Daily Prelims Notes 12 May 2024

Daily Prelims Notes

12 May 2024

1. The Karnataka HC ruling on EPF benefits

Sub: Polity

Sec:  National body

Context:

• The Karnataka High Court recently invalidated the provisions (paragraph 83 of the Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme, 1952 and paragraph 43A of the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995) allowing for the inclusion of foreign workers in India’s Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), citing these provisions as unconstitutional.

Details:

• This ruling targets the amendments made in 2008 to the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, which had previously broadened the scope to include international workers, obligating them to contribute to the EPF based on their entire salary without the usual wage ceiling applicable to domestic workers.
• The court’s decision highlighted the act’s original intention to provide retirement benefits specifically for industrial workers within lower salary brackets, pointing out the inapplicability of these provisions to highly paid employees.
• The judge noted a disparity in the treatment of Indian workers overseas and foreign workers in India, deeming it discriminatory and in violation of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law.

How has the EPFO responded?

• The EPFO argued that these provisions were designed to protect the interests of Indian workers internationally.
• However, the court found the classification between international workers from SSA and non-SSA countries to lack a rational basis and reciprocity.
• The ruling, though specific to Karnataka, raises questions about the uniform application of EPF provisions to international workers across India.

Significance of the judgement:

• Overall, this judgment emphasizes the need for careful scrutiny of international labour laws and equity in social security provisions, which should align closely with the objectives of both national policy and international obligations.

About Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952:

• The Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 is India’s pivotal social security legislation and regulates three main schemes — the Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme (EPF) Scheme1952, the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EP) Scheme 1995 and the Employees’ Deposit-Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976.
• It is administered through a statutory body — the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
• An establishment with a minimum of 20 employees is required to register with the EPFO and make Provident Fund (PF) contributions for eligible employees.
• The EPFO is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India.
• The benefit amount is 20 times the wages, a maximum benefit of 6 Lakh.
• 2008 Amendment to the Act:
  • Amended to bring international workers or expatriates within the fold of the statute.
  • As per the amendment, international workers employed in India for a minimum period of six months are mandated to make PF contributions which include 12% of the employee’s total salary.
  • A matching contribution is made by the employer for each of these workers.
  • However, contrary to their domestic counterparts, the wage ceiling of ₹15,000 per month for availing PF benefits does not apply to international workers. 
  • Withdrawal of PF accumulations by international workers based in India is permitted only upon retirement from service in the establishment at any time after the attainment of 58 years of age; upon retirement on account of permanent incapacity for work due to bodily or mental incapacity and pursuant to any stipulations under existing Social Security Agreements (SSAs).

Provident Fund (PF):

• A provident fund is a financial scheme that aims to provide retirement benefits to employees.
• It is a savings scheme established by employers and/or employees to accumulate a fund over a period of time, which can be withdrawn by the employee upon retirement or under certain specified conditions.

Social Security Agreements (SSAs):

• Bilateral instruments executed to protect the social security interests of workers posted in a foreign country.
• SSAs have been set up between India and 21 countries to ensure protection and continuity in social security contributions for Indian workers abroad. 
• They may also be required to make similar contributions under the host country’s laws.
• However, due to restrictions on withdrawals and stipulations relating to their duration of stay, such employees rarely reap benefits from PF contributions made outside India.
• As a result, SSAs are executed to avoid such double coverage — coverage under the social security laws of both the domestic as well as the host countries.

Source: TH

2. How is India streamlining the pharma sector?

Sub: Polity

Sec:  National body

Context:

• India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has recently taken back the authority previously granted to State licensing bodies for issuing No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for the production of unapproved, banned, or new drugs for export purposes.

Details:

• This centralization of licensing authority reflects India’s efforts to maintain strict control over drug quality following international scrutiny over allegations of substandard drug exports linked to health concerns in several countries.
• The CDSCO will now be the sole authority to issue manufacturing licenses for drugs intended for export, consolidating the process at the national level.

India’s pharma industry:

• India’s pharmaceutical industry plays a significant role globally as the third-largest producer of pharmaceuticals by volume and 14th largest by value, catering to about 200 countries.
  • 100% FDI in the Pharmaceutical sector is allowed under the automatic route for greenfield pharmaceuticals.
  • 100% FDI in the pharmaceutical sector is allowed in brownfield pharmaceuticals; wherein 74% is allowed under the automatic route and thereafter through the government approval route.
• Notably, India supplies 62% of the global demand for vaccines, including major vaccines like DPT, BCG, and measles, with at least 70% of the WHO’s essential immunization schedule vaccines sourced from India.
• The Indian pharmaceutical industry has an estimated 10,500 companies, with drug exports having more than doubled in the past decade.
• This vast production capacity and global reach make any policy change within India’s pharma sector, such as the recent centralization of NOC issuance, highly impactful.

Significance of this step:

• A study by the Department of Pharmaceuticals anticipates substantial growth opportunities for India’s generic drug market between 2022 and 2030, as drugs worth $251 billion globally are expected to go off-patent, opening up new markets for Indian generics.
• The centralization of NOC issuance is expected to streamline procedures, improve efficiency, and standardize protocols across India’s pharma industry, potentially enhancing the country’s pharmaceutical exports.
• This move aligns with the broader goal of reaching a $450 billion target by 2047 and reinforces the central government’s role in controlling and overseeing drug exports—a function deemed necessary given the critical nature of pharmaceuticals in global health.

About CDSCO:

• It is the Central Drug Authority for discharging functions assigned to the Central Government under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940.
• It works under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) of India.
• Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, CDSCO is responsible for –
  • Approval of Drugs.
  • Conduct Clinical Trials.
  • Laying down the standards for Drugs.
  • Control over the quality of imported Drugs in the country.
  • Coordination of the activities of State Drug Control Organizations.
  • Further CDSCO along with state regulators, is jointly responsible for the grant of licences to certain specialised categories of critical Drugs such as vaccines and sera, etc.
• The Indian government has announced plans to subject all medical devices, including implants and contraception, to CDSCO scrutiny.

Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI):

• DCGI is the head of the department of the CDSCO of the Government of India responsible for the approval of licences of specified categories of drugs such as blood and blood products, IV fluids, vaccines and sera in India.
• DCGI also sets standards for the manufacturing, sales, import, and distribution of drugs in India.

Source: TH

3. What are the rules on contesting seats?

Sub: Polity

Sec:  Elections

Context:

• Congress leader Rahul Gandhi announced that he would contest from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, although he is also contesting the election from Wayanad, Kerala.

Provisions for contesting the election on more than one seat:

• According to the sub-section, 33 (7) Representation of the People Act (RPA), 1951, a candidate is permitted to contest an election from up to two constituencies, but he or she can hold only one seat at a time if elected from both.
  • It was introduced through an amendment in 1996, prior to which there was no bar on the number of constituencies from which a candidate could contest.
• Section 70 of the same Act stipulates that a candidate can hold only one seat at a time, regardless of whether he or she has been elected from more than one seat.
• Thus, if a candidate wins from two seats, a byelection is necessary from the seat he or she vacates.
  • Former Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami said the opposition to a candidate contesting from many seats was basically because many byelections had to be conducted after polls were over.
• A person has to be a voter in a particular State to contest Assembly polls from there. But to contest in a Lok Sabha election, a person can be registered as a voter in any constituency of the country.
• If a person is a registered voter in any constituency, he or she can contest from any seat in India, except Assam, Lakshadweep and Sikkim.

What is the minimum age to contest?

• The minimum age for a person to contest Lok Sabha and Assembly polls is 25 years, while one can become a member of the Rajya Sabha or the State Legislative Council only at 30 years.
• There is no minimum educational qualification needed to contest general elections in India.
• Candidates must be citizens of India, registered in some constituency of the country as valid voters and must not have been convicted of any offence punishable by more than two years.

How can a candidate be disqualified?

• A person shall be disqualified from being chosen as or being a member of either House
  • if he holds any office of profit under the Government of India or the Government of any State;
  • if he or she is of unsound mind and stands so declared by a competent court; if he or she is an undischarged insolvent;
  • if he or she is not a citizen of India or has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a foreign state.
• Under the RPA Act, if a person is convicted of any offence and sentenced to an imprisonment of two years or more, this will lead to his disqualification to contest elections.
  • Even if this person is out on bail, after the conviction and his appeal is pending for disposal, he or she is disqualified from contesting an election.
  • For some categories of serious offences, one may incur disqualification for any conviction, regardless of the quantum of punishment.

Changes undertaken by the ECI regarding candidates:

• The ECI has amended the rules for political party funding during elections.
• The new regulations include decreasing the cash donation limit from ₹20,000 to ₹2,000.
• The Electoral Bond Scheme, notified in January 2018, allowing anonymous contributions to limit the use of cash, was scrapped by the Supreme Court in 2024.
• For the 2024 polls, the ECI has banned cash transportation in bank vehicles after sunset.
• The Commission is also monitoring non-scheduled chartered flights for cash, liquor, and drug movement.
• No law has been brought in with regard to the muscle power of candidates.
• The presence of central paramilitary forces has been able to put a stop to practices like booth-capturing.

Source: TH

4. Early clinical trial sheds light on regulatory T cell therapies

Sub: Science and tech

Sec:  Health

Context:

Results from a new clinical trial shed light on the performance of infusions of immune-calming regulatory T cells for children with type 1 diabetes.

Results of the trials:

The trial shows that a single dose of the cells can transfer over efficiently in children but does not show signs of preserving insulin-releasing cells in the pancreas.

What is T cells:

• T cells are so called because they are predominantly produced in the thymus.
• They recognise foreign particles (antigen) by a surface expressed, highly variable, T cell receptor (TCR).
• There are two major types of T cells: the helper T cell and the cytotoxic T cell.
• As the names suggest, helper T cells ‘help’ other cells of the immune system, whilst cytotoxic T cells kill virally infected cells and tumors.
• The severity of disease can depend on the strength of these T cell responses.

What are the different types of T-cells?

There are two main types of T-cells:

Cytotoxic T-cells: 

• Cytotoxic T-cells are also called CD8+ cells because they have a CD8 receptor on their membranes.
• These cells get their name from “cyto,” which means cell, and “toxic,” which means poisonous or harmful.
• Cytotoxic T-cells kill cells infected with viruses and bacteria, and they also destroy tumor cells.

Helper T-cells: 

• Helper T-cells are also called CD4+ cells because they have a CD4 receptor on their membranes.
• Unlike cytotoxic T-cells, helper T-cells don’t kill cells directly.
• Instead, they send signals that tell other cells in your immune system how to coordinate an attack against invaders.
• Helper T-cells signal cytotoxic T-cells, B-cells and another type of white blood cell called a macrophage.

T-cell therapy(TCRs) and CAR T-cell therapy(CARs):

• Unlike CARs, which use portions of synthetic antibodies that can recognize specific antigens only on the surface of cells, TCRs use naturally occurring receptors that can also recognize antigens that are inside tumor cells

5. Will cattle be the next evolutionary lab for flu host-switching?

Sub: Science and tech

Sec:  Health

Context:

H5N1 virus, which was first detected in dairy cattle in Texas in late March, has rapidly spread to 37 herds in nine States in the U.S. as of May 7.

About the recent study:

• The U.S. FDA study of pasteurized milk reveals that about one in five of the retail samples tested positive for bird flu viral fragments.
• FAO noted that H5N1 virus was detected in high concentrations in milk from infected dairy cattle and at levels greater than that seen in respiratory samples.

Why does dairy milk contain high concentrations of H5N1 virus?

• The expression of H5N1 receptors in the mammary gland, respiratory tract and cerebrum of cattle, both the human and the duck receptors to be highly expressed in the mammary glands.
• In the mammary gland, the human receptors and the duck receptors were found to be widely distributed in the alveoli but not in the ducts.
• Chicken-type influenza receptors were common in the cow respiratory tract. 
• The high concentration of H5N1 virus fragments in milk from H5N1-infected cows could be due to local viral replication in the mammary glands of cows.
• The chicken receptor was expressed on the surface of the respiratory epithelium in the upper respiratory tract and upper part of the lower respiratory tract.
• Human and duck receptors were either lacking or very limited in expression.

Evolution of H5N1 virus:

• A favorable environment for the development of H5N1 viruses, which can readily transfer from animals to people, was created by the abundance of human and duck receptors in the mammary glands and the significant presence of human, chicken, and duck receptors in the lung alveolar cells of cows.

Pigs as “evolutionary lab for flu host switching”:

• Pigs are called the “evolutionary lab for flu host switching” precisely due to the presence of both the human-flu and avian-flu host cell receptors in their upper-respiratory tract.

What is Host Switching?

• In parasitology and epidemiology, a host switch (or host shift) is an evolutionary change of the host specificity of a parasite or pathogen.
• For example, the human immunodeficiency virus used to infect and circulate in non-human primates in West-central Africa, but switched to humans in the early 20th century.

About H5N1:

• Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 (A/H5N1) is a subtype of the influenza A virus, which causes influenza (flu), predominantly in birds.
• It is an enzootic (maintained in the population) in many bird populations, and also panzootic (affecting animals of many species over a wide area).
• H5N1 virus can also infect mammals (including humans) which have been exposed to infected birds.
•  The H1N1 pandemic of 2009 was due to reassortment of the virus in pig populations.

About hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N):

• Influenza A viruses are divided into subtypes based on two proteins on the surface of the virus: hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N).
• There are 18 different hemagglutinin subtypes and 11 different neuraminidase subtypes (H1 through H18 and N1 through N11, respectively).

About Hemagglutinin (H):

• The hemagglutinin(HA) of influenza virus is a major glycoprotein and plays a crucial role in the early stage of virus infection.
• HA is responsible for binding of the virus to cell surface receptors, and it mediates liberation of the viral genome into the cytoplasm through membrane fusion.

About Neuraminidase (N):

• Viral neuraminidase is a type of neuraminidase found on the surface of influenza viruses that enables the virus to be released from the host cell.
• Neuraminidases are enzymes that cleave sialic acid (also called neuraminic acid) groups from glycoproteins.

6. 30-year study links ultra-processed food to higher risk of early death

Sub: Science and tech

Sec:  Health

Context:

• According to U.S. observational study, Higher consumption of most ultra-processed foods is linked to a slightly higher risk of death.

About the study:

• Compared with participants in the lowest quarter of ultra-processed food intake (average three servings per day), those in the highest quarter (average seven servings per day) had a 4% higher risk of total deaths.

What are Processed Foods?

A processed food is any food that has been altered in some way during preparation.

Food processing can be as basic as:

• freezing
• canning
• cooking
• drying

Not all processed foods are unhealthy but some processed foods may contain high levels of salt, sugar and fat.

What Are the Types of Processed Foods?

• The United Nations has a food grouping scale called the NOVA food classification. It puts food into four groups:

Group one: Unprocessed or minimally processed foods.

• This group includes foods like fresh blueberries, roasted nuts, chopped vegetables, or other foods that have slight changes.
• These foods are prepared like this to make them easier to access.
• This group might also include things that have been dried, frozen, refrigerated, filtered, fermented, or put in vacuum-sealed packages.
• This is meant to preserve the natural foods and allow you to safely eat them later.

Group two: Processed culinary ingredients.

• This group contains options like butter, oils, sugar, or salts.
• They’re ingredients that come from nature but are slightly changed.
• They may have been pressed, refined, milled, or dried.
• They’ve gone through this process to make it easier for you to use them in your kitchen.
• These options aren’t supposed to be eaten alone.
• They’re meant to be added to foods during meal preparation.

Group three: Processed foods.

• These include canned fish, fruits in syrup, bottled vegetables, cheese, fresh bread, or other options that were made with added salt, oil, sugar, or other things from groups one or two.
• Most of these foods have two or three ingredients. They’re edible by themselves but can also be added to other dishes. The food in this group was processed to make it more stable or add to its qualities.

Group four: Ultra-processed food and drink products.

• This group contains foods that are typically the result of intensive manufacturing processes.
• They’re created from foods and additives and don’t relate much to group one foods.
• Like other options, these foods include sugars, oils, fats, and salt.
• They also have ingredients taken from other foods, like casein, lactose, gluten, whey, hydrogenated oils, protein isolate, maltodextrin, invert sugar, and high-fructose corn syrup.
• Ultra-processed options have a lot of preservatives, dyes, colors, added flavors, non-sugar sweeteners, or other ingredients that change the texture or appearance of the food.

What are Ultra Processed Foods?

• Ultra-processed food is an industrially formulated edible substance derived from natural food or synthesized from other organic compounds. 
• The resulting products are designed to be highly profitable, convenient, and hyperpalatable, often through food additives such as preservatives, colourings, and flavorings.
• Ultra-processed foods include items such as cake, sugary cereal, baked goods, soft drinks, bacon, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, frozen pizza, and ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat meals.