Indian Express Explained

week-4 May
and The Hindu (29 May,
2022)
Notes
SL.
TOPICS PAGE NO.
NO.
The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 has been
1 challenged in Delhi High Court 08

2 Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPIs) 11

3 RFID VS BARCODE Express

4 D2M TECHNOLOGY Express

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1. UPSC Current Affairs: Context: The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 has been challenged in Delhi
High Court| Pg 08
UPSC Syllabus: Mains/Prelims: GS paper III: Indian society and social issues
Sub Theme: surrogacy | UPSC

Context: The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 has been challenged in Delhi High Court| Pg

Background:

• To curb the exploitation of women by the prevalence of commercial surrogacy, Parliament

passed the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) Act and the Surrogacy Act in
December 2021. It was signed by the President and came into force in January 2022.
• According to the Act- “surrogacy” means a practice whereby one woman bears and gives birth
to a child for an intending couple with the intention of handing over such child to the intending
couple after the birth.

Key provisions:

• The Act prohibits commercial surrogacy, but allows altruistic surrogacy.

• Purposes for which surrogacy is permitted:

(i) for intending couples who suffer from proven infertility; (ii) altruistic; (iii) not for
commercial purposes; (iv) not for producing children for sale, prostitution or
other forms of exploitation; and (v) for any condition or disease specified
through regulations.

• Eligibility criteria for intending couple: The intending couple should have a
‘certificate of essentiality’ and a ‘certificate of eligibility’ issued by the appropriate authority.

• The certificate of eligibility to the intending couple is issued upon fulfilment of

the following conditions:
(i) the couple being Indian citizens and married for at least five years;
(ii) between 23 to 50 years old (wife) and 26 to 55 years old (husband);
(iii) they do not have any surviving child (biological, adopted or surrogate); this would not include a
child who is mentally or physically challenged or suffers from life threatening disorder or fatal illness;
(iv) other conditions that may be specified by regulations.

• Eligibility criteria for surrogate mother: To obtain a certificate of eligibility from the appropriate
authority, the surrogate mother has to be:
(i) a close relative of the intending couple;
(ii) a married woman having a child of her own;
(iii) 25 to 35 years old;
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(iv) a surrogate only once in her lifetime; and

(v) Possess a certificate of medical and psychological fitness for Surrogacy. Further, the surrogate
mother cannot provide her own gametes for surrogacy.

• National and State Surrogacy Boards:

The central and the state governments shall constitute the National Surrogacy Board (NSB) and the
State Surrogacy Boards (SSB), respectively. Functions of the NSB include, (i) advising the central
government on policy matters relating to surrogacy; (ii) laying down the code of conduct of surrogacy
clinics; and (iii) supervising the functioning of SSBs.

• A child born out of a surrogacy procedure will be deemed to be the biological child of the intending
couple. Further, the surrogate mother will have an option to withdraw from surrogacy before the
embryo is implanted in her womb.

• Offences and penalties: (i) undertaking or advertising commercial surrogacy; (ii) exploiting the
surrogate mother; (iii) abandoning, exploiting or disowning a surrogate child; and (iv) selling or
importing human embryo or gametes for surrogacy. The penalty for such
offences is imprisonment up to 10 years and a fine up to 10 lakh rupees.

Debates:

Provisions
• Couples can opt for surrogacy only on
medical grounds and should produce
certificates of eligibility.
Criticism
• It ignores reproductive choices of the
women.
• Supreme court in K.S. Puttaswamy case
propounded that reproductive choices of
the women is their constitutional right
citing personal liberty under Article 21
of the Constitution of India.

• The couple should have been married
for five years and not have a living
child.
• Commercial surrogacy is strictly
prohibited and only altruistic surrogacy
can be practiced.
• The surrogate mother has to be close
relative of the couple , a married woman
with a child of her own and aged between
25 and 35.
• Law allows a single woman to resort to
surrogacy, she has to be a widow or a
divorcee between the age of 35 and 45.
• Act defines “couple” as the legally
married Indian man and woman above
the age of 21 years and 18 years
respectively;
• Aspirations of single parents has been
ignored.
• Without any compensation for
surrogate, the value of reproductive
labour has been undermined.
• To find a surrogate mother in extended
family would pose a challenge to
privacy of the couple.
• Single men are not eligible under any
circumstances.
• Single unmarried women are also not
eligible.
• Ignores the rights of LGBTQ
community
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2. UPSC Current Affairs: Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPIs)| Pg 11

UPSC Syllabus: Prelims: current affairs, Mains: GS paper III: Indian economy
Sub Theme: FPI | UPSC

Foreign portfolio investment (FPI) consists of securities and other financial assets held by investors in
another country. It does not provide the investor with direct ownership of a company's assets and is
relatively liquid depending on the volatility of the market. Along with foreign direct investment (FDI),
FPI is one of the common ways to invest in an overseas economy. FDI and FPI are both important
sources of funding for most economies.
Also called ‘hot money’. Represent short-term inflows such as investment in shares, bonds,
debentures, etc.
Categories of Investments: Shares, Corporate Bonds, Debentures, Commercial Papers, Mutual Fund
Units; Units issued by REIT and InVITs, Treasury Bills; Dated Securities; State Development Loans
(SDLs), Indian Depository Receipts.
Categories of FPIs
• Category –I: Foreign Government and their entities; Regulated entities such as Banks, Pension
Funds, Mutual Funds
• Category- II: All other FPIs excluding the above and includes corporates, Individuals, charitable
organizations, Unregulated funds etc.
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3. UPSC Current Affairs: RFID VS BARCODE – Explained

UPSC Syllabus: Prelims/Mains: GS paper III: Science and technology
Sub Theme: scanning systems| UPSC

RFID
• Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a wireless technology that uses radio waves to
automatically identify various tagged objects.
• Transponder, receiver, and transmitter are the three components of an RFID system.
• The RFID reader continually sends radio waves of a specific frequency in RFID system. If the
object to which the RFID tag is attached is within the range of the radio waves, it provides
feedback to the RFID reader, which then identifies the object based on the feedback.
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Passive RFID tags Semi Passive Tags Active tags

There is no power supply for
passive tags. They acquire
their power from the
readers’ incoming radio
waves.
Semi-passive tags comprise
an internal circuit with a
power source, but rely on
the radio waves received
from the reader to transmit
the response.
The internal circuit of active
tags is powered by a power
source.
Batteries are being used to
power active RFID tags.

BARCODE

A barcode is a printed series of parallel bars or lines of varying width used for entering data into a
computer system. The bars are black on a white background and vary in width and quantity depending
on the application. The bars represent the binary digits zero and one, which represent the digits zero to
nine processed by a digital computer. These barcodes are scanned using special optical scanners
known as barcode readers
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RFID BARCODE
Uses radio waves Uses light
More durable Susceptible to wear and breakage
RFID scanners can process dozens of tags in Takes time
a single second
Difficult Simple and easy to copy or counterfeit

4. UPSC Current Affairs: D2M TECHNOLOGY– Explained

UPSC Syllabus: Prelims: current affairs, Mains: GS paper III: Science and technology
Sub Theme: Telecommunication UPSC

D2M TECHNOLOGY

Context- The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and India’s public service broadcaster Prasar
Bharati are exploring the feasibility of a technology that allows to broadcast video and other forms of
multimedia content directly to mobile phones, without needing an active internet connection.

What is direct-to-mobile broadcasting?

The technology is based on the convergence of broadband and broadcast, using which mobile phones
can receive terrestrial digital TV. It would be similar to how people listen to FM radio on their phones,
where a receiver within the phone can tap into radio frequencies. Using D2M, multimedia content can
also be beamed to phones directly.
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Merits:
• It can possibly be used to directly broadcast content related to citizen-centric information.
• It can be further used to counter fake news, issue emergency alerts and offer assistance in disaster
management.
• It will not exhaust their mobile data, and more importantly, it comes at a nominal rate.
• The technology will also allow people from rural areas, with limited or no internet access, to
watch video content thereby reducing digital divide.
• It can promote e-learning.
• It can enable telecom service providers to offload video traffic from their mobile network onto
the broadcast network, thus helping them to decongest valuable mobile spectrum which will help
reduce call drops, increase data speeds etc.