GS Analyst
Daily Current Affairs

The Supreme Court in a significant judgment recently said it is unconstitutional to distinguish between married and unmarried women for allowing termination of pregnancy on certain exceptional grounds when the foetus is between 20-24 weeks.

• The right to abortion has proved contentious globally after the United States Supreme Court overturned in June its landmark decision in Roe v Wade that had legalised the procedure in the US.
• The Recent Case: The challenge to the provision was made in July by a 25-year-old unmarried woman who moved the court seeking an abortion after the Delhi High Court declined her plea. The woman’s case was that she wished to terminate her pregnancy as “her partner had refused to marry her at the last stage”.
• She also argued that the continuation of the pregnancy would involve a risk of grave and immense injury to her mental health. However, the law allowed such change in circumstances only for “marital” relationships.
• The Supreme Court, holding that the law had to be given a purposive interpretation, had allowed the petitioner to terminate her pregnancy in an interim order. However, the larger challenge to the law, which would benefit other women as well, was kept pending.

India’s law on abortion:

• Section 312 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, criminalizes voluntarily “causing miscarriage” even when the miscarriage is with the pregnant woman’s consent, except when the miscarriage is caused to save the woman’s life.
• In 1971, The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (MTP Act)was introduced to “liberalize” access to abortion since the restrictive criminal provision was leading to women using unsafe and dangerous methods for termination of pregnancy.

• The MTP Act allowed termination of pregnancy by a medical practitioner in two stages.

• For termination of pregnancy up to 12 weeks from conception, the opinion of one doctor was required.
• For pregnancies between 12 and 20 weeks old, the opinion of two doctors was required.

• Later on, due to the expansion of the access to safe and legal abortion services on humanitarian and social grounds to ensure universal access to comprehensive care, certain amendments were introduced.
• In 2021, Parliament amended the law and allowed for termination under the opinion of one doctor for pregnancies up to 20 weeks. For pregnancies between 20 and 24 weeks, the amended law requires the opinion of two doctors.

The Supreme Court’s interpretations:

• SC framed the interpretation of Rule 3B of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Rules, 2003, as per which only some categories of women are allowed to seek termination of pregnancy between 20-24 weeks under certain extraordinary circumstances.
• For pregnancies between 20-24 weeks, Section 3B of the Rules under the MTP Act lists seven categories of women:

1. 1. survivors of sexual assault or rape or incest;
   2. minors;
   3. change of marital status during the on-going pregnancy (widowhood and divorce);
   4. women with physical disabilities (major disability as per criteria laid down under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016);
   5. mentally ill women including mental retardation;
   6. the foetal malformation that has substantial risk of being incompatible with life or if the child is born it may suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities to be seriously handicapped; and
   7. women with pregnancy in humanitarian settings or disaster or emergency situations as may be declared by the Government.”

• The court stated that the whole Rule 3B(c) cannot be read in isolation but has to be read together with other sub-clauses under 3B.
• When other sub-clauses do not distinguish between married or unmarried women, for example survivors of sexual assault, minors, etc., only 3B(c) cannot exclude unmarried women, the court held.
  
  

Effects of the Judgement:

• The court’s “purposive interpretation” states that the common thread in Rule 3B is “a change in a woman’s material circumstance”.
• While the ruling recognises the right of unmarried women, it leaves the enforcement of the right to be decided on a case-to-case basis.
• It is not possible for either the legislature or the courts to list each of the potential events which would qualify as a change of material circumstances.
• Suffice it to say that each case must be tested against this standard with due regard to the unique facts and circumstances that a pregnant woman finds herself in.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the “world’s first CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) terminal” at Bhavnagar in Gujarat recently.

About the Project:

• This is a three-year-old project that is expected to infuse Rs 4,000 crore in developing the existing port infrastructure at Bhavnagar. 
• The idea for the project materialised during the January 2019 Vibrant Gujarat summit when a consortium of London-based Foresight Group, Mumbai-based Padmanabh Mafatlal Group and Rotterdam-based Boskalis signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) for development of the CNG terminal.
• The consortium will invest in developing the north side of the Bhavnagar port under the BOOT (Build, Own, Operate and Transfer) policy of the state government and state-run GMB will continue to operate the berths on the south side of the port.

About CNG:

• CNG, also known as compressed natural gas, is an eco-friendly alternative to gasoline.
• Made by compressing natural gas (methane) down to less than 1% of its volume, CNG fuel is safer than gasoline and diesel because it is non-toxic and does not contaminate ground water.
• This natural gas is the same gas that you use daily to heat your home and water, cook on the stove and even to dry your clothes in a dryer.
• The use of CNG fuel is becoming more popular with both commercial and non-commercial vehicles.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently released the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2022 in which Switzerland has emerged as the world's most innovative economy for the 12th consecutive year.

About Global Innovation Index (GII):

• The Global Innovation Index (GII) is an annual ranking of countries by their capacity for, and success in, innovation.
• It is published by Cornell University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual Property Organization, in partnership with other organisations and institutions, and is based on both subjective and objective data derived from several sources, including the International Telecommunication Union, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.
• The overall GII scoreis the simple average of the Input and Output Sub-Index scores.
  • The Innovation Input Sub- Indexis comprised of five input pillars that capture elements of the national economy that enable innovative activities:
    • Institutions,
    • Human capital and research,
    • Infrastructure,
    • Market sophistication, and
    • Business sophistication.
  • The Innovation Output Sub- Indexprovides information about outputs that are the results of innovative activities within the economy. There are two output pillars:
    • Knowledge and technology outputs and
    • Creative outputs.
  • The Innovation Efficiency Ratiois the ratio of the Output Sub-Index score over the Input Sub-Index score. It shows how much innovation output a given country is getting for its inputs.

Key highlights of Global Innovation Index (GII) 2022:

• Moving into its 15th edition in 2022, the Global Innovation Index has been a leading reference for measuring an economy’s innovation performance.
• A large number of countries use the GII to assess and improve their innovation ecosystems and use the GII as a reference in economic plans and/or policies.
• India secured the 40th position in the Global Innovation Index. This is the first time the country entered the top 40. Last year, India was at the 46th position.
• The index shows that emerging economies including, India and Turkey, are showing consistently strong performance.
  
  
  
  
• This edition's thematic focus on the future of innovation-driven growth provides a stance on whether stagnation and low productivity growth are here to stay, or whether we are about to enter a new era, where new innovation spurts - the Digital Age and the Deep Science Innovation waves - bring about an economic uplift.
• Switzerland is the most innovative economy in the world in 2022 - for the 12th year in a row - followed by the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
• China is nearing the top 10 while Turkey and India enter the top 40 for the first time.

World Maritime Day is observed every year on the last Thursday of every September. This year it is observed on September 29.

About World Maritime Day:

• The English team ‘maritime’ originates from the Latin word ‘maritimus,’ which means ‘of the sea.’
• The day sheds light on the role seafarers, service agents, and marine officials play in our personal life.
• Sea life is undoubtedly challenging given the strain of working long hours for uncertain compensation and being away from home.
• World Maritime Day is celebrated annually to offer an opportunity to focus its attention on the significance of shipping as well as other maritime activities and to emphasize a particular aspect of the work of the International Maritime Organization.
• Without the international transportation of goods which is facilitated by those in the maritime industry, the world's economy may be unable to function.
• World Maritime Day was 1st held in 1978, to mark the 20 anniversary of the International Maritime Organization, which has been expanded from the original 21 member states to 167 and presently it encompasses all major nations, who are involved in the maritime industry.
• Theme for 2022: New technologies for greener shipping.
• The need to promote a green transition of the maritime industry into a sustainable future while leaving no one behind is reflected in this year’s theme for the day.
• It offers a chance to concentrate on the significance of a sustainable maritime industry and the necessity to rebuild better and more sustainably in a post-pandemic world.

President Vladimir Putin plans to declare recently that some 40,000 square miles of eastern and southern Ukraine will become part of Russia — an annexation broadly denounced by the West, but a signal that the Russian leader is prepared to raise the stakes in the 7-month-old war.

Russia’s Proposal:

• The four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine (Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia) that held so-called "referendums" on joining Russia will be incorporated into the country.
• The Kremlin plans to declare the land where battles are raging in all four regions to be Russian territory and to assert that it is defending, not attacking, in the war in Ukraine.
• Annexing the provinces would be used as a rationale for drafting Ukrainian men living there to fight other Ukrainians in the war, helping to solve a shortage of troops in the Russian army.
• Crimea was similarly illegally annexed in 2014, after a similar "referendum."
  
  
  

Opposition from international community:

• The United States, its European allies and many other countries oppose Russia’s nuclear saber rattling and say that allowing a country to capture new territory militarily sets a destabilizing precedent. 
• Western allies of Ukraine say the supposed referendums showing support for uniting with Russia were a sham, as some residents of occupied areas were forced to vote at gunpoint, and a large portion of the population had fled as internally displaced people or refugees. The final tallies could also have easily been falsified.
• Finland will close its border to Russian tourists. The decision in principle aims to completely prevent Russian tourism to Finland and the related transit through Finland.
• NATO said leaks from the Nord Stream gas pipelines appeared to be sabotage and vowed a "determined response" to any attacks on their critical infrastructure.

UNESCO recently released a list of 50 exclusive and iconic heritage textile crafts of the country.

• According to UNESCO, one of the major challenges to the safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the South Asia is lack of proper inventory and documentation.
• The publication, which aims to bridge this gap, brings together years of research on the 50 selected textiles.
• Some of the textile are mentioned in the below given table

Textile in India:

• The manufacture and use of various forms of fine textile varieties can be traced back to the Indus Valley period.
• Due to the short life of the textiles, the only evidences are the paintings, sculptures and inscriptions if any.
• The images in the paintings and sculptures are seen draped in fine transparent muslin. In fact, in most paintings the fineness of the cloth is stressed by highlighting only the hem and folds of the dress.
• There are clear evidences of the variety of textiles and embroidery in the Ajanta murals and miniature paintings, temple murals.
• The art of weaving and dyeing cotton had been well developed, but silk weaving came later. The art was practised from 1st century and by the 4th and 5th century, woven silk formed a major portion of exports.
• Textiles were the major attraction that formed the bulk of the trade with Western and Eastern countries.
• Roman documents mention the export of silk from India to Europe around the sixth century A.D.
• Masulipatnam on the western coast was an important port, with traders coming in from China, Arabia and European countries like Portugal, France and England.
• Textile trade was carried on in the North, with caravan loads of woven textiles reaching Moscow.
• The Mughal Emperors with their flair for beauty and luxury brought in new skills which mingled with the existing art, resulting in fine artworks.