GS Analyst
Daily Current Affairs

The Supreme Court ruled that its 2014 judgment in Subramanian Swamy vs Director CBI, which struck down Section 6A of the 1946 Delhi Special Police Establishment Act (DSPE Act), would have a retrospective effect. 

• The clause in question- Section 6A of the DPSE Act prescribed that the CBI should obtain prior sanctions to investigate corruption cases against an officer of the rank of joint secretary and above.
• This provision was struck down as ‘unconstitutional’ in the 2014 judgment in the case Subramanian Swamy v. Union of India.
• The Court had held that there cannot be any distinction between public servants.
• The 2014 ruling had, however, not clarified what would happen to existing cases being probed by the central agency.
• A constitution bench was, therefore, constituted to examinewhether the 2014 decision would affect existing corruption cases.

Key-highlights of the present ruling

• The Constitution Benchhas now answered this question in the affirmative and held that the 2014 judgment would have retrospective effect.
• Once a law is declared unconstitutional, violative of Part-III of the Constitution, then it would be held to be void ab initio, stillborn, unenforceable, and non est in view of Article 13(2) of the Constitution and its interpretation by authoritative pronouncements.
• The Court clarified that Section 6A will be considered as never having been in force.

What does it mean?

• This means that the CBI no longer needs to seek prior permission from the government to investigate or prosecute cases filed before 2014, the date when the provision was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
• This verdict is likely to have a significant impact on corruption and other criminal cases initiated against government servants between 2003 and 2018 when the provision of Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act came into force.

The surge in mosquito-borne diseases due to urbanization and climate change calls for innovative mosquito control approaches. Sequencing and genetic manipulation of mosquito genomes offer promising tools for effective disease prevention. 

What is gene drive?

• Scientists worldwide have developed various genetic modification approaches. A major one in this endeavour is gene-drive technology, whose end result is for mosquitoes to selectively inherit some genes, rather than the inheritance to follow the rules of Mendelian genetics.
• A gene drive is a type of genetic engineering technique that modifies genes so that they don’t follow the typical rules of heredity.
• Gene drives dramatically increase the likelihood that a particular suite of genes will be passed onto the next generation, allowing the genes to rapidly spread through a population and override natural selection. 
• This technology was conceived by Austin Burt, professor at Imperial College London, in a 2003 paper published in Royal Society Proceedings.

How does it work?

• Gene drives work by using directed repair gene editing.
• This enables the insertion of a new gene, called the driven gene, at a particular cut site through the use of a donor template.
  
  

Scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have made a significant breakthrough in cancer research by developing a new method to detect and kill cancer cells.

About the method

• The team has created hybrid nanoparticles.
• The hybrid nanoparticles are composed of gold and copper sulphide, which can destroy cancer cells through heat generation and enable their detection using sound waves.
• The hybrid nanoparticles exhibit photothermal, oxidative stress, and photoacoustic properties.
• Therapeutic potential:
  • When exposed to light, these particles absorb it and generate heat, effectively killing cancer cells.
  • Additionally, they produce toxic singlet oxygen atoms that further contribute to the destruction of cancer cells.
• Diagnostic capabilities:
  • They can absorb light and generate ultrasound waves, enabling the detection of cancer cells with high contrast.
  • This property could enhance the accuracy of cancer diagnosis as sound waves scatter less than light when passing through tissues, providing clearer images and more precise measurements of oxygen saturation in tumors.
• This innovative approach was detailed in a studypublished in ACS Applied Nano Materials.

In India's informal economy, Gresham's Law is relevant because fake money and low-quality coins often mix with real currency, affecting the overall value of money in circulation.

What is Gresham’s law?

• Gresham’s law refers to the dictum that “bad money drives out good.”
• The law comes into play when the exchange rate between two moneys or currencies is fixed by the government at a certain ratio that is different from the market exchange rate.
• Such price fixing causes the undervalued currency — that is, the currency whose price is fixed at a level below the market rate — to go out of circulation.
• The overvalued currency, on the other hand, remains in circulation but it does not find enough buyers.

• It should be noted that the market exchange rate is essentially an equilibrium price at which the supply of a currency is equal to the demand for the currency.
• Also, the supply of a currency in the market rises as its price rises and falls as its price falls; while, on the other hand, the demand for a currency falls as its price rises and rises as its price falls.
• So, when the price of a currency is fixed by the government at a level below the market exchange rate, the currency’s supply drops while demand for the currency rises.
• Thus a price cap can lead to a currency shortage with demand for the currency outpacing supply.

Example

• In India, there is one-rupee note and one-rupee coin.
• Both are forms of legally good money. Yet, the public sometimes prefer one form of a particular denomination to ano­ther, e.g., they may prefer the paper note to the rupee note.
• If there is such a preference for one form of money rather than another, it is an example of Gresham’s Law in operation.

The government recently shared images of India’s Matsya 6000 submersible on social media.

What is Matsya 6000?

• The Matsya 6000 is a three-person submersible that will be able to go 6,000 metres under the sea.
• Meaning ‘fish’ in Hindi, the vessel is being developed by Chennai’s National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT).
• Made of 80mm-thick titanium alloy, it will be able to withstand a pressure 600 times greater than that at sea level.
  • All research missions globally rely on titanium
• The Matsya 6000 will be able to operate from 12 to 16 hours straight and will have an oxygen supply of 96 hours.
• It will feature the ultra short baseline acoustic positioning system (USBL).
  • This will allow the mothership carrying the transponder to send information and the submersible to respond.
  • This will let the mothership know where the submersible is.
• It will likely undergo trials in 2024 in the Bay of Bengal.
• It is part of India’s Samudrayaan project to explore the deep sea. The Samudrayaan project is part of India’s Rs 4,077-crore Deep Ocean Mission.

History (GS-I)

Banglar Mati BanglarJol

The West Bengal Assembly adopted a resolution declaring Banglar Mati, BanglarJol (Bengal’s soil, Bengal’s Water) song written by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore as the state anthem.

About

• Written in 1905 in the context of Viceroy Lord Curzon’s partition of Bengal, the song became an anthem for those fighting against Britain’s divide and rule policy. 
• This song became an anthem of the movement against Bengal’s partition, sung during rapturous processions and demonstrations that sought to emphasise Bengali unity.

Economy (GS-III)

Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS)

Non-resident Indians (NRIs) living in the UK are set to join a select group who can directly pay bills on behalf of their family in India through the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS). 

About

• Bharat Bill Payments System is an integrated bill payment system or a platform which acts as a connection between various billers and users.
• It offers customers the convenience of payment by cataloguing various utility providers under one platform.
• It acts as a central reference for a customer who wants to make different payments — whether utility bills, loan repayments, FasTag recharge, and so on.
• BBPS was conceptualised by the Reserve Bank of India in 2013 and is a product of the National Payments Council of India (NPCI).
• It was piloted in 2016 and went live a year later. By 2019, BBPS onboarded all recurring payments.
• There are two key components in the BBPS system —
  • Bharat Bill Payment Central Unit (BBPCU): The BBPCU is NPCI, which lays downs the operating procedures and standards for BBPS.
  • Bharat Bill Payment Operating Units (BBPOUs): BBPOUs adhere to the rules set by BBPCU.

Economy (GS-III)

Govt relaxes import duty

The fruit growers in Kashmir are concerned after the Centre lifted additional duties (imposed in 2019) on apples, walnuts and almonds imported from the United States. 

About Import duty

• Import dutyis a type of tax levied on the import and specific exports of a nation's customs authorities.
• The valueof goods will generally decide the amount of import duty that will be imposed.
• Sometimes, import duty is also referred to as customs duty, import tax, import tariff, or tariff.
• The import duties have two different purposes:
  • Increasing incometo the local government
  • Encouraging the individuals to purchase the local products which don't attract any import duties.

Economy (GS-III) 

Nifty 50 crosses historic 20,000 milestone

The National Stock Exchange's flagship index, Nifty 50, has made history by reaching the 20,000 milestone.

What is Nifty 50?

• Nifty 50, or Nifty, is the flagship index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and consists of the top 50 companies listed on the exchange based on their market cap.
• Also known as large-cap or blue-chip stocks, companies included on the index belong to diverse sectors like auto, metals, pharma, media, IT, FMCG, telco, and energy.
• The index is reconstituted every six months.
• The Nifty 50 today uses the float-adjusted and market capitalisation-weighted method. 

Reason behind surge in performance:

• improving global cues
• a strong rally in heavyweight stocks 
• healthy fund inflows
• robust macroeconomic indicators
• improved sentiment after the success of G20 

Miscellaneous

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prizes for 2022

12 scientists have been named as the winners of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prizes for 2022.

Key-highlights

• The prize-winners list released by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) comes after an unexplained delay of nearly a year in the announcement always made on September 26 — the CSIR’s foundation day.
• The CSIR had announced the Bhatnagar winners for 2021 nearly two years ago.