What is ‘prior approval’ needed before investigating public officials accused of corruption? (GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
Why in news?
- The Supreme Court recently delivered a split verdict in former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s plea to quash an FIR in the alleged skill development scam case.
Details:
- Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi disagreed on whether the AP CID was required to seek ‘previous approval’ from the state government before conducting an inquiry into the allegations against Naidu.
- Justice Bose held that prior approval was necessary, which the CID did not have when it opened the inquiry. Justice Trivedi held it was necessary to seek approval only to investigate offences committed after 2018, the year this requirement was introduced.
Prior approval requirement:
- In 2003, the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, which governs agencies like the CBI, was amended. Under Section 6A, it was required to seek approval from the central government before investigating alleged offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), 1988, if the employee in question held a rank higher than joint secretary.
- The Supreme Court struck down this requirement in 2014. Four years later, the PCA was amended and a similar provision was introduced as Section 17A.
- Under this section, if a public servant commits an offence under the Act while discharging their official duties, investigators must receive approval from the central/ state government, or a competent authority to open an inquiry or investigation.
Challenge to provision:
- In 2018, the NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) challenged the constitutionality of the previous approval requirement.
- It argued that it would be “extremely difficult” to determine if an offence was committed by a public official while they were discharging their duties if no investigation could be conducted in the first place.
- Placing this burden on police officers and investigating agencies would in effect protect corrupt officials, and the levels of corruption would rise.
- The CPIL also pointed to the 2014 case in which the Supreme Court had struck down a similar requirement.
- In July 2023, the case was listed before a Bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Sanjay Karol.
Similar instances:
- The case involving Chandrababu Naidu is not the first time that the SC has decided whether the ‘previous approval’ requirement should apply retrospectively. In September 2023, a Constitution Bench held that officials cannot claim immunity under Section 6A, even if the offence was committed before this provision was struck down. (CBI v R R Kishore)
- In 2018, when former Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana was being investigated for allegedly accepting bribes, then Additional Solicitor General P S Narasimha had opined that there was no need for prior approval to lodge an FIR.
- The case against Asthana reached the Supreme Court in 2021 but was adjourned repeatedly without being heard, and was declared infructuous after Asthana retired in 2022.
What is Disease X?
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Why in news?
- The World Economic Forum (WEF) 2024 is being organized in Davos, Switzerland.
- World leaders at the forum are set to discuss Disease X - a mysterious name for an illness caused by a currently unknown, yet serious microbial threat.
- A panel of the World Health Organization (WHO) will join other health officials to discuss the health threat at the WEF.
What is Disease X?
- It is an illness caused by a currently unknown, yet serious microbial threat.
- The WHO added Disease X in 2017 to a list of pathogens deemed a top priority for research alongside Ebola and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
- Covid is an example of Disease X. The vast reservoir of viruses circulating in wildlife is seen as a likely source of more such diseases due to their potential to spill over and infect other species, including humans.
The significance of Disease X:
- The reason to study Disease X is to enable cross-cutting R&D (research and development) preparedness that is also relevant for an unknown disease. The global humanitarian crisis sparked by Ebola, Covid, and other diseases has been a wake-up call.
- The Ebola epidemic killed thousands of people globally. Bloomberg reported that despite decades of research, there were no products ready to deploy in time to save these lives.
- In response, the WHO created an R&D Blueprint to accelerate the development of a range of tools for “priority diseases".
Which are the priority pathogens right now?
- The current list of priority diseases by the WHO includes - Covid, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus disease, Lassa fever, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and SARS, Nipah and henipaviral diseases, Rift Valley fever, Zika and Disease X.
GDP growth in most countries neither sustainable, nor inclusive, WEF study
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- ‘The Future of Growth Report’ released recently by the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024 called for a new approach to economic growth that balances efficiency with long-term sustainability and equity, examining speed and quality together.
- Most economies are growing in ways that are neither sustainable nor inclusive and are limited in their ability to absorb or generate innovation and minimise their contribution and susceptibility to global shocks.
Key Highlights:
- High-income economies score high on innovation and inclusion, while lower-income economies on sustainability, said the report that took a holistic look at GDP alongside the quality of growth across 107 economies.
- Among the lower middle-income economies, India and Kenya scored high on sustainability, Jordan on innovativeness; Vietnam on inclusiveness; and the Philippines on resilience.
- Common challenges preventing a stronger balanced growth performance of this group included technology absorption, lack of social safety nets, insufficient investment in renewable energy, and insufficient healthcare system capacity.
- The report proposes a new way for assessing economic growth that balances efficiency with long-term sustainability, resilience, and equity, as well as innovation for the future, aligning with both global and national priorities.
- At an individual level, none of the 107 economies covered by the report attained a score higher than 80 on any of the framework's four dimensions.
Economic slowdown:
- The report highlighted a significant economic slowdown, estimated to fall to the lowest rate in three decades by 2030, amid ongoing economic and geopolitical shocks.
- This downturn is exacerbating a range of interconnected global challenges, including the climate crisis and a weakening social contract, which are collectively reversing progress in global development.
