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Cannot legalise same-sex marriage, says SC Bench - Page No. 1, GS 2
Law and custom - Page No.8 , GS 2
Demolishing the frame from outside the Constitution - Page No.8, GS 2
Centralised procurement as a powerful health idea - Page No.8 , GS 2
'Strengthened, human-rated rocket is ready for Gaganyaan' - Page No. 13 ,GS 3
Text and Context - How synergistic barriers are affecting progress on SDGs

Cannot legalise same-sex marriage, says SC Bench - Page No. 1, GS 2

A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday held that only the legislature can recognise or regulate same-sex marriage. The Bench reasoned that since there was no fundamental or unqualified right to marry, the courts cannot intervene.
However, the Bench failed to reach a consensus on providing even long-abiding relationships between same-sex couples the status of a legally recognised "civil union". This was despite all five judges on the Bench unanimously accepting that it was time to end discrimination against same-sex couples.
there was widespread expectation that the five-judge Constitution Bench would give the Special Marriage Act (SMA), a law that all, any two people to marry, a gender-neutral interpretation to incl people belonging to the same sex.

Law and custom - Page No.8 , GS 2

In concluding that there is no fundamental right to marry, the Court has negated the expectation that it would not allow discrimination against same-sex couples in the marital domain to continue. Marriage is indeed a social institution, with its own legal requirements and conditions for what constitutes a valid marriage.
The Special Marriage Act (SMA), 1954 is an Indian law that provides a legal framework for the marriage of people belonging to different religions or castes.

Applicability:

The applicability of the Act extends to the people of all faiths, including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists, across India.

Recognition of Marriage:

The Act provides for the registration of marriages, which gives legal recognition to the marriage and provides a number of legal benefits and protections to the couple, such as inheritance rights, succession rights, and social security benefits.
It forbids polygamy and declares a marriage null and void if either party had a spouse living at the time of the marriage or if either of them is incapable of giving a valid consent to the marriage due to unsoundness of mind.
Navtej Singh Johar (decriminalising Section 377 of IPC) (2018) and KS Puttaswamy (right to privacy) (2017) judgements.

Demolishing the frame from outside the Constitution - Page No.8, GS 2

The Delhi Police conducted extensive raids on the news portal NewsClick, eventually arresting two persons, including its founder and Editor-in- Chief, Prabir Purkayastha, in cases that have invoked the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
the First Information Report accuses the news organisation of accessing funds from pro-China elements and in turn, through its coverage of events such as the farmers' protests in 2020-21, undermining the internal security of India.
The fact that a court is an unelected institution in a system that has an elected legislature has led several scholars to question the legitimacy of the judiciary striking down laws made by an elected entity. Parliament, after all, is seen as the representative of the people's will.
if the democratic process is faulty, then there is ample scope to raise questions over the legitimacy of the representative body itself.(Argument)
To legally invoke the basic structure doctrine in some of these circumstances may be impossible given the theoretical restrictions that come with such a doctrine.
It is, and rightly so, reserved for certain specific circumstances. But the Court has enough powers already to arrest the decline if it realises the effect of this larger trend.

Centralised procurement as a powerful health idea - Page No.8 , GS 2

Many countries and international organisations (including McDonald's) have shown that a pooled buyer model for drug procurement addresses many issues that are related to price efficiency, stockouts and quality concerns.

But for reasons that have remained mysterious for decades, the central government chooses to ignore the merits of pooled procurement when it comes to schemes such as the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (PMJAY) and the Employees' State Insurance Scheme (ESI).

Group negotiation, uniform contracts, and, finally, purchases by hospitals associated with the National Cancer Grid for 40 drugs resulted in savings of 313.2 billion. Without pooled procurement, the cost would have been {15.6 billion, with savings ranging from between 23% to 99%.

'Strengthened, human-rated rocket is ready for Gaganyaan' - Page No. 13 ,GS 3

In a crucial step in India's ambitious programme to lift its astronauts into space, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will test its crew escape system (CES) on October 21.
In the ultimate mission that will hoist the astronauts into a low-earth orbit in 2025, the rocket will be the Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM-3).
there is a system called Integrated Vehicle Health Management System, or IVHMS, which has intelligence. It will sense an imminent failure and take abort action. It will autonomously decide. This system is under development. These are new things. We have to test all of them over a period of time.

Text and Context - How synergistic barriers are affecting progress on SDGs

Lamenting the lack of progress on various Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), world leaders at the SDG Summit in New York on September 18 and 19, once again reaffirmed their shared commitment to eradicate poverty and end hunger.
They recognised that the world was on track to meet only 15% of its 169 targets that make up the 17 goals and have committed to an SDG stimulus of $500 billion annually.
A 2023 report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimated the investment gap in SDGs in developing countries to be greater than $4 trillion.
A fundamental statement in the Agenda 2030 document detailing the SDGs, recognises the indivisible and integrated nature of the 17 SDGs and their contribution to the three pillars of sustainable development.

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