Headlines

Katchatheevu - Page No.1 , GS 2

The ART of India’s HIV/AIDS response - Page No.6 , GS 2
The Finance Commission and public finance in Kerala - Page No.6 , GS
2
Compounding crises - Page No.6 , GS 3
Workers, not tech, should be state’s priority - Page No.6 , GS 3
Tamil Nadu accounts for 30% of India’s electronics exports - Page No.7
, GS 3
GI tag - Page No.12 , GS 3

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Pg no. 1 GS 2
Historical Background:

• Katchatheevu is a 285-acre uninhabited speck in the Palk Strait,

between India and Sri Lanka, an island located about 14 nautical
miles off Rameswaram,India.

• In 1974, Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi of India and Sirima R.D.

Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka signed an agreement that recognized
Katchatheevu as part of Sri Lanka's territory, resulting in a change
of ownership.

• The agreement also allowed Indian fishermen to fish around the

island, dry their nets on it, and permitted Indian pilgrims to visit the
Catholic shrine located on the island.
• Fisherfolk from both India and Sri Lanka have historically used
Katchatheevu for fishing. Though this feature was acknowledged in
the 1974 agreement, the supplemental pact was signed in 1976.

Indian Government Stance and Legal Aspects:

• The Indian government, in 2013, stated that the question of retrieval

did not arise as no Indian territory was ceded.
• The issue was framed as a dispute between British India and
Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), resolved through agreements in 1974 and
1976.
• The Union government asserted that Katchatheevu lies on the Sri
Lankan side of the India-Sri Lanka International Maritime Boundary
Line.
Pg no. 6 GS 3
• Twenty years ago, on April 1, 2004, the Indian government had launched Free
Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), for Persons living with HIV (PLHIV), a decision which
has proven one of the successful and a key intervention in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

• At the emergence of HIV/AIDS in the early 1980s, the disease was considered a death
sentence and was met with a lot of fear, stigma and discrimination. Though the first
antiretroviral drug, AZT (zidovudine), was approved by the US Food and Drug
Administration (US FDA) in March 1987, three more drugs were approved soon after
in 1988 and a new class of antiretroviral drugs, protease inhibitors were introduced in
1995.

• Recognising this challenge, in 2000, at the UN General Assembly’s Millennium

Summit, world leaders set a specific goal and issued the declaration to stop and
reverse the spread of HIV.

• The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was created in 2002 which
advocated universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services.
In 2004, the number of PLHIV in India was estimated to be 5.1 million, with a
population prevalence of 0.4%.
• The key barrier to ART was high cost and unaffordability for individuals,
and geographical access to treatment.

• Therefore, the decision to make free ART for any adult living with HIV was
a path-breaking one. From November 2006, the free ART was made
available for children as well.

• ART is not merely about starting a person living with HIV on treatment. It
is equally important to keep the viral load down and suppressed to
ensure that the transmission of diseases is also halted.

• The impact has been that in 2023, the prevalence of HIV in 15-49 years has
come down to 0.20 (confidence interval 0.17%-0.25%) and the burden of
disease in terms of estimated PLHIV has been coming down to 2.4 million.
• The annual new HIV infections in India have declined by 48% against the
global average of 31% (the baseline year of 2010). The annual AIDS-
related mortalities have declined by 82% against the global average of
47% (the baseline year of 2010).

• However, the fight against HIV/AIDS is far from over. The ongoing and fifth
phase of India’s National AIDS Control programme aims to (by 2025)
reduce the annual new HIV infections by 80%, reduce AIDS-related
mortalities by 80% and eliminate vertical transmission of HIV and syphilis.

• To achieve this, the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) phase 5

calls for the attainment of ambitious targets of 95-95-95 by 2025, where
95% of all people living with HIV know their HIV status; 95% of all people
diagnosed with HIV infection receive sustained antiretroviral therapy
(ART), and 95% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy achieve viral
suppression by 2025. These targets are aligned with global targets agreed
by the UNAIDS.
Pg no. 6 GS 2
• In the post-COVID-19 pandemic fiscal strategy, the fiscal deficit to GDP is
envisaged as 3.5% for States, with 0.5% tied to power sector reforms and the
general government public debt to GDP at 60% and central government debt at
40%.

• The outstanding liabilities of Kerala are 36.9 percentage of GSDP as per 2024-25
(BE). However, the roll-over risk is not there as around 16% debt of Kerala has a
maturity period within 2025. As of now, Telangana has a long-term debt maturity
profile, with refinancing of debt of about 39.9% to be done only by 2063 as
compared to 14.7% for Kerala.

• Over the years, the share of Union Finance Commission tax transfers has
declined for a few States, including Kerala.

• The Fifteenth Finance Commission has designed the tax transfer formula based
on population (15%), area (15%), income distance (45%), demographic transition
(12.5%), forest and ecology (10%) and tax effort (2.5%). The weightage given to
the distance of per capita income in the Finance Commission tax transfer formula
adversely affects growing States, including Kerala.
• FCs are constitutional bodies set up under Article 280 of the Constitution
every five years to make recommendations on the distribution of financial
resources between the Union and the states.

• Recommendations cover three main aspects:

• Vertical Devolution:
• The share of states in the divisible pool of central taxes.

• Horizontal Distribution:
• The allocation of resources among states based on a formula that reflects
their fiscal needs, capacities and performance.

• Grants-in-aid:
• The additional transfers to specific states or sectors that are in need of
assistance or reform.
Pg no. 6 GS 3
• There is only enough water to fill 23% of the holding capacity in all of South India’s
reservoirs, The Hindu reported last week based on an analysis of Central Water
Commission data.

• The last time South India faced a summertime water crisis was in 2017. The crisis in
the same region this year is poised to be different, and worse, for a few reasons.

• First, the monsoons are influenced by various factors; of these, El Niño events render
them more erratic, even if isolating their influence thus is a simplification.

• Second, after meteorologists recorded 2023 to be the warmest year on record, they
also said they expected 2024 to be worse.

• Third, millions in India will be spending some additional time outdoors this summer
to cast their votes in the general election.

• Fourth, this crisis has happened before; yet, while (some) policies and forecasting
have improved, preparedness and implementation of these policies on the ground
have not.
• Climate change will impose a deadlier cost on low- and middle-income
countries such as India by creating simultaneous crises.

• While the phenomenon changes the way weather events co-evolve, it

also affects the frequency of their occurrence such that two events
may develop a greater chance of transpiring together than they did
before — such as a drought and a disease outbreak, which in turn will
worsen socio-economic conditions among marginalised groups.

• Any water crisis must be seen against this backdrop, where it is both a
crisis in itself and a factor that compounds the effects of another.

• That a region’s water situation becomes precarious after one year of

deficient rain is a sign governments are not learning their lessons or
are ignoring them, even if the deficit was considerable.
Pg no. 7 GS 2,3
• The Aadhaar-Based Payment System (ABPS) has been accorded sufficient
attention, mostly on account of the myriad issues plaguing it.

• This begs critical attention because the state, through the Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), is legally mandated
to offer up to 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to
every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual
work.

• Numerous commentators have pointed out challenges in the project of linking

rural employment guarantees to digitised individual identification systems.

• These include Internet connectivity, fingerprint recognition issues, difficulties

faced by the disabled, unrecorded working days, name duplication, lack of
awareness, errors in linking, authentication, elimination of names, discrepancy in
name spellings, and issues in seeding — mostly where the workers are little at
fault.
• Research shows that there are more than 26 crore workers registered with
MGNREGS. Of them, as many as 5.2 crore workers were deleted from the
database in 2022-23.

• The objective of these employment guarantee schemes is not to offer a

playing field for technological interventions, but to provide socio-
economically deprived households a sense of work security, facilitated by
digital technology.

• Schemes such as MGNREGS are rooted in ideals such as inclusion in the

development process and mitigation of inequality and socioeconomic
distress, which have even been internationally recognised (such as by the
United Nations Development Programme) as contributing to a productive,
equitable, and connected society.
Pg no. 7 GS 3
• Tamil Nadu, India’s largest exporter of electronic goods in FY23,
accounted for 30% of all electronic goods exports from India in FY24. The
State is in fact a late bloomer in this sector, with Uttar Pradesh and
Karnataka dominating electronic goods exports until FY22.

• However, in recent years, among the top exporters of electronics, only

Tamil Nadu’s numbers have consistently risen, while the figures of other
States have either dropped or become stagnant.

• The share of the electronic goods sector in India’s overall exports has
more than doubled — mostly due to the rise in Tamil Nadu’s contribution
— in recent years.

• At the core of this rise is the surge in exports of smartphones, which

currently forms close to 40% of India’s electronics exports.
• In the last two fiscal years, close to 40% of smartphones in India
were sent out from just one district, Kancheepuram, located in
the north-eastern part of Tamil Nadu.

• Most of these electronic goods, mostly dominated by mobile

phones, were exported to the United States, followed by the
United Arab Emirates, and the Netherlands.

• The U.S. and the UAE are the biggest markets for India’s electronic
goods exports.
Pg no. 12 GS 3
• Over 60 products from across India, including Banaras Thandai,
have been given the Geographical Indication (GI) tag.

• This is the first time that such a large number of products have
been given the GI tag at one go, a senior official from the
Geographical Indications Registry said, adding that more States
were coming forward and filing applications to get a GI tag for
their traditional products.

• Six traditional crafts from Assam — Asharikandi terracotta craft,

Pani Meteka craft, Sarthebari metal craft, Jaapi (bamboo
headgear), Mishing handloom products, and Bihu dhol — have
bagged the GI tag.
• Thirteen other products from Assam have been given the tag, including the
Bodo Dokhona, the traditional attire of Bodo women; and Bodo Eri silk,
referred to as the fabric of peace or ahimsa (non-violence), which comes from
the silkworm Samia ricini that feeds mostly on the leaves of the castor plant
(Ricinus communis), and cassava. Bodo Jwmgra (a traditional scarf), Bodo
Gamsa (traditional dress of Bodo men), Bodo Thorkha (a musical instrument),
and Bodo Sifung (a long flute) are also on the list.

• The famous Banaras Thandai, a drink made by blending milk with a mix of
nuts, seeds and spices, also got the tag.

• The Banaras Tabla, Banaras Shehnai, Banaras Lal Bharwamirch, and Banaras
Lal Peda are among the products that walked away with GI tags in this region.
• The Tripura region secured two tags — one for the Pachra-Rignai, which is a
traditional dress worn on special occasions, and the other for the Matabari
Peda, a sweet preparation.

• Meghalaya Garo Textile weaving, which is linked to socio-cultural and

religious rituals, Meghalaya Lyrnai Pottery, and Meghalaya Chubitchi also
secured the tag.

• The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999

is the main law in India that oversees the registration and protection of
geographical indications. The Act’s key provisions include:

• The establishment of the Geographical Indications Registry, which is

responsible for processing and registering GI applications.
• The criteria for registering a GI, include the association between the product
and its geographical origin, and the reputation or quality attributable to that
origin.
• The duration of protection is initially 10 years but can be renewed
indefinitely.
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