Very concise manner

3. Headlines
Railways tightens RTI norms - Page No.1 , GS 2
I-T searches, a form of extra-constitutional power - Page No.6 , GS 2
Striking fear - Page No.6 , GS 2
The dispute on India’s debt burden - Page No.7 , GS 3
‘50% of cybercrime plaints originate in China, pockets of Cambodia and Myanmar’ -
Page No.10 , GS 3
55% of patients given antibiotics only as a preventive measure, says survey - Page
No.12 , GS 2
SpaceX’s Falcon-9 to launch India’s GSAT-20; satellite to spread broadband coverage-
Page No.12 , GS 3
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7. Pg no. 1 GS 2
Railways tightens RTI norms - Page No.1 , GS 2

8. • The Indian Railways has tightened norms for Zonal Railways in furnishing
information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act after Central Railway
revealed the cost of selfie points installed at railway stations in reply to
an RTI application. Under the new norms, all replies must be cleared by
General Managers of Zonal Railways or Divisional Railway Managers in
the divisions.
• The Hindu reported on December 27 that each permanent selfie booth
with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image cost ₹6.25 lakh and temporary
booth ₹1.25 lakh, which is the approved cost by the Central Bureau of
Communication under Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
• The Railways had nominated a Public Information Officer and Chief Public
Information Officer under provisions of the RTI Act, 2005, to provide
information sought by petitioners.

9. • The Railways had nominated a Public Information Officer and Chief
Public Information Officer under provisions of the RTI Act, 2005, to
provide information sought by petitioners.
• The Right to Information Act 2005 mandates timely response to
citizen requests for government information.
• The basic object of the Right to Information Act is to empower the
citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of
the Government, contain corruption, and make our democracy work
for the people in a real sense.

10. What is the Central Information Commission?
• Established: The Central Information Commission was established by the Central
Government in 2005, under the provisions of the Right to Information Act (2005).
It is not a constitutional body.
• Members: The Commission consists of a Chief Information Commissioner and
not more than ten Information Commissioners.
• Appointment: They are appointed by the President on the recommendation of a
committee consisting of the Prime Minister as Chairperson, the Leader of
Opposition in the Lok Sabha and a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the
Prime Minister.
• Tenure: The Chief Information Commissioner and an Information Commissioner
shall hold office for such term as prescribed by the Central Government or until
they attain the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.

11. Pg no. 6 GS 2
I-T searches, a form of extra-constitutional power -
Page No.6 , GS 2

12. • In August 2017, a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court of India, in
Justice K.S. Puttaswamy vs Union of India, declared to rousing acclaim
that the Constitution of India guaranteed to persons, a fundamental right
to privacy.
• A notable example of this feature is the use of Section 132 of the Income
Tax Act, 1961, which grants to the taxman, untrammelled police power to
forcibly search persons and their properties, and seize goods found
during such a search, including money, bullion, and jewellery.
• While this measure can be undertaken only where the authorities have,
among other things, a “reason to believe” that a person has failed to
disclose his income properly, the purported foundation underlying a
search is subject to little safeguards under the statute.

13. • Last month, the Gujarat High Court questioned income-tax
authorities on a raid conducted on a lawyer, where he and his
family members, according to his counsel, were kept in virtual
detention for days together, with the search continuing between
the morning of November 3 to the morning of November 7.
• When the income-tax law was altogether refashioned through
the enactment of new legislation in 1961, express powers of
search and seizure were vested through Section 132.
• The provision was assailed before a Constitution Bench of the
Supreme Court in Pooran Mal vs Director of Inspection (1973).

14. Pg no. 6 GS 2
Striking fear - Page No.6 , GS 2

15. • The new law imposes severe penalties, including up to 10 years of
imprisonment or a fine of Rs 7 lakh, on drivers involved in serious
road accidents who flee the scene without informing the authorities.
• Transport operators argue that the law may unfairly penalize drivers
and could expose them to mob violence, especially when
attempting to transport the injured to hospitals. They believe this
may discourage drivers and lead to unjust punishments.
• Drivers flee an accident scene out of fear of lynching.
• In such cases, the authorities seem to believe that such drivers can
move away from the scene of crime and then report to the police.
The term ‘hit-and-run’ is one in which the offending vehicle is not
identified.

16. • Given that many accidents are caused due to poor road
conditions too, a relevant question is whether the law should
focus on raising prison terms or on a comprehensive accident
prevention policy package covering imprisonment,
compensation and safety.

17. Pg no. 7 GS 3
The dispute on India’s debt burden - Page No.7 , GS 3

18. • Two recent observations by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) sparked
reactions from the Indian Government. First, the IMF has raised concerns
about the long-term sustainability of India’s debts. Second, it reclassified
India’s exchange rate regime, terming it a “stabilised arrangement” instead of
“floating”.
• The IMF, in the report, states that India’s government debt could be 100% of
GDP under adverse circumstances by fiscal 2028.
• The Finance Ministry refutes IMF projections as “a worst-case scenario and is
not fait accompli”.
• There are no two arguments on the fact that government borrowings can play
a vital role in accelerating development. However, the weight of debt can act
as a drag on development due to limited access to financing, rising borrowing
costs, currency devaluations and sluggish growth.
• According to the UN in 2022, 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend
more on interest payments than on education or health.

19. • Global public debt has increased more than fourfold since 2000, while
global GDP only tripled. In 2022, global public debt reached a record
USD 92 trillion. Developing countries accounted for almost 30% of the
total, of which roughly 70% is attributable to China, India and Brazil.
• The Union government’s debt was ₹155.6 trillion, or 57.1% of GDP, at
the end of March 2023 and the debt of State governments was about
28% of GDP. As stated by the Finance Ministry, India’s public debt-to-
GDP ratio has barely increased from 81% in 2005-06 to 84% in 2021-22,
and is back to 81% in 2022-23.
• This, however, is way higher than the levels specified by the Fiscal
Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBMA). The 2018
amendment to the Union government’s FRBMA specified debt-GDP
targets for the Centre, States and their combined accounts at 40%,
20% and 60%, respectively.

20. • Despite handsome growth in tax collections, there is the possibility of fiscal
slippage in FY24, according to a report by India Ratings and Research (IR&R).
IR&R attributes this to higher expenditure on employment guarantee
schemes and subsidies.
• They state that budgeted fertilizer subsidy of ₹44,000 crore was almost over
by end-October 2023 and the Union government has now increased it to
₹57,360 crore.
• Similarly, due to sustained demand for employment under MGNREGA, a sum
of ₹79,770 crore has already been spent till December 19, 2023, as against the
budgeted ₹60,000 crore and an additional sum of ₹14,520 crore has been
allocated.
• Increased subsidies do not come as a surprise as the country is heading for
general elections next year, but the MNREGA outlay increase raises questions
about employment growth and livelihoods in rural areas.

21. Pg no. 10 GS 3
‘50% of cybercrime plaints originate in China, pockets
of Cambodia and Myanmar’ - Page No.10 , GS 3

22. • Around 50% of cybercrime complaints received on the national
cybercrime helpline every day have their origin in China and pockets
of Cambodia and Myanmar, Rajesh Kumar, chief executive officer of
the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), Ministry of Home
Affairs (MHA), said on Wednesday.
• Addressing a press conference, he said that on average 5,000 cyber
complaints are registered in the country every day. From April 1, 2021-
December 31, 2023, ₹10,319 crore had been lost to cyber fraud, he said.
• In 2023, around 15.5 lakh cybercrime complaints were received, up
from 26,049 such complaints in 2019. In the past five years, 31 lakh
cyber crime complaints were received and FIRs were filed in 66,000
cases.

23. Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre
• The scheme to set up I4C was approved in October 2018, to deal
with all types of cybercrimes in a comprehensive and
coordinated manner.
• 15 States and Union Territories have given their consent to set
up Regional Cyber Crime Coordination Centres.
• This state-of-the-art Centre is located in New Delhi.
• It will be set up under the newly created Cyber and Information
Security (CIS) division of the MHA.

24. Pg no. 12 GS 2
55% of patients given antibiotics only as a preventive
measure, says survey - Page No.12 , GS 2

25. • Over half of the almost 10,000 patients surveyed recently were given
antibiotics to prevent infection, rather than to treat it, amid growing
concerns about the rise in resistance to antibiotics, shows a Health Ministry
survey.
• As much as 94% of the patients surveyed were given antibiotics before the
confirmation of a definitive medical diagnosis of the precise cause of
infection.
• Of the 11,588 admissions and 9,652 eligible patients, 72% were prescribed
antibiotics. Of them, only 45% were prescribed antibiotics for therapeutic
indications, meant to treat infection or disease.
• The remaining 55% were prescribed the drugs for prophylactic indications,
meant to prevent the occurrence or spread of an infection. Only 6% were
prescribed antibiotics after a confirmed diagnosis of the specific bacterium
causing their illness, called definitive therapy. The remaining 94% were on
empirical therapy, based on the doctor’s clinical experience in assessing the
likely cause of an illness.

26. • The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified antimicrobial resistance
(AMR) as one of the top threats to public health. It is a natural phenomenon
as bacteria evolve, making drugs used to treat infections less effective.
• However, as the NCDC survey notes, one of the main drivers for the
development of antibiotic resistance is the excessive and inappropriate use
of antibiotics.
• To deal with the challenge of limited information on how antibiotics are
prescribed and used at the patient level, the WHO has introduced the global
point prevalence survey methodology to understand the prescribing patterns
in hospitals, with repeated surveys showing the changes in antibiotic use
over time. Few studies have been conducted in India with this methodology.

27. National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)
• The NCDC is the nodal agency for India’s national programme on
AMR containment, of which one of the key components is the
surveillance of antibiotic usage.
• To achieve this goal, it has established the National Antibiotic
Consumption Network (NAC-NET) through which network sites
compile data on antibiotic consumption in their respective
health facilities and send it to the NCDC.
• According to the NCDC, a major contributing factor to antibiotic
resistance is the overuse of antibiotics, with approximately half
or more hospitals using antibiotics inappropriately.

28. Pg no. 12 GS 3
SpaceX’s Falcon-9 to launch India’s GSAT-20; satellite
to spread broadband coverage- Page No.12 , GS 3

29. • NewSpace India Ltd. (NSIL), the commercial arm of the Indian
Space Research Organisation, will launch GSAT-20 (renamed
GSAT-N2), on board SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket during the second
quarter of 2024.
• The GSAT-20 is a high-throughput Ka-band satellite (HTS), which
will be fully owned, operated and funded by the NSIL.
• The agency said GSAT-20 offers Ka-Ka band HTS capacity with 32
beams having pan-India coverage, including the Andaman and
Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands. The satellite, weighing 4,700
kg, offers an HTS capacity of nearly 48 Gpbs and has been
specifically designed to meet the demanding service needs of
remote and unconnected regions.

30. • As part of the space sector reforms announced by the Union government in
June 2020, the NSIL was mandated to build, launch, own and operate
satellites in “demand-driven mode” to meet service needs of the user.
• As part of this, the NSIL successfully undertook its first demand-driven
satellite mission, GSAT-24, in June 2022, and the capacity-board of the satellite
was fully secured by Tata Play. GSAT-24 mission was fully funded by the NSIL.
At present, the agency owns and operates 11 communication satellites in
orbit.
• The NSIL is realising the GSAT-20 satellite through ISRO and will be launched
on board Falcon-9 under a contract between NSIL and SpaceX, USA, it said.
• According to SpaceX, Falcon-9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and
manufactured by the Elon Musk-founded company for the reliable and safe
transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond.

31. • GSAT-24 is a 24-Ku band communication satellite weighing 4180 kg with Pan
India coverage for meeting DTH application needs. NSIL has leased the entire
satellite capacity to M/s Tata Play.
• GSAT-20, which can enable telecom providers to offer very high-speed
Internet services, weighs about 4,700 kg, much heavier than launch capacity
of ISRO’s most powerful rocket, LVM-3.
• For its heavier satellites, weighing more than 4,000 kg, India had been
depending on the European launch provider Arianespace. Arianespace’s
heavy launch vehicle Ariane-5, however, was retired in July last year and its
successor Ariane-6 is yet to make its debut.
• GSAT-20, which would plug the high-speed connectivity gaps in rural and
remote parts of the country and enable in-flight internet services as well, was
initially scheduled to be launched in 2018 and then in 2020.

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