09 MAY 2023

Topic 1: Samarth Ramdas

Context: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has demanded an “unconditional apology” from a person making the claim that Saint Samarth Ramdas was Maratha ruler Chhatrapati Shivaji’s guru, and that it was Ramdas who gave Shivaji his saffron flag.

Who was Samarth Ramdas?

• Samarth Ramdas also known as Sant Ramdas or Ramdas Swami was a Hindu saint, philosopher, poet, writer and spiritual master.
• A devotee of Lord Ram and Hanuman, he toured the entire Indian subcontinent for 12 years.
• His paean to Lord Hanuman, Maruti Stotra, is still commonly recited by school children as well as wrestlers akhadas across Maharashtra.
• Ramdas was a proponent of Dvaita, a philosophy first proposed by the 13th-century Indian philosopher, Madhvacharya.
• His literary works:
  • Manache Shlok
  • Dasbodh
  • Shree Maruti Stotra
  • Aatmaaram
  • 11-Laghu Kavita
  • Shadripu Nirupan
  • Maan Panchak
  • Chaturthmaan
  • Raamayan

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Topic 2: Sovereignty of India

Context: Prime Minister of India alleged that the Congress was “openly advocating” Karnataka’s secession from the Indian Union, by using the phrase ‘sovereignty of Karnataka’.

What does the word ‘sovereignty’ mean?

• Sovereignty is simply the idea of having supreme authority over a defined territory.
• From the 17th century onwards, Western philosophers used the concept to describe the supremacy of the state over the people being governed.
• Thomas Hobbes:
  • In exchange for the protection offered by the government to its people, and its role in keeping society cohesive and at peace through its control over law and order, the state had a legitimate claim to sovereignty.

• Sovereignty under India’s Constitution
  • The word sovereignty appears in the beginning of the Preamble to the Constitution of India, as the first attribute of the independent republic of India.
    • WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC.
• Sovereignty’ is invoked in the Indian Constitution to declare the ultimate sovereignty of the people of India and that the Constitution rests on their authority.
• Sovereignty is mentioned in the Constitution under Fundamental Duties under Article 51A(c):
  • It is the duty of all citizens to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.
• It is also mentioned in the oaths for positions like the Chief Justices,Union Ministers and Members of Parliament under the Third schedule:
  • I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established, that I will uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India

Relationship of the Indian states with the sovereign Union

• Article 1(1) of the Constitution sets out the fundamental relationship between the states and the Centre: India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.
  • The Indian federation is not a result of an agreement by the units, and
  • The component units have no freedom to secede or break away from it.

What provisions of the Constitution attest to the superior position of the Centre?

• Amendment to the Constitution:
  • In India, except in a few specified matters affecting the federal structure, the States need not even be consulted in the matter of amendment to the bulk of the Constitution.
• Position of Governors:
  • Governors in states, seen as representatives of the Union in the States, are appointed “during the pleasure” of the President.
• Freedom of speech:
  • The Sixteenth Amendment of 1963, amending Article 19(2) of the Constitution, which details the “reasonable restrictions” on the right to freedom of speech (under Article 19), laid down that even the advocacy of succession will not be protected under law.
• Right to alter boundaries:
  • The right to alter the boundaries of states and to create new states lies with Parliament alone.
  • The Constitution offers no guarantee to the States against their territorial integrity without their consent since it was not a result of an ‘agreement’ between the States.

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Topic 3: Rheumatoid arthritis

Context: Newly synthesised biocompatible drug delivery system combined with anti-inflammatory drugs brings potential solution for rheumatoid arthritis

Key details:

• Scientists explored the potential of the anti-inflammatory FDA-approved drug 9-aminoacridine (9AA) and the natural compound caffeic acid (CA), generally found in coffee or wine conjugated to nano micelles, an amphiphilic molecule that forms spherical structure when immersed in water, for the treatment of RA.
• It can help ameliorate the pain associated with the disease as well as cure the disease by restoring cartilage integrity which provides the flexibility to the bone.
• Inflammation plays an important role in the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
• As a result, strategies for treating RA have been largely focused on providing symptomatic relief from pain and permanent cure is not available.
• Methotrexate (MTX) is considered as golden standard for the therapy of the disease but due to its severe side effects, researchers are currently looking for alternate drugs or strategies to overcome the disease.

What is rheumatoid arthritis (RA)?

• Rheumatoid arthritis, or RA, is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease, which means that your immune system attacks healthy cells in your body by mistake, causing inflammation (painful swelling) in the affected parts of the body.
• RA mainly attacks the joints, usually many joints at once.
• The tissue damage can cause long-lasting or chronic pain, unsteadiness (lack of balance), and deformity (misshapenness).
• Causes
  • RA is the result of an immune response in which the body’s immune system attacks its own healthy cells. 
  • The specific causes of RA are unknown.
• Treatment:          
  • Treatment for RA usually includes the use of medications that slow disease and prevent joint deformity, called disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs).
  • Biological response modifiers (biologicals) are medications that are an effective second-line treatment. 
  • In addition to medications, people can manage their RA with self-management strategies proven to reduce pain and disability.

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Topic 4: Project SMART

Context: The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and Ministry of Railways jointly signed an MoU with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for ‘Station Area Development along Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail’ (Project-SMART).

Key details:

• Project-SMART envisages to develop surrounding areas of Mumbai – Ahmedabad High Speed Railway (MAHSR) Stations.
• Aim:
  • To enhance accessibility and convenience of commuters & other stakeholders and
  • To promote economic activities in the vicinity of station areas.

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Topic 5: The lack of a drug recall law in India

Context: We have never witnessed domestic or foreign pharmaceutical companies recall substandard or mislabelled drugs in India.

Key details:

• India has been mulling the creation of a mandatory recall law for substandard drugs since 1976, and yet no law exists that mandates such medicine be removed from the market to this day.
• The issue has come up repeatedly in regulatory meetings in 1989, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2016, 2018 and 2019 but none of them resulted in amendments to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act to create a mandatory recall mechanism.
• In 2012, certain recall guidelines were published but they lacked the force of law.

Why is there no recall law?

• Less concerns for public health:
  • The Drug Regulation Section of the Union Health Ministry is not up to the task of tackling complex drug regulatory issues due to a combination of factors including:
    • apathy,
    • lack of expertise and
    • a greater interest in enabling the growth of the pharmaceutical industry than protecting public health.
• India’s highly fragmented regulatory structure:
  • Each State have its own drug regulator.
  • But despite the fragmentation, drugs manufactured in one State can seamlessly cross borders to be sold in all States around the country.
  • To create an effective recall mechanism, the responsibility of recalling drugs has to be centralised, with one authority wielding the legal power to hold companies liable for failures to recall drugs from across the country.
  • However, both the pharmaceutical industry and state drug regulators have resisted greater centralisation of regulatory powers.
• Awareness in public:
  • India’s drug regulators are aware of the fact that a mandatory drug recall system will bring to public attention the state of affairs in India’s pharmaceutical industry.

Implications of not recalling substandard drugs:

• People, including children, are almost certainly dying or suffering from adverse health events because substandard drugs are not swiftly removed from the market.
• Dozens of drugs fail random-testing in government laboratories.

Conclusion:

• Ideally, these drugs will be necessarily recalled in a transparent manner, with the people being informed of the failures.
• If this were to actually happen in India, the people would be flooded with alerts on an almost daily basis.
• It would increase the pressure on drug regulators to institute extensive reforms.

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Topic 6: Regulations to curtail misleading food ads

Context: Recently, the Advertisement Monitoring Committee at the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) flagged 32 fresh cases of food business operators (FBOs) making misleading claims and advertisements.

What are the regulations?

• FSSAI uses the Food Safety and Standards (Advertising & Claims) Regulations, 2018 which specifically deals with food (and related products).
• The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA)’s regulations cover goods, products and services.
• The Programme and Advertising Codes prescribed under the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994 stipulate that advertisements must not imply that the products have some special or miraculous or supernatural property or quality, which is difficult of being proved.
• The FSSAI seeks that the advertisements and claims be truthful, unambiguous, meaningful, not misleading and help consumers to comprehend the information provided.
• The claims must be scientifically substantiated by validated methods of characterising or quantifying the ingredient or substance that is the basis for the claim.

Distinction between ‘natural’ and ‘fresh’:

• Natural:
  • A food product can be referred to as ‘natural’ if it is a single food derived from a recognised natural source and has nothing added to it.
  • It should only have been processed to render it suitable for human consumption.
  • Composite foods, which are essentially a mixture of plant and processed constituents, cannot call themselves ‘natural’, instead, they can say ‘made from natural ingredients’.
• Fresh:
  • ‘Fresh’ can be used for products which are not processed in any manner other than washing, peeling, chilling, trimming, cutting or irradiation such that it remains safe for consumption with the basic characteristics unaltered.
  • Those with additives (to increase shelf life) may instead use ‘freshly frozen’, ‘fresh frozen’, or ‘frozen from fresh’ to contextualise that it was quickly frozen while fresh.

Distinction between ‘pure’ and ‘original’

• Pure:
  • ‘Pure’ is to be used for single-ingredient foods to which nothing has been added and which are devoid of all avoidable contamination.
  • Unavoidable contaminants are within prescribed controls.
• Original
  • ‘Original’ is used to describe food products made to a formulation, with a traceable origin that has remained unchanged over time.
  • They do not contain replacements for any major ingredients.
  • It may similarly be used to describe a unique process which has remained unchanged over time, although the product may be mass-produced.

Nutritional claims

• Nutritional claims may either be about the specific contents of a product or comparisons with some other foodstuff.
• Claims of equivalence may be used in the labelling provided that it gives the equivalent nutritional value as the reference food.
  • For example, if you say, that there is Vitamin D in my product, we need evidence to substantiate that there indeed is Vitamin D in your product.

About FSSAIFood Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is a statutory body established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.FSSAI is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of food safety.It is headed by a non-executive chairperson, appointed by the Central Government, either holding or has held the position of not below the rank of Secretary to the Government of India.The FSSAI consists of a chairperson & 22 members.The FSSAI functions under the administrative control of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.Statutory powers:Framing of regulations to lay down food safety standardsLaying down guidelines for accreditation of laboratories for food testingProviding scientific advice and technical support to the Central GovernmentContributing to the development of international technical standards in foodCollecting and collating data regarding food consumption, contamination, emerging risks, etc.Disseminating information and promoting awareness about food safety and nutrition in India.Regulatory frameworkThe Food Safety and Standards Act (FSS), 2006 is the primary law for the regulation of food products.This act also sets up the formulation and enforcement of food safety standards in India.The FSSAI appoints food safety authorities on the state level.

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Topic 7: MiG-21

Context: Three civilians were killed after an Indian Air Force (IAF) MiG-21 fighter jet crashed into a house in Rajasthan.

About MiG-21:

• The MiG-21s are among the six fighter jets presently flown by the Indian Air Force (IAF).
• The MiG-21s are single engine, single-seater multi-role fighter/ground attack aircraft.
• It was inducted into the IAF in the early 1960s.
• It’s NATO reporting name is ‘Fishbed’.
• It was designed as supersonic jet interceptor aircraft by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau (OKB) of the erstwhile Soviet Union. 
• The aircraft, which made its maiden flight on 16 June 1955, holds the record of being the most produced supersonic jet in aviation history.
• The MiG-21 has had a long production run from 1959 to 1985 and underwent updates and modification thereafter in many countries including India.
• The first single-engine MiG-21 aircraft came into the air force in 1963.
• The aircraft first underwent an upgrade in the 1970s and the variant was known as the MiG-21 Bis.
• The MiG-21 Bisons are expected to be out of service completely by 2024. 

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Topic 8: Gold rush by central banks

Context: The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) gold reserves touched 794.64 metric tonnes in fiscal 2023, an increase of nearly 5 per cent over fiscal 2022.

Why are these reserves increasing?

• As part of the diversification process, the RBI has been adding gold to its reserves.
• It is considered a more safe, secure, and liquid asset, to safeguard its returns amid global uncertainty and a rising inflation scenario.
• As on March 31, 2023, the country’s total foreign exchange reserves stood at $578.449 billion, and gold reserves were pegged at $45.2 billion.
• In value terms (USD), the share of gold in the total foreign exchange reserves increased from about 7 per cent at the end of March 2022 to about 7.81 per cent at the end of March 2023.

Why is the RBI purchasing so much gold?

• The RBI has been stepping up its gold purchases over the last few years in order to diversify its overall reserves.
• This change in strategy has been driven by:
  • negative interest rates in the past,
  • the weakening of the dollar and
  • growing geopolitical uncertainty.

• Central banks want security, safety, liquidity and return.
• Gold is a safe asset to have as it is liquid, has an international price which is transparent, and as it can be traded anytime.
• The two key drivers of central banks’ decisions to hold gold are:
  • its performance during times of crisis, and
  • its role as a long-term store of value.