea easily enters through stomata and other openings and is assimilated by the plant cells.
• It is easily distributed through the phloem from the source to sink inside the plant as per its need.
• Unutilised nitrogen is stored in the plant vacuole and is slowly released for proper growth and development of the plant.

Way forward:

• The government currently permits coating of urea with zinc and sulphur.
• Urea apart, an additional subsidy of Rs 300 and Rs 500 per tonne is being provided for P&K fertilisers fortified with boron and zinc, respectively.
• These additional rates aren’t attractive enough for companies to market zincated urea, boronated DAP or any of the 20-odd fortified products recognised under the Fertiliser Control Order.
• This is despite the proven benefits of micronutrient fortification.
• For now, there’s not much incentive for fortification.
• Ideally, the coating should be carried out at the factory itself, which will guarantee even more uniform distribution of micronutrients and save the farmer the hassles of mixing.
• The government can probably set free the MRPs for all coated fertilisers.

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Topic 5: PC import curbs

Context: Recently, the government restricted the import of laptops, tablets, all-in-one personal computers, ultra-small form factor computers and servers.

Key details:

• The import of these products would be allowed against a valid licence for restricted imports.
• Import of all items categorised under the Harmonised System of Nomenclature (HSN) 8471, that is, automated data processing machines and units, would be restricted.
• A valid licence would be required to import them for sale to consumers.
• Exemption to licensing requirements would be extended in four circumstances.
  • First, purchasing a single unit of the mentioned products on an e-commerce website that are being brought into the country through post or courier.
    • It would only draw relevant duties.
  • This also applies to (reimport of) products meant for repair and return.
  • Permission has been given to import up to 20 such items in a consignment for purposes entailing research and development, testing, benchmarking and evaluation, repair and re-export or product development purposes.
  • Following their intended use, the products would either have to be destroyed beyond use or re-exported.
  • Items may be imported if they serve as an essential part of an entity’s capital good.

Need of the move:

• The key objectives are:
  • to reduce the dependence on imports,
  • ensure the country has access to trusted hardware and systems and
  • increase domestic manufacturing of products.
    • On domestic manufacturing, the government had introduced the production-linked incentive (PLI) Scheme 2.0 for IT hardware.

Status of domestic production:

• Domestic production of electronic goods increased to $87.1 billion in 2021-22 from $49 billion in 2016-17, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15%.
• The country’s imports with respect to the products in discussion stood at approximately $10.1 billion in FY 2022-23, about 13% lower on a year-over-year basis.
• The demand for laptops and tablets were being largely met through imports.

Way forward:

• Concerns mostly revolve around accessibility to stocks and a potential impact on prices.
• Global companies operating in India have sought that the implementation be deferred by 9-12 months to enable them time to ramp up domestic production and understand the licensing process.
• For the longer term, vendors would be able to arrange for the required licences.
• Customers will advance their purchases anticipating price increase going forward.

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Topic 6: Flying fox bats

Context: India’s largest species of bats, named after a canine fabled to be sly, spends 7% of its day-roosting time being environmentally vigilant, a new study has said.

About Flying fox:

• The nectar and fruit-eating flying fox (Pteropus giganteus) is generally considered a vermin as they raid orchards.
• It is a keystone species causing seed dispersals of many plants in tropical systems.
  • A keystone species is one that has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance, impacting many other organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and numbers of other species in an ecological community.
• It is a species of flying fox native to the Indian subcontinent.
• It is one of the largest bats in the world.
• It is of interest as a disease vector, as it is capable of transmitting several viruses to humans.
• It is nocturnal and feeds mainly on ripe fruits, such as mangoes and bananas, and nectar.
• The Indian flying fox is found across the Indian Subcontinent, including in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Tibet, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
• Most bats forage at night and spend more than half of their lives roosting during the day in camps or colonies.
• Being external roosters, the flying fox is exposed to predators and disturbances apart from environmental indicators such as heat and light.
• It had a vermin status under the Schedule V of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 until it was put on the Schedule II list, entailing a higher degree of protection.

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Topic 7: Law on protection of Indian manuscripts

Context: The government is planning to introduce the National Manuscripts Bill, 2023.

Key details:

• What is a manuscript?
  • A manuscript is a handwritten composition on paper, bark, cloth, metal, palm leaf or any other material dating back at least seventy-five years that has significant scientific, historical or aesthetic value.
  • Lithographs and printed volumes are not manuscripts.
  • Manuscripts are distinct from historical records such as epigraphs on rocks, firmans, revenue records which provide direct information on events or processes in history.
  • Manuscripts have knowledge content.
  • While 75% of the existing Indian manuscripts are in Sanskrit, 25% are in regional languages
• Need for the law:
  • The Bakhshali manuscript, an ancient Indian mathematical text written on birch bark, is considered to be the earliest recorded example of the use of zero.
    • The seminal text, dating back roughly to the third or fourth century AD, is in one of the Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford
  • Many other Indian manuscripts lie in libraries across the globe or are with private collectors, both in India and abroad.
• Aim of the law:
  • The primary aim of the Bill is to:
    • document and catalogue Indian heritage texts wherever they may be and in India or abroad,
    • maintain accurate and up-to-date information about them, and
    • detail the conditions under which they may be consulted.
• National Manuscripts Authority:
  • The Bill envisages setting up a 10-member National Manuscripts Authority (NMA).
  • While the Culture Minister will be the Chairperson of this body, the members will include:
    • the Secretaries of Culture, Finance and Education,
    • the Vice-Chancellor of Central Sanskrit University,
    • special invitees representing the States, and
    • private agencies
  • The National Manuscripts Authority will be the apex policy-making body with regard to digitisation, conservation, preservation, editing, and publication work of manuscripts.
  • The NMA will have the powers of a civil court to regulate the allocation of access to manuscripts and will also have an investigation wing for the purpose of conducting an inquiry into thefts and desecration of texts.
  • It will also ensure that the manuscripts are not lost by damage or theft.
  • It can collaborate with universities and other educational institutions or agencies to provide fellowships and scholarships for study of manuscripts.
  • The NMA will also prepare a dedicated digital portal for indexing, cataloguing, uploading, and downloading copies of manuscripts.
  • The special body will be vested with the right to take over a manuscript from a private owner based on the uniqueness and the importance of the content.

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Topic 8: The debate around Article 370

Context: The ongoing arguments before a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 throw considerable light on the history behind the unique status enjoyed by the State until August 2019, when the Centre removed it.

Why was J&K given special status?

• Jammu and Kashmir was accorded special status because of the circumstances in which it acceded to India soon after Independence.
• By October 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh was faced with regular military attacks from the Pakistan side.
• There was mass infiltration by heavily armed tribesmen from the North-West Frontier into Kashmir.
• In a letter to India’s Governor-General, Lord Mountbatten, on October 26, 1947, he sought help from India.
• He attached an ‘Instrument of Accession’ with the letter.
• It was not unconditional.
• He specified matters on which the Dominion legislature may make laws for Jammu and Kashmir, but the rest of the powers were to be retained by the State.
  • These subjects were Defence, Foreign Affairs and Communications.

Was the accession temporary?

• While India was then ruled under the provisions of the Government of India Act, 1935, Jammu and Kashmir had its own Constitution since 1939.
• In the Instrument of Accession, Hari Singh had laid down a condition that it cannot be altered unless he accepted the change.
• When Article 370 was adopted in the Constituent Assembly of India, care was taken to see that it reflected the clauses and spirit of the Instrument of Accession.
• Hence, the key issue of whether the status could have been abrogated unilaterally is being argued in historical terms, and not merely in legal terms.

Features of Article 370

• It falls under a heading ‘Temporary provisions with respect to the State of Jammu and Kashmir’.
• It has three core principles:
  • On items in the Union List and Concurrent List, the power of Parliament to make laws for the State will be limited to those matters that correspond to those specified in the Instrument of Accession; and, even that will be in ‘consultation’ with the State government.
  • On other matters in these Lists, Parliament can make laws for the State only with the State government’s ‘concurrence’.
    • This is why until before the abrogation, Indian laws did not automatically apply to Jammu and Kashmir.
  • Article 1 (which declares India a Union of States) and Article 370 itself were made applicable as such to J&K.
    • However, the rest of the Constitution of India would be applicable only through Orders passed by the President from time to time with exceptions and modifications.
  • The President could declare it inoperative if there is such a recommendation from the State Constituent Assembly.

How was the special status removed?

• On August 5, 2019, President Ram Nath Kovind initially issued an Order with the concurrence of the State government of Jammu and Kashmir.
• As the State was then under President’s Rule, it is presumed that the State Governor gave such concurrence.
• The Order stated that all the provisions of the Constitution of India, as amended from time to time, will be applicable to Jammu and Kashmir.
• It superseded the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954, and the amendments made to it in subsequent years.
• Another resolution was adopted in Parliament to recommend that Article 370 be declared inoperative.
• Parliament was acting on behalf of the J&K Legislative Assembly, which itself was treated as the equivalent of the State’s Constituent Assembly.
• The President issued another order declaring Article 370 inoperative except for a clause that declared that all provisions of the Constitution will apply to J&K.