GS Analyst
Daily Current Affairs

Kerala will soon challenge the legality of President Droupadi Murmu withholding her assent for the Bills that were passed by the Kerala Legislature before the Supreme Court. The President had withheld assent to Kerala University Laws Bill 2022, University Law Amendment Bill, 2022, and the University Law Amendment Bill, 2021 from the seven Bills that were referred to her.

1: Dimension-Significance of the move

• The problem of delay in according assent to Bills passed by the legislature is a burning issue that confronts Indian polity.
• The unusual move of the Kerala Government will open doors for a Constitutional debate on the scope of a judicial review of the decisions of the President of India.
• The State would contend that the legality of the President’s decisions and the factors that influenced it can be judicially reviewed.
• The State plans to bring up the issue before the Supreme Court. The state would argue:
  • Governor should not have referred the Bills to the President as its subject matters were confined to the State List of the Constitution where the State has powers to legislate.
  • None of the Bills were in conflict with any Central legislation.
  • The Bills did not belong to the special categories for which prior Presidential assent was required, sources pointed out.

2: Dimension-Impact of the Delay

• Political implications: The object of every legislation is public good, which is defeated by delay. Delay may also have political implications for the party in power in the State.
• Unfulfilled objectives: By such delay, fulfilment of laudable objectives sought to be achieved by the legislation gets delayed or even be defeated.
• Affected Centre-State Relations: The Union is not affected by such delay or inaction. It is the interests of the State that are jeopardized. Centre-State relations may also be adversely affected.

In a recent study, researchers analysed more than 500 future emissions scenarios the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessed in its latest reports. The study found that across all 556 scenarios, income, energy-use, and emissions disparities between developed and developing countries are projected to continue up to 2050.

1: Dimension- Significance of ‘Equity’

• The principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities are enshrined in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• These principles recognise that while tackling climate change requires global action, richer countries are better placed to shoulder bigger climate action responsibilities than poorer ones.
• By viewing climate action solely through the lens of global-level technical and economic feasibility, mitigation pathways often run counter to equity principles.
• Equity in this sense would imply that developed regions need to accelerate towards net negative emissions and make the remaining carbon budget available to other less developed regions. However, the scenarios project precisely the
• Thus, the construction of IPCC scenarios will need to be both equitable and environmentally sound.

2: Dimension-Equities in IPCC Report

• The study assessed 556 scenarios in IPCC’s AR6 report and found they project that per-capita GDP across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, West Asia and the rest of Asia, which together constitute 60% of the world’s population, will be below the global average even in 2050.
• They spotted similar inequities between the Global North and the Global South vis-à-vis the consumption of goods and services and both energy and fossil fuel consumption.
• The scenarios were also found to project higher carbon sequestration from land-based carbon sinks (like forests) and higher deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies in developing countries compared to developed ones.
• Thus, poorer countries would bear the burden of both mitigation action and carbon dioxide removal and CCS.

Children of the Lisu and Singpho communities in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam are named according to the order they are born in the family, incorporating numbers into their names.

About the Numbering Tradition

• Numbering names is a tradition in Lisu and Singpho communities.
• Lisu boys and girls have separate sets of numbered names to indicate the order of their birth.
• The eldest girl in a family has Ana in her name, and the ones after her are called Angyi, Acha, Ado, Achhi, Ata, Akhu, Agu, Aju, and Apshi, for a tenth daughter.

Lisu and Singpho communities

• The Lisus belong to the Tibeto-Burman family and inhabit the contiguous hilly regions of Arunachal Pradesh, China, Myanmar, and Thailand. They number about 5,000 in India.
• The Singphos is an ethnic group inhabiting 27 countries, including China’s Yunnan province. In India, they mostly inhabit the Changlang and Namsai districts of Arunachal Pradesh, and the Tinsukia district of Assam.
• The Lisus and Singphos have similar usage of numbers in their names, probably because they belong to the Wunpong group, which has four more communities in the Kachin State of Myanmar.

The President has appointed Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, both retired IAS officers, as Election Commissioners (ECs) to fill up two vacancies in the three-member Election Commission of India under the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023.

The new Selection Process

• The CEC and ECs are appointed by the President of Indiaon the recommendation of a selection committee.
• Selection Committee: In terms of the new law, the two ECs were selected by a three-member Selection Committee, comprising
  • Prime Minister (Narendra Modi)
  • Union Home Minister (Amit Shah)
  • Leader of the largest party in the Opposition (Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury)
• Eligibility criteria: Eligibility for the posts includes holding (or having held) a post equivalent to the Secretary to the central government. The CEC and ECs must:
  • be persons of integrity,
  • have knowledge and experience in the management and conduct of elections, and
  • be or have been Secretary (or equivalent) to the government
• Term and reappointment: Members of the Election Commission hold office for six years, or until they attain the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier. 
  • Members of the Commission cannot be re-appointed. If an EC is appointed as a CEC, the overall period of the term may not be more than six years.

India accounts for 17% of all diabetes patients in the world. To combat this huge percentage of non-communicable disease burden requires prevention and early detection. One of the most commonly-used tests to diagnose pre-diabetes and diabetes, is the haemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) test.

About haemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) test

• Sugar enters bloodstream from the food. The sugar, or glucose, attaches to the haemoglobin in red blood cells.
• Haemoglobin is a protein that transports oxygen to all the cells of the body.
• Everybody has some sugar attached to their haemoglobin. Those with pre-diabetes and diabetes, however, have more.
• The HbA1C test measures the percentage of red blood cells that have sugar-coated, or glycated, haemoglobin.

Researchers have put together a new camera with the ability to view the world like animals do. The device can even reveal what colours different animals see in motion.

 Photoreceptors

• Organisms with the ability to see have two or more eyes that capture light reflected by different surfaces in their surroundings and turn it into visual cues.
• But while all eyes have this common purpose, the specialised cells that respond to the light, called photoreceptors, are unique to each animal. For instance,
  • Human eyes can only detect wavelengths of light between 380 and 700 nanometres (nm); this is the visible range.
  • Honey bees and many birdson the other hand can also ‘see’ ultraviolet light (10-400 nm).
• Animals use colours to intimidate their predators, entice mates or conceal themselves. Detecting variations in colours is thus essential to an animal’s survival.
• Animals have evolved to develop highly sensitive photoreceptors that can detect light of ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths; many even notice polarised light as part of their Umwelt.
  • Umwelt is the biological systems that make a specific system of meaning-making and communication possible.

Researchers at Google DeepMind have developed an AI, a Scalable Instructable Multiworld Agent, or SIMA, which can play nine different video games and virtual environments it hasn’t seen before using just the video feed from the game.

What is SIMA?

• SIMA, a versatile AI agent capable of following natural language instructions across a wide range of 3D virtual environments, from bespoke research settings to complex commercial video games.
• This research marks the first time an AI system has demonstrated the ability to ground language in perception and action at such a broad scale.