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Headlines

1. Impacting a woman's freedom to reproductive choices - Page No.6, GS 2
2. Virtues of planning - Page No.6, GS 2
3. Malware malice - Page No.6, GS 2
4. Kozhikode and Gwalior enter creative cities list - Page No.12, GS 1
5. Road Accidents - Page No.12 , GS 2

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Impacting a woman's freedom to reproductive choices - Page No.6, GS 2

• On October 16, in X vs Union of India, the Supreme Court of India declined permission to a woman who was seeking to terminate a 26 week-long pregnancy. A Bench presided over by the Chief Justice of India (CJI), D.Y. Chandrachud, held that the woman's case fell outside the scope of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971
• The Court said the statute permitted the termination of pregnancy beyond 24 weeks only in cases where the foetus exhibited substantial abnormality, or where the woman's life was under direct threat.
• The petitioner, a 27-year-old married woman, X, with two children, the youngest barely a year old, wants her pregnancy terminated.
• She became aware of her pregnancy only 20 weeks in, as she had lactational amenorrhea — a condition in which women who are breastfeeding have amenorrhea, that is not menstruating.
• X vs The Govt. of Delhi, that the Court, relying on its nine-judge Bench ruling in Puttaswamy, held that the right to privacy — implicit in Article 21 of the Constitution —enabled individuals to exercise autonomy over their body and mind, and allowed women complete freedom to make reproductive choices.
• As Justice Nagarathna held, there is no place within our constitutional structure to see a foetus as anything but dependent on the mother.
• To see it as a separate, distinct personality would be tantamount to conferring a set of rights on it that the Constitution grants to no other class of person.
• Such a reading would efface altogether a jurisprudence that grants primacy to a woman's freedom to make reproductive choices - a right that is intrinsic in Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

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Virtues of planning - Page No.6, GS 2

• In early 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to unveil a road map to transform the country into a developed nation with a $30 trillion economy by the time it completes 100 years of Independence.
• The NITI Aayog, in the process of giving this vision document a final shape, will soon run its central ideas and goals past top minds across sectors, including World Bank President Ajay Banga, Apple chief Tim Cook, as well as Indian industrialists and thought leaders, to finetune them and factor in any blind spots.
• India's rise from 1991, when it accounted for 1.1% of the global economic output, to the 3.5% share it now commands as the world's fifth largest economy, has been driven by governments of varying political hues largely sticking to the reform and liberalisation agenda.

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Malware malice - Page No.6, GS 2

Indian Telegraph Act, 1885
• Section 5(2) of The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, states that the government can intercept a "message or class of messages" when it is "in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of an offence".
• Rule 419A: The operational process for it appears in Rule 419A of the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951.
• Rule 419A was added to the Telegraph Rules after the verdict in the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) vs Union of India case, in which the Supreme Court said telephonic conversations are covered by the right to privacy, which can be breached only if there are established procedures.
• The second legislation enabling surveillance is Section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
• It facilitates government "interception or monitoring or decryption of any information through any computer resource" if it is in the interest of the "sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign States or public order" or for preventing or investigating any cognisable offence.
• The procedure for it is detailed in the Information Technology Rules, 2009.
• These rules are very broad and allow even the redirection of traffic to false websites or the planting of any device to acquire information.
• The use of Pegasus is illegal as it constitutes unauthorised access under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act.
• Section 66 prescribes punishment to anyone who gains unauthorised access and "downloads, copies or extracts any data", or "introduces or causes to be introduced any computer contaminant or computer virus," as laid down in Section 43.

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Kozhikode and Gwalior enter creative cities list - Page No.12, GS 1

• Kozhikode in Kerala and Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh have made it to the prestigious creative cities list of UNESCO for contributions in the fields of literature and music, respectively.
• The announcement was made by UNESCO on its official website on October 31, which is designated as World Cities Day.
• The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences, and culture
• UNESCO was founded in 1945 as the successor to the League of Nations' International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation
• It has 193 member states and 11 associate members, as well as partners in the non-governmental, intergovernmental, and private sector
• Headquartered at the World Heritage Centre in Paris

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Road Accidents - Page No.12 , GS 2

• The expansion of the country's road network, including expressways, and an increase in vehicle ownership continue to spur a rise in number of fatalities due to road accidents, with the severity of crashes worsening significantly over the past decade, according to government data.
• India witnessed 53 accidents and 19 deaths every hour, or an average of 1,264 accidents and 42 deaths, daily in road crashes last year, according to a Ministry of Road Transport and Highways report released on Wednesday. There were a total 4,61,312 road accidents across the country, which claimed as many as 1,68,491 lives. The number of road accidents in 2022 increased by 11.9% and deaths rose by 9.4%.
• The severity of road crashes, measured by the number of people killed per 100 accidents, has increased over the past decade from 28.2 in 2012 to 36.5 in 2022, with a consistent increase every year. In 2020 and 2021, however, when road crashes and deaths registered an absolute decline due to the COVID-19 lockdown, the severity rate had spiked above 37.
Causes:
• Infrastructural Deficits: Pathetic conditions of roads and vehicles, poor visibility and poor road design and engineering - including quality of material and construction, especially a single-lane with a sharp curve.
• Negligence and Risks: Over speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, tiredness or riding without a helmet, driving without seatbelts.
• Distraction: Talking over mobile phones while driving has become a major cause of road accidents.
• Overloading: To save on the cost of transportation.
Brasilia Declaration on Road Safety (2015):
• The declaration was signed at the second Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety held in Brazil. India is a signatory to the Declaration.
• The countries plan to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.6 i.e., to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2030.
Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030:
• The UN General Assembly adopted resolution "Improving global road safety " with the ambitious target of preventing at least 50% of road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030.
• The Global Plan aligns with the Stockholm Declaration, by emphasizing the importance of a holistic approach to road safety.