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1. The Court's 'no fundamental right to marry' is wrong - Page No.6, GS 2
2. Restoring the ecological health of the Himalayas - Page No.6, GS 3
3. EU report calls for 2% global wealth tax on billionaires - Page No. 10, GS 3
4. South China Sea - Page No. 13, GS 2
5. Text and Context - Have earnings grown post-pandemic?

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The Court's 'no fundamental right to marry' is wrong - Page No.6, GS 2

• There is no fundamental right to marry, it holds. On that account, the Court decided that same sex persons cannot marry.
• In 2009, the Delhi High Court read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in Naz Foundation (Naz). That was set aside in Suresh Kumar Koushal by the Supreme Court in 2013, but ultimately upheld Naz in Navtej Singh Johar in 2018.
• Section 377 IPC, a law made by the British, that criminalised sex between non-heterosexual couples was punishable with 10 years imprisonment.
• As a result, the LGBTQI communities suffered blackmail, torture, violence, harassment at the hands of the police, their lovers and families.
• Both Naz and Navtej Johar did not strike down Section 377. They held that adult non-heterosexual couples having physical relations with consent in private would not be criminalised.
• In the meantime, even before Navtej Johar, the Court had held, in NALSA, that persons are entitled to identify their own gender. They may be born as males but if they want to identify as females or transgenders, they are entitled to do so. Pursuant to that, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act was passed by Parliament which provides the procedure for changing one's gender and protection against discrimination in diverse establishments, private or state.
• after Navtej Johar, when one can have intimate relations with a person of any gender or sexual orientation, it is logical to assume that in that situation when a couple are having a physical relationship, they may prefer to develop a long-term relationship, including that of marriage.
• Article 16 of the UDHR, 1948 provides that, "Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family...." Under the UDHR, the right to marry is a human right.
• India was an original signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the founding document of all human rights in the world.
• The Supreme Court has used the provisions of UDHR to elaborate rights under the Constitution.
• Thus, in the context of handcuffing and consequential torture contrary to Article 21 of the Constitution, in Prem Shankar Shukla, the Supreme Court referred to Article 5 of the UDHR stating that, "After all, even while discussing the relevant statutory and constitutional requirements court and counsel must never forget the core principle found in Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

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Restoring the ecological health of the Himalayas - Page No.6, GS 3

• The environmental devastation caused in the Himalayan States of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim has reinvigorated the debate on the "carrying capacity' of the regions.
• The Supreme Court of India, in response to a petition filed by a retired Indian Police Service officer, has asked the Union government to suggest a way forward regarding the carrying capacity of the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR), which includes its towns and cities.
• In technical terms, carrying capacity of a region is based on the maximum population size that an ecosystem or environment can sustainably support over a specific period without causing significant degradation or harm to its natural resources and overall health.
• It is crucial in understanding and managing the balance between human activities and the preservation of natural ecosystems to ensure long-term sustainability.

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EU report calls for 2% global wealth tax on billionaires - Page No. 10, GS 3

• Pointing out that tax evasion is enabling billionaires to enjoy effective tax rates equivalent to 0% to 0.5% of their wealth, the European Union Tax Observatory in its 'Global Tax Evasion Report 2024' has called for a global minimum tax on billionaires equal to 2% of their wealth.
• This would both address evasion and "generate nearly $250 billion from less than 3,000 individuals", the report stated.
• The other major measure — the global minimum tax of 15% on MNCs, adopted in 2012 by 140 countries and territories — has been a disappointment. While it was expected to increase global tax revenues by 10%, a growing list of loopholes has reduced expected revenues by a factor of two.
• The report red-flagged the trend of "greenwashing the global minimu tax" wherein MNCs can use 'green' tax credits for low carbon transition to reduce their tax rates wav below the minimum of 15%.
• Greenwashing is the practice of making false or exaggerated claims about the environmental benefits of a product, service, or company.
• It can occur in the financial industry when sustainability-related statements, declarations, actions, or communications do not clearly and fairly reflect the underlying sustainability profile of an entity, a financial product, or financial services.

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South China Sea - Page No. 13, GS 2

• Beijing and Manila traded blame on Sunday for two collisions between Chinese vessels and Philippine boats on a resupply mission to Filipino troops on a remote outpost in the disputed South China Sea.
• The incidents happened near Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands, a hotly contested region where Beijing deploys ships to assert its claims over almost the entire sea.
• China claims almost the entire South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade passes annually, and has ignored an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis. Second Thomas Shoal is about 200 km from the western Philippine islan Palawan, and more than 1,000 km from China's nearest major landmass, Hainan island.

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Text and Context - Have earnings grown post-pandemic?

• Recent data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) of 2022-23 revealed a strengthening of the labour market, with unemployment rates falling and labour force participation rates (LFPRs) rising. Rural women's LFPRs - for those aged 15 and above - rose from 19.7% in 2018-19 to 41.5% in 2022-23, a significant jump for a cohort that had long been on the margins of the labour market.
• Much of the new employment generated for women has been in self- employment. There has been a rise in the proportion of women working as unpaid family helpers, with the share of rural working women in this form of employment rising from 37.9% to 43% between 2018-19 and 2022-23. The share of women in regular wage work fell from 22% to 16%.
• While wages and earnings have increased, inflation has been high as well. If inflation is higher than earnings growth, real earnings reduce, reducing purchasing power.

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