Current Affairs – March 29, 2025

{GS2 – MoC&F – Schemes} Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma-MedTech (PRIP) Scheme

• Context (PIB): The Department of Pharmaceuticals hosted an Industry Dialogue to promote research and innovation under the PRIP Scheme.

PRIP Scheme

• Central Sector Scheme under Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.
• Objective: Transform India’s Pharma-MedTech sector from cost-driven to innovation-led growth through R&D and industry-academia collaboration.
• 6 Priority Areas Under PRIP Scheme: New Chemical Entity, New Biological Entity & Phytopharmaceuticals, Complex Generics & Biosimilars, Precision Medicine, Medical Devices, Orphan Drugs, and Drug Development for Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).
• Financial Outlay: ₹5000 crore (2024-28).
  • ₹700 crore for Centers of Excellence (CoEs) at 7 National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education & Research (NIPERs).
    • Established under The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education & Research Act 1998 to advance pharmaceutical education and research.
    • Objectives: Provide postgraduate and doctoral education while conducting high-end R&D in pharmaceutical sciences.
  • ₹4250 crore for R&D funding in the private sector for advancing drug development, enhancing medicine accessibility, revolutionising healthcare with AI, personalising treatments using genetics, and tackling drug resistance.

Strategic Vision of PRIP

• “Innovate in India & Make for the World”: Strengthening India’s role as a global leader in innovation-driven manufacturing.
• Focus on Data-Driven Pharma-MedTech Markets: Enhancing AI, ML, & precision medicine capabilities.
• Resilient Supply Chains: Leveraging India’s pharmaceutical expertise for international competitiveness.

Key Funding Categories Under PRIP

• TRL (Technology Readiness Levels) define innovation maturity, from concept development to market-ready products.

Govt Initiatives Supporting Pharma-R&D

• Patent Mitra (ICMR): Assists researchers in patent filing.
• MedTech Mitra (ICMR): Supports innovation, clinical trials, and commercialisation.
• Indian Clinical Trial and Education Network (INTENT – ICMR): Facilitates clinical research and regulatory approvals.
• CSIR Innovation Complex: Supports translational research and industry collaboration.
• C-CAMP Incubation Facilities: Provides infrastructure and mentoring for MedTech startups.

{GS2 – Polity – IC – Judiciary} Reforming Judicial Appointments in India **

• Context (IE |TP IE): Huge cash discovery at Justice Varma’s residence has reignited debate on judicial appointments & SC’s 2015 decision to strike down National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).

Constitutional Provisions for Judicial Appointments

• Article 124: Establishes the Supreme Court and outlines the appointment process for judges.
• Article 124(2): Judges are appointed by the President in consultation with the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and other judges as necessary.
• Article 217: Governs the appointment of High Court judges by the President in consultation with the CJI, Governor of the state, and Chief Justice of the concerned High Court.

Evolution of Judicial Appointment Process

• Article 50 of the Constitution: Mandates the separation of the judiciary from the executive under Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP).
• Early Years (1950s-1970s): Executive dominance in judicial appointments, with the President acting on ministerial advice.
• 1970s Political Influence: Indira Gandhi’s govt superseded senior judges, raising concerns about judicial independence.

Evolution of the Collegium System

• First Judges Case (1981): 
  • SC held that the CJI does not have primacy over the opinion of the Chief Justice of the HC in the matter of appointment and transfer of judges.
  • The CJI and Chief Justice of the HC are equally important in the consultation process.
  • Held that “consultation” did not mean “concurrence,” giving the executive the final say.
• Second Judges Case (1993): 
  • SC overruled the First Judge Case and held that the CJI has the greatest significance in appointing and transferring judges.
  • The Chief Justice of the HC must consult the CJI before recommending to the government.
  • Established the Collegium System, transferring appointment power to the judiciary.

• Third Judges Case (1998):
  • SC held that the recommendation without consultation of the collegium by the CJI for the appointment of SC and HC judges is not binding on the government.
  • Expanded the Collegium to five judges, reinforcing judicial primacy.
• Fourth Judges Case (2015):  
  • SC upheld the primacy of the collegium.
  • The NJAC Act was struck down with a 4:1 majority in 2015 as unconstitutional.
    • Dissenting View (Justice Chinamasa): Criticized collegium secrecy & favored transparent NJAC.

Significance of NJAC

• Balanced Power Structure: Ensures judiciary, executive, and civil society participation.
• Transparency & Accountability: A multi-stakeholder model reduces opacity, aligning with ARC’s support for participatory appointments.
• Checks Nepotism: Ends the judges-only selection process, addressing favoritism concerns flagged by the Law Commission’s 230th Report.
• Public Trust & Legitimacy: A diverse appointment body enhances public confidence, as advocated by CPR and ARC-II.
• International Best Practices: Aligns with judicial appointment models in other democracies.
  • United Kingdom: Judicial Appointments Commission with a mix of judges, legal professionals and lay members.
  • South Africa: Judicial Service Commission advises the President, including members from the executive, legislature, and judiciary.
  • France: High Council of the Judiciary manages appointments with Minister of Justice input.

Reasons for Striking Down of NJAC (2015)

• Threat to Judicial Independence: Violates separation of powers and the Doctrine of Stare Decisis (A legal principle that requires courts to follow precedents set by higher or previous rulings in similar cases), leading to its annulment in the 2015 SC AoR Assn. Case.
• Eminent Person Ambiguity: Lacks clear criteria for selection, raising concerns over vagueness.
• Veto Power Concerns: Non-judicial members could undermine judicial autonomy.
• Politicisation Risk: Possible political affiliations of eminent persons could lead to executive interference.
• Lack of Standard Operating Procedures: Absence of clear guidelines, tie-breaking rules, and safeguards against decision-making deadlocks.
• Basic Structure Violation: SC viewed NJAC as undermining judicial primacy, a core feature of the Constitution.

Why the NJAC Needs Reconsideration?

• Judicial Primacy Retained:
  • NJAC still ensured judicial dominance (3 out of 6 members).
  • It proposed that the government would be bound by the recommendations of the NJAC.
  • Instead of striking it down, modifications could’ve been introduced, as suggested by Fali Nariman.
• Democratic Mandate: NJAC was passed by Parliament with overwhelming support (543 MPs, with only one dissent) and ratified by 16 state legislatures, showing federal consensus.
• Global Comparisons: Many democracies like the UK and South Africa involve a mix of judiciary, executive, and civil society rather than unilateral judicial control.

Possible Reforms/ Way Forward

• Revisiting NJAC with Modifications:
  • CJI’s Casting Vote: To maintain judicial primacy.
  • Removing Veto Power: Ensuring decisions are not politically influenced.
  • Transparent Selection Criteria: Public disclosure of selection norms.
• Balancing Independence and Accountability: A hybrid system involving the judiciary, executive, and independent members.
• Legislative Reforms: Parliament may consider a revised framework that upholds judicial independence while ensuring transparency.
• Collegium Reforms: Structured secretariat, written records, and wider consultation for appointments.

Also refer to Collegium System; Reforming the Process of Judicial Appointments.

{GS3 – S&T – Space} Gaia Mission

• Context (IE | ToI): European Space Agency (ESA) officially retired its Gaia space observatory after over a decade of groundbreaking astronomical discoveries.

About Gaia

• Gaia, (Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics), is an ESA astronomical observatory mission launched in December 2013.
• Location: Positioned 1.5 million km from Earth at the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2 (L2).

Source: IE

• Operation Duration: Began observations in July 2014 and ceased operations in January 2025.
• Final Status: Decommissioned after fuel exhaustion & placed in a stable retirement orbit around Sun.

Mission Objectives

• 3D Mapping of the Milky Way: Build the most precise three-dimensional map by surveying about 1% of the galaxy’s 100 billion stars.
• Tracking Celestial Objects: Measure positions, distances, movements, and brightness of stars, asteroids, comets, and quasars.
• Studying Diverse Cosmic Bodies: Detect exoplanets, brown dwarfs, supernovae, and failed stars while analysing their composition and temperature.
• General Relativity: Provide high-precision data to refine and test Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.

Scientific Instruments Used

• Twin Optical Telescopes: Captured stellar light from multiple directions.
• Digital Camera: Largest flown in space with nearly 1 billion pixels.
• Astrometer: Determined precise star locations.
• Photometer: Measured brightness and temperature.
• Spectrometer: Analyzed chemical composition and velocity of objects.

Mission Achievements/ Key Discoveries

• Stellar Census: Provided data crucial for understanding the origin, structure & evolution of Milky Way.
• 3D Mapping of the Milky Way: Revealed the galaxy’s spiral arms, central bar & a warped, wobbling disc. Confirmed past galactic mergers and ripples influencing star formation, including the Sun.
• Discovery of Invisible Black Holes: Identified a new class of black holes detectable only by gravitational effects. Found one of the closest black holes to Earth.
• Asteroid & Space Threat Tracking: Catalogued >1,50,000 asteroids, predicting their orbits & potential threats to Earth.
• Quasar & Distant Object Studies: Studied >1mn quasars, advancing knowledge of the distant universe.
• Einstein’s General Relativity: Offered stringent new tests of gravitational theories through precise astronomical measurements.
• Identified Remnants of Galaxies: Astronomers identified two ancient star streams, ‘Shakti’ and ‘Shiva’, likely remnants of galaxies that merged with the Milky Way 12 billion years ago.

Gaia’s Legacy

• Despite mapping only 2% of the Milky Way’s stars, Gaia’s data will fuel discoveries for decades. Future missions like ESA’s Plato and LISA will build on Gaia’s findings.

{Prelims – Awards} Abel Prize

• Context (IE): Japanese mathematician Masaki Kashiwara was awarded the Abel Prize 2025.

• He was awarded for his fundamental contributions to algebraic analysis and representation theory, in particular the development of the theory of D-modules and the discovery of crystal bases.
  • Crystal bases allowed mathematicians to replace complex calculations with much simpler graphs of vertices connected by lines.

Credit: New York Times

What is Abel Prize?

• Named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802-29), the Abel Prize “recognises pioneering scientific achievements in mathematics”.
• First awarded in 2003, the Abel prize is often considered to be an equivalent of the Nobel Prize, which does not have a category for mathematics.
• Established by: Norwegian Parliament in 2002, on Abel’s 200^th anniversary.
  • The Abel Prize is awarded and administered by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters on behalf of the Norwegian government.
• Selection of Recipients: By an expert committee appointed by the Academy under the advice of the International Mathematical Union (IMU) and the European Mathematical Society (EMS).
• Prize: Includes a monetary award of 7.5 million kroner (roughly $720,000) and a glass plaque designed by Norwegian artist Henrik Haugan.
  • Kroner is the currency of Norway.

{Prelims – Awards} R K Shriramkumar

• Context (IE): R K Shriramkumar was chosen for the Sangita Kalanidhi award for the year 2025.

• He is a virtuoso violinist and accompanist of Carnatic Music.

Credit: Wikipedia

Read More> Sangita Kalanidhi Award