General Studies-02: International Relations

1. Putin will not travel to South Africa for BRICS summit

Mutual accord: Vladimir Putin with Cyril Ramaphosa at the Constantine Palace, outside St. Petersburg on Monday. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not travel to South Africa to attend the upcoming BRICS summit, his spokesperson has announced. Instead, Mr. Putin will participate in the summit through video conference, Russian President’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declared in a statement on Wednesday.

“Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will attend the summit in person,” said Mr. Peskov, assuring that the Russian President’s participation in the summit would be “full-fledged”. Wednesday’s announcement has ended speculation about Mr. Putin’s presence at the Johannesburg summit that will be held during August 22-24.

South Africa is a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which issued a warrant against Mr. Putin in March this year. The action of the ICC put South Africa in a difficult position as it is expected to carry out its obligations as an ICC member.

President Putin had attended the Bali G-20 summit last year virtually and the latest decision is reminiscent of that event where Russia was represented by Mr. Lavrov. Russia has faced such moments in multilateral engagements repeatedly since President Putin ordered the “special military operation” against Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Wednesday’s announcement came a day after South Africa hosted leaders of political parties from the BRICS member-countries. The summit is likely to provide a glimpse of the moves that will unfold in the run-up to the G-20 summit in India which is on track to be attended by the leaders of the member-countries, including President Putin.

The Johannesburg BRICS summit will include discussion on increasing the number of member-states. That apart, the war in Ukraine is likely to feature prominently as BRICS has emerged as a major forum for dealing with the concerns of the developing economies. President Cyril Ramaphosa said “many countries” were interested in joining the organisation and added, “This is also humbling.”

General Studies-02: Governance

2. 40% of districts do not have nursing colleges, Health Ministry data show

Life-savers: About 64% of the nursing workforce is currently trained in just eight States.

Centre directs States to correct regional disparity with a new scheme to open nursing colleges; 42% of existing institutions in five southern States, 17% in three western States; India has 35 lakh nurses but only 2.06 nurses for every 1,000 people

There are no nursing colleges in 40 percent of districts across India, show Health Ministry data accessed by The Hindu. In fact, 42% of nursing institutions are clustered in five southern States, while three western States have 17%.

The Centre has attempted to correct the regional disparity with a scheme to co-locate 157 new nursing colleges in medical colleges by April 2025, and provide short-term training for nurses. However, it says that many States have failed to utilise the scheme properly.

Nursing services form the backbone of any medical establishment. India currently has close to 35 lakh nurses, but its nurse-to-population ratio is only 2.06:1000 against a global benchmark of 3:1000.

Though there has been a 36% growth in the number of institutions offering undergraduate nursing education since 2014-15, resulting in a 40% growth in nursing seats, there is a regional skew within these statistics. About 64% of the nursing workforce is currently trained in just eight States; 42% of nursing institutions are concentrated in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, while 17% are in the western States of Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. Only 2% of nursing colleges are in the northeastern States. The growth of nursing colleges also lags far behind the 81% growth rate of medical colleges, with the number of undergraduate and postgraduate medical seats surging at 110% and 114%, respectively, since 2014-15.

According to the WHO, approximately 27 million men and women make up the global nursing and midwifery workforce, accounting for nearly 50% of the global health workforce. “There is a global shortage of health workers, in particular nurses and midwives, who represent more than 50% of the current shortage in health workers. The largest shortages of nurses and midwives are in Southeast Asia and Africa,” a WHO report says.

Scheme funding

The Central government has announced a scheme to set up 157 new nursing colleges co-located with medical colleges in the next two years, with financial support of ₹10 crore a college.

“To expedite this scheme, States would be required to send their proposals for establishing their nursing colleges and to constitute a State level monitoring committee to monitor the progress of the project for timely completion,” the Centre has advised, according to a Health Ministry report. It has also expressed its concern about the poor uptake of its Development of Nursing Services scheme in some States. Short-term trainings for nurses have been conducted under this scheme, with 18,600 nurses benefiting from 620 courses. The Centre noted that States such as Delhi, Kerala, Manipur, and Mizoram have benefited from this training scheme, but Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Telangana have under-utilised this scheme.

General Studies-03: Technology

3. Manufacturing ecosystem for Airbus C-295 aircraft taking shape in India

Aiming high: The first C-295 transport aircraft manufactured by Airbus for the Indian Air Force at Seville, Spain. 

SEVILLE (SPAIN)

In September, the Indian Air Force (IAF) will receive the first C-295 transport aircraft and ahead of it, six pilots have been trained in Seville by Airbus and training of a 20-member maintenance crew is currently under way.

Ground breaking ceremony for a training centre at Air Force Station, Agra, was done in March with a full motion simulator to be delivered by the end of 2024. Work is under way for setting up the Final Assembly Line (FAL) at Vadodara in partnership with Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL), according to Jorge Tamarit, head of C-295 India programme, Airbus. The first aircraft manufactured in India would be delivered in September 2026.

“The FAL in Vadodara will be ready by mid-2024 and start production by November 2024,” Mr. Tamarit said speaking to a small group of visiting presspersons from India. “Next week the Main Constituent Assembly [MCA] in Hyderabad is set to start production where several major sub-assemblies for the 40 aircraft to be assembled in India would be made, beginning with the rear-end fuselage.”

The second C-295 will be delivered in May 2024 followed by seven aircraft in 2024 at the rate of one per month, said Jorge Madrid, head of C-295 India-version development programme.

In September 2021, the Defence Ministry signed a ₹22,000-crore deal with Airbus and Space S.A., Spain, for procurement of 56 C-295MW transport aircraft to replace the Avro aircraft in service with the IAF. As per contract, 16 aircraft would come in fly away condition, manufactured at the Airbus facility in Seville, and 40 would be manufactured in India by Airbus jointly with TASL.

Eventually, IAF will become the largest operator of the C-295.

Mr. Tamarit said the contract involving ‘Make-in-India’ and offset obligations is unprecedented. Airbus has not done a full production system ever, he said stating the deal involves 30% offset obligations on top of ‘Make-in-India’ obligations.

The contract includes service support programme: spares, ground support and test equipment, tech publications, training, training devices, performance-based logistics contract. In March, the contract for Performance Based Logistics for five years was signed as per which a fleet availability rate of 85% would be ensured.

The FAL spread over 36 acres will be ready by mid-2024 and operations will start by November 2024. All parts produced in Hyderabad will be shipped to Vadodara for the final assembly. The MCA in Hyderabad is set to start production by next week beginning with the rear-end fuselage, followed by rear fuselage, centre fuselage and so on. We are doing fortnightly deliveries of tail parts to India, Mr. Tamarit said. These are for the 17th C-295 which will be the first aircraft to be manufactured in India.

Indigenous radar warning receiver and missile approach warning systems made by Bharat Electronics Limited and counter-measure dispensing system made by Bharat Dynamics Limited have been certified and installed on the first aircraft, Mr. Madrid stated.

In all, 14,000 detailed parts would be made in India and roughly around 3,500 parts will be industrialised every year, said Mr. Tamarit. The project will create 15,000 direct jobs and 10,000 indirect jobs over 10 years.

GENERAL STUDIES-01: Indian Society

4. SC agrees to list pleas to criminalise marital rape before 3-judge Bench

Exception Two to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code decriminalises marital rape; the petitions are largely triggered by decisions from Karnataka and Delhi High Courts, requiring an authoritative pronouncement from the Supreme Court

Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on Wednesday agreed to list early a series of petitions seeking the criminalisation of marital rape.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising and advocate Karuna Nundy jointly mentioned the case for urgent listing before the Bench led by the Chief Justice.

Ms. Nundy said that Ms. Jaising would address the court on the issues in law. Ms. Jaising said her petition also concerned child abuse, and even sought a hearing after the ongoing Constitution Bench session.

The court said the case would require a three-judge Bench, and agreed to list it early.

In an earlier hearing, Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, for the Union government, had said the case had not only legal ramifications but widespread social impact.

The petitions are largely triggered by decisions from the Karnataka and Delhi High Courts, requiring an authoritative pronouncement from the apex court.

The Karnataka High Court had held that a husband was liable to be charged for rape if he had forcible sex with his wife. The Karnataka government had supported the High Court judgment in an affidavit in the apex court subsequently.

Exception Two to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) decriminalises marital rape and holds that sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, who is not under 18 years of age, without her consent is not rape.

“A man is a man; an act is an act; rape is a rape, be it performed by a man the ‘husband’ on the woman ‘wife’,” the Karnataka High Court had observed in its decision, saying an accused should be brought to trial regardless of the immunity in the penal code.

A Division Bench of the Delhi High Court had, however, in May 2022, delivered a split verdict in a separate case on the identical issue. Justice Rajiv Shakdher, who headed the two-judge Bench, had struck down as unconstitutional the Exception Two to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Split verdict in Delhi HC

However, Justice C. Hari Shankar, the associate judge on the High Court Bench, had rejected the plea to criminalise marital rape, noting that any change in the law should be carried out by the legislature since the issue required consideration of various aspects, including social, cultural, and legal.

Mr. Mehta had asked Chief Justice Chandrachud whether the apex court should wait till a three-judge Bench of the Delhi High Court delivered its decision in the case. But the CJI said the apex court already had the benefit of the crystallised views of two judges and would go forward and hear the petitions.

The Karnataka government has referred to the report of the Justice J.S. Verma Committee of 2013, which had recommended the removal of the exception for marital rape and proposed that the law should specify that “marital or other relationship between the perpetrator or victim is not a valid defence against the crimes of rape or sexual violation”.

The petitions in the issue, including one by activist Ruth Manorama, had argued that the Exception undermined women’s consent to sex and violated bodily integrity, autonomy and dignity.

The petitions had argued that the Exception undermined women’s consent to sex and violated bodily integrity, autonomy and dignity

General Studies-02: International Relations.

5. India supports U.N. on Black Sea initiative

India voiced support for the UN’s efforts in continuing the Black Sea Grain initiative, and expressed hope for an early resolution to the impasse.

Russia on Monday had said it was terminating the implementation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative — a UN-brokered deal that allowed food exports and fertilizers from Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict with Russia.

General Studies-02: International Relations.

6. More than court action, revisit the Indus Waters Treaty

Anwar Sadat is Senior Assistant Professor in International law at the Indian Society of International Law, New Delhi

The Indus Waters Treaty (1960), or IWT, that regulates the Indus water courses between the two riparian states of India and Pakistan, is cited by many as an example of cooperation between two unfriendly neighbours for many reasons. These include the IWT having survived several wars and phases of bitter relations, and its laying down of detailed procedures and criteria for dispute resolution.

But in the last decade, exercising judicial recourse to settle the competing claims and objections arising out of the construction and design elements of the run-of-river hydroelectric projects that India is permitted under the IWT to construct on the tributaries of the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab before these rivers flow into Pakistan, has increased.

In January this year, Pakistan initiated arbitration at the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration to address the interpretation and application of the IWT to certain design elements of two run-of-river hydroelectric projects — on the Kishanganga (a tributary of the Jhelum) and Ratle, a hydro-electric project on the Chenab. India raised objections as it views that the Court of Arbitration is not competent to consider the questions put to it by Pakistan and that such questions should instead be decided through the neutral expert process.

On July 6, 2023, the court unanimously passed a decision (which is binding on both parties without appeal) rejecting each of India’s objections. The court determined that it is competent to consider and determine the disputes set forth in Pakistan’s request for arbitration.

Future supply of water

In an atmosphere of a lack of trust, judicial recourse appears to be the only rational strategy by the IWT parties. But it is not likely to address the rapidly growing industrial needs of the two countries, apart from food and energy needs. The IWT provides only “some element of predictability and certainty with regard to the future supplies of water to the riparian states, but it needs to incorporate mechanisms that allow flexibility to changes in the quantity of water available for allocation among the parties”, which a paper in Water Policy, the official journal of the World Water Council, highlights.

Bilateral water agreements are “vulnerable to climate change as most of them include fixed allocation of amounts of water use that are concluded under the assumption that future water availability will remain the same as today”, the document adds. Under the partitioning logic in the IWT, envisaging a vesting of proprietary rights in the eastern rivers (Article II, Sutlej, Ravi and Beas) to India, and in a similar fashion, the vesting of proprietary rights in the western rivers (Article III, the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab) to Pakistan, does not take into account future water availability.

The IWT requires Pakistan that it is under obligation to let flow and shall not permit any interference with the waters of the eastern rivers. India, similarly, is also obligated to let flow all the waters of the western rivers and shall not permit any interference with these waters except for certain uses which include generation of hydro-electric power on the rivers and tributaries of the western rivers before they flow into Pakistan. With climate change altering the form, intensity and timing of precipitation and runoff, this assumption regarding the supplies of water for agricultural purposes and industrial needs does not hold true.

Principles of water course

The partitioning of the rivers goes against the logic of treating the entire river basin as one unit which is needed to build its resource capacity. The thrust of the IWT is optimal use of the waters which India believes to be the object and purpose of the IWT as opposed to Pakistan’s understanding to be the uninterrupted flow of water to its side. Reconciling this divergent approach can be sought with the help of two cardinal principles of international water courses law accompanying binding obligations, i.e., equitable and reasonable utilisation (ERU) and the principle not to cause significant harm or no harm rule (NHR).

Although there is no universal definition of what ERU amounts to, the states need to be guided by the factors mentioned in Article 6 of the Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses 1997, including climate change. The NHR is a due diligence obligation which requires a riparian state undertaking a project on a shared watercourse having potential transboundary effect to take all appropriate measures relating to the prevention of harm to another riparian state, including carrying out a transboundary environmental impact assessment.

In order to ensure rapid development, the states prioritise the ERU over the NHR. Both India and Pakistan believe their uses are consistent with the IWT. In a situation of conflict between different uses of water, it is suggested in Article 10 of the 1997 Convention to lean on “vital human needs” in the context of the ERU and the NHR. ‘Vital human needs’ are debatable but the inclusion of these principles in the IWT will help in erasing the differences. Even without its inclusion in the IWT, the ERU and NHR are binding on both countries as they are customary international law rule generating the binding obligation to both parties. But the inclusion of these principles in the IWT will ensure predictability to a certain extent.

In an atmosphere of a lack of trust between the two neighbours, the World Bank, a party to the IWT, may use its forum to forge a transnational alliance of epistemic communities (who share a common interest and knowledge to the use of the Indus waters), to build convergent state policies, resulting in the ultimate inclusion of these two principles in the IWT. Thus, revisiting the IWT is a much needed step.

Incorporating the two cardinal principles, i.e., ‘equitable and reasonable utilisation’ and the ‘no harm rule’, in the treaty will help reduce tensions between India and Pakistan