Gray-Zone Warfare, Abortion Pill-Mifepristone, Red Fort Case and President’s Mercy Power

• The 18th Lok Sabha include a minister of State with independent charge overseeing the Departments of Space (DoS) and Atomic Energy (DAE), the Ministries of Earth Sciences (MoES) and Science and Technology (MST).
• Gross domestic expenditure on research and development as a fraction of GDP has been declining since 2008-09.
• Each of these ministries or departments presents significant challenges.

• These bodies face persistent problems, such as delays in fellowship and grant disbursals, localised and collaboration-unfriendly research facilities, fluctuating regulations, insufficient intellectual property rights protection, and limited translational research.

Multi-omics (multiple omics)

• It provides an integrated approach to power discovery across multiple levels of biology. By combining data from genomics, transcriptomics, epigenetics, and proteomics, researchers can achieve a more comprehensive understanding of molecular changes contributing to normal development, cellular response, and disease.

Dig Deeper: Which part of the Constitution talks about ‘Scientific temper, humanism and spirit of enquiry’?

• Grey-zone warfare comprises actions that frustrate an opponent in a sustained manner without engaging in direct combat.
• This technique often involves psychological operations, misinformation, and other non-traditional warfare methods to achieve strategic objectives without provoking full-scale conflict.

Dig Deeper: Read tactics of Gray zone warfare in the context of Khalistani terrorism.

• The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) wants the continuation of the interest equalisation scheme for the export sector which is set to lapse on June 30.
• The scheme, which allows exporters of 410 identified products and all MSME exporters to access bank credit at a subsidised interest rate determined by the government.
• The Interest Equalisation Scheme (IES) aims to provide exporters with cheaper rupee credit for pre-shipment and post-shipment activities.
• Launched in April 2015 for five years later extended by 3 years.
• From October 2021, the subvention rates were revised to 3% for MSME manufacturers and 2% for merchant and other manufacturers exporting along 410 HS lines.
• It excludes segments benefiting from the PLI scheme.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) implements the scheme with banks. The subsidy is provided by the banks, they are later reimbursed by the government for their lower interest earnings.
• The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) and the Department of Commerce (DoC) oversee its approval and reimbursement process.
• Eligible exporters receive upfront interest subvention from banks.
• It helped to bring down exporter’s cost of credit and hence add to their competitiveness.

Dig Deeper: Compare the Interest Equalisation Scheme with The Production Linked Incentives scheme.

• The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a bid to restrict the abortion pill, mifepristone.
• The court, in a unanimous opinion, ruled that anti-abortion groups and physicians challenging mifepristone lacked the legal standing to bring the case.
• Despite claims by abortion opponents that mifepristone is unsafe, polls show that a majority of Americans support continued access to safe abortion.
• Abortion rights have been a pivotal issue, especially after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973, which legalized abortion nationwide.

Abortion rights in the French Constitution

• France became the world’s first country to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution.
• The 25^th Amendment states that there is a “guaranteed freedom” to abortion in France.
• Following the vote, the Eiffel Tower was lit up with the words “my body my choice.”
• France first legalized abortion in 1975, after a campaign led by then-Health Minister Simone Veil, an Auschwitz survivor who became one of the country’s most famous feminist icons.

• However, in 2022, the Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson overturned the Roe v. Wade verdict, returning the authority to regulate abortion to individual states, prompting 14 states to enact measures banning or sharply restricting the procedure.

Dig Deeper: Read about the referendum in Ireland to abolish the historic 8^th amendment.

• President Draupadi Murmu has rejected a mercy petition filed by Pakistani national Mohammed Arif who was sentenced to death for the 2000 terrorist attack at the Red Fort.
• He can challenge the President’s decision and prolong the proceedings further.
• The president’s power to grant pardons provided additional protection against possible miscarriage of justice and, therefore, cases found unfit for mercy merit capital punishment as per the Law Commission Report.
• Under Article 72 of the Constitution, “the President shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence where the sentence is a sentence of death”.
• Under Article 161, the Governor too has pardoning powers, but these do not extend to death sentences.

Rarest of Rare doctrine

• In 1980, the Supreme Court (Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab) upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty but established important guardrails.
• The death penalty should be in the rarest of rare cases when the alternative option is unquestionably foreclosed and all possible mitigating circumstances have been considered.
• The 262^nd Law Commission report published in 2015 recommended the absolute abolition of the death penalty for all crimes other than terrorism-related offences and waging war.

• The President cannot exercise his power of pardon independent of the government.
• In several cases, the SC has ruled that the President has to act on the advice of the Council of Ministers while deciding mercy pleas. These include Maru Ram vs Union of India in 1980, and Dhananjoy Chatterjee vs State of West Bengal in 1994.
• Although the President is bound by the Cabinet’s advice, Article 74(1) empowers him to return it for reconsideration once. If the Council of Ministers decides against any change, the President has no option but to accept it.
• The president’s order can be challenged on multiple grounds — including that relevant material was not considered, the power was exercised based on political considerations, or that there was no application of mind.

Dig Deeper: Compare the Pardoning Power of the Indian President with the US President.