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GS Paper: GS2-10.Government Policies & Interventions for development of various sectors (issues in their design, implementation)

  • Centre moves to simplify medical device regulations

    Why in the News

    The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has proposed amendments to Rule 44 and Rule 63 of the Medical Devices Rules, 2017, adding the European Union to the list of jurisdictions whose regulatory approval India recognises for faster market entry. The Medical Devices Rules, 2017 currently grant an expedited licensing route in India to devices already approved by a short list of recognised foreign regulators, such as the US Food and Drug Administration. Adding the European Union’s regulatory approval to that recognised list extends the fast-track route to a much larger set of globally marketed devices.

    What do Rule 44 and Rule 63 currently govern?

    1. Rule 44, predicate device and approval-based licensing: Rule 44 of the Medical Devices Rules, 2017 sets out the conditions under which a device already approved in a recognised foreign jurisdiction can secure an Indian manufacturing or import licence through a faster review, rather than a full fresh evaluation.
    2. Rule 63, licensing timelines and reliance on foreign approval: Rule 63 governs the timelines and documentary requirements for import licences, with reliance on foreign regulatory approval used to compress India’s own review period for devices from recognised jurisdictions.
    3. Currently recognised jurisdictions are limited: The existing fast-track list includes major regulators such as the US Food and Drug Administration, but has not included the European Union’s regulatory framework, requiring EU-approved devices to go through India’s standard, longer review.

    Why add the European Union to the recognised list?

    1. The EU covers a large share of globally marketed devices: A significant share of medical devices sold worldwide first secure approval under the European Union’s regulatory framework, so recognising EU approval widens the pool of devices eligible for India’s fast-track route considerably.
    2. Reduces duplicate testing for already-approved devices: Recognising EU approval avoids re-running clinical and safety evaluations in India for a device that has already cleared a comparably rigorous regulatory process abroad.
    3. Intended to speed access to newer medical technology: A faster licensing route is expected to bring newer diagnostic and treatment devices to the Indian market sooner than the standard review timeline would allow.

    Conclusion

    The proposed amendments to Rule 44 and Rule 63 extend India’s fast-track medical device licensing route to European Union-approved devices, alongside the jurisdictions already recognised. The amendments are at the proposal stage, with the next step being their formal notification under the Medical Devices Rules, 2017.

    Back2Basics: Medical Devices Rules, 2017

    1. Notified under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, the Medical Devices Rules, 2017 created a dedicated regulatory framework for medical devices, distinct from the drug-licensing framework they had earlier been regulated under.
    2. Classify devices by risk into four classes, A to D, with review stringency rising with the device’s risk class.
    3. Are administered by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, the national regulator for drugs and medical devices.
    4. Recognise approval from specified foreign regulators to allow an expedited licensing route for devices already cleared in those jurisdictions.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2015, GS2, 12 marks] For achieving the desired objectives, it is necessary to ensure that the regulatory institutions remain independent and autonomous. Discuss in the light of the
    experiences in recent past.”

  • ‘Retirement-income replacement 35-40% vs. 60% globally’

    ‘Retirement-income replacement 35-40% vs. 60% globally’

    Why in the News

    India’s retirement income replacement rate stands at about 35 to 40 percent, against roughly 60 percent globally. The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), the statutory regulator of the pension sector, has set a target of covering 30 crore people through the National Pension System (NPS) and the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) over the next four to five years. That target sits almost entirely outside government employment, where the regulator says people neither hold a pension account nor know the product exists. Coverage therefore turns on distribution and awareness rather than on the design of the two schemes.

    What is the National Pension System (NPS)?

    1. A defined contribution retirement scheme: Subscribers and, where applicable, employers contribute to an individual account, and the accumulated corpus depends on contributions and market returns rather than on a promised payout.
    2. Who administers it: The scheme is regulated by the PFRDA under the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 2013, with contributions invested by registered pension fund managers.
    3. Two account types: Tier I is the retirement account with withdrawal restrictions, and Tier II is a voluntary savings account without them.
    4. Exit design: A part of the corpus is withdrawn as a lump sum at retirement, and the balance is used to buy an annuity that pays the monthly pension.

    What is a retirement income replacement rate?

    1. Retirement income measured against final pay: The replacement rate is the share of a person’s last drawn pay that their retirement income reproduces, so a rate of 60 percent means retirement income equals 60 percent of final pay.
    2. Why the benchmark sits below 100: Work related costs and savings contributions end at retirement, so the accepted global benchmark of about 60 percent is treated as enough to hold living standards steady.

    What is the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS)?

    1. An assured payout option within the NPS framework: UPS gives central government employees covered by the NPS an assured monthly payout linked to the average basic pay drawn in the last twelve months of service, in place of a purely market linked corpus.

    What does the regulator say individuals should do about the shortfall?

    1. Encouraging higher contributions is the stated response: The regulator’s position is that people have to be encouraged to invest more, since the gap between India’s replacement rate and the global benchmark is a savings gap rather than a scheme design gap.
    2. No prescribed savings target: The PFRDA declined to fix how much an individual should save to secure a decent retirement income, on the ground that the amount cannot be predicted.
    3. Illustrations in place of a target: The regulator will instead show how regular monthly contributions can grow over a given number of years, drawing on past fund performance.
    4. The amount saved is not uniform: How much an individual saves depends on lifestyle and priorities, which is why a single national savings figure is not offered.
    5. The observed contribution range: Contributions among NPS subscribers now range from 200 rupees a month to 2 lakh rupees a month.

    Why is the non government segment the focus of the coverage push?

    1. Government enrolment is already growing: The PFRDA has about 2.2 crore NPS subscribers across government and non government categories, and government enrolment continues to rise on its own.
    2. The gap sits outside government service: The regulator’s stated job is to focus on the non government sector, whose workers do not have the benefit of NPS and do not know about it.
    3. The APY base is far larger: The Atal Pension Yojana already has about 10 crore customers, which makes it the wider of the two channels for the 30 crore target.
    4. Self employed and gig workers are the identified frontier: The regulator sees significant scope to expand pension coverage among the self employed and gig workers, who have no employer to enrol them.

    How is the digital push meant to widen distribution?

    1. Two platforms under development: The StAR NPS platform is being developed with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), and NPS Tatkal is being developed with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app.
    2. What distributors are paid: The PFRDA gives distributors a 200 rupee onboarding fee and roughly 0.3 percent of assets under management as annual commission.
    3. Why the platform route matters: Digital onboarding could substantially cut the cost of acquiring each new client, which is the binding constraint on selling a small ticket pension product.

    What is changing in how pension funds invest?

    1. Resilience in returns is the stated focus: Pension funds have to diversify across asset classes to generate better returns at low volatility.
    2. Direct investment capability is being examined: The PFRDA is examining how pension funds can develop the expertise to invest directly in firms rather than only through market instruments.
    3. Competition among fund managers: The regulator had 14 pension fund managers and holds that greater competition could both raise returns and expand the scheme’s reach.

    What do the newer products add to the pension architecture?

    1. NPS Vatsalya: The product allows parents or guardians to build retirement savings for children and has crossed four lakh unique customers.
    2. NPS Swasthya: The product under preparation combines pension savings with a dedicated health corpus and top up health insurance.
    3. Why the health link is being added: Medical expenditure is the main claim on retirement savings, so a separate health corpus protects the pension corpus from being drawn down early.

    Where does the Unified Pension Scheme sit on cost?

    1. Between the contributory and the old model: The cost of the UPS to the government will be higher than the NPS and substantially lower than the Old Pension Scheme. That scheme paid an unfunded defined benefit from the exchequer.

    Conclusion

    India’s pension system currently replaces about a third of final pay against a global benchmark of about 60 percent, and the regulator has framed this as a savings and coverage problem rather than a design problem. The stated position is a target of 30 crore subscribers across NPS and APY within four to five years, with the non government, self employed and gig segments as the intended addition. The next markers are the rollout of the StAR NPS platform with the BSE and NPS Tatkal with the NPCI, and the launch of NPS Swasthya.

    “[2017] Who among the following can join the National Pension System (NPS)?

    (a) Resident Indian citizens only

    (b) Persons of age from 21 to 55 only

    (c) All State Government employees joining the services after the date of notification by the respective State Governments

    (d) All Central Governments Employees including those of Armed Forces joining the services on or after 1st April, 2004

  • SC lauds repealed MGNREGA as ‘neither freebie nor exploitation’

    Why in the News

    The Supreme Court has described the repealed Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA) as a “salutary scheme” that was neither a freebie nor an exploitation of rural workers. A three judge Bench made the observation. It was hearing a petition seeking directions to the government to pay delayed wages under that Act along with compensation. Civil rights groups have meanwhile claimed that the successor law has produced a 50 per cent fall in employment generation. What is now contested is whether a guarantee of work rests on an enforceable right or on a Directive Principle that Parliament may redesign at will.

    What did the Court say about the repealed employment guarantee law?

    1. The Bench recorded an unqualified endorsement: The Chief Justice of India, heading a three judge Bench, orally observed that the repealed Act was a good and effective scheme.
    2. The reach was part of the praise: The observation noted that the scheme did a wonderful job in rural areas and was implemented across the whole country.
    3. It rejected both political labels attached to the scheme: The Bench held that the scheme was neither a freebie nor exploitation, which answers the charge that guaranteed public work is a handout and the charge that it is underpaid labour.
    4. The endorsement carries no operative effect: These were oral observations in a hearing, not a finding recorded in a judgment, so they bind nothing.

    What has changed under the successor law?

    1. A new statute has replaced the 2005 Act: The Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025, or VB-G RAM G Act, is now the governing law for rural employment guarantee.
    2. Guaranteed days have gone up: The entitlement rises from 100 days to 125 days of work per household each year.
    3. Employment generated has gone down: Civil rights groups claim a 50 per cent decline in employment generation under the new law, despite the higher entitlement.
    4. The design has moved from demand to allocation: The new law reflects a shift from a demand driven, rights based framework to a centrally controlled model.
    5. The funding split has been rewritten: The Centre to State ratio moves from 90:10 to 60:40, which raises the funding burden on States threefold.

    What did the petition ask the Court to do?

    1. Payment of arrears with compensation: The petition sought directions for the government to pay wages already delayed under the repealed Act, together with compensation for the delay.
    2. A test of the wage floor: The Court was urged to examine whether a law may prescribe minimum wages lower than the threshold determined by the State concerned.
    3. Elevation of the work guarantee: The petition asked that the statutory guarantee of rural work be raised to the status of a fundamental right under Article 21.
    4. The fiscal claim behind the numbers: It was submitted that States must now find nearly half the funds under the new law, that employment has halved, and that States do not have the money.

    Can a statutory guarantee of work be raised to a fundamental right?

    1. The Bench located the right in Part IV: A judge on the Bench observed that the Constitution does not make the right to work a fundamental right, and that it is more a democratic aspiration under the Directive Principles of State Policy.
    2. The consequence of that placement: To achieve that aspiration the state formulates a policy providing work at a graded, compensatory level. That is a matter of legislative choice rather than of enforceable entitlement.
    3. The petitioner’s route runs through dignity: It was argued that the right to lead a dignified life is part of Article 21, that a dignified life requires employment at minimum wages, and that anything below minimum wages amounts to forced labour.
    4. The question the Bench put remains open: Whether a Directive Principle worked out through a statute should be treated on par with Article 21 was posed from the Bench and not answered.

    Why did the Bench doubt a judicially fixed wage floor?

    1. A floor can shrink the work available: A judge on the Bench noted that mandating a minimum wage threshold might risk reducing the number of employment opportunities offered.
    2. Wages track local conditions: The Chief Justice of India observed that wages are usually linked to prevailing local conditions rather than to a single national figure.
    3. The two positions are not reconcilable within the scheme: A wage set by dignity produces one number, a wage set by local labour market conditions produces another, and only a legislature can choose between them.
    4. The judicial instrument is blunt here: A court can strike down a wage as unconstitutional, but it cannot fund the difference, which is why the Bench treated the question as a fiscal one.

    How did the Court dispose of the matter?

    1. The old law is no longer the right frame: A judge on the Bench stated that the issues raised must be examined afresh in the light of the new law rather than under the repealed Act.
    2. The petition was disposed of: The Court disposed of the present petition rather than deciding the questions it raised.
    3. Liberty was granted to start again: The petitioner was asked to file a fresh petition, which resets the challenge against the successor statute.
    4. The practical effect is delay: Both questions the petition raised survive, but only in a proceeding that has yet to be filed.

    Challenges to the rural employment guarantee framework

    1. A demand driven scheme collapses if funds are capped: Where the budget is fixed in advance, field staff suppress the registration of work demand rather than record an unmet entitlement. Eg. Work demand under the earlier scheme was routinely recorded only after funds were released for the block. Fix. Make the budget line for the guarantee an open ended charge that is revised at the supplementary stage against recorded demand.
    2. Delayed wages convert a guarantee into a loan from the worker: Payment beyond the statutory window pushes households into informal borrowing at the exact moment the scheme is meant to protect them. Eg. A large share of wage payments under the earlier scheme was released beyond the fifteen day statutory window in successive financial years. Fix. Automate the delay compensation payment through the same payment system that releases the wage, without requiring a claim.
    3. A higher State share transfers the risk to the weakest States: Poorer States with the largest demand for guaranteed work are least able to fund a 40 per cent share. Eg. States facing the highest rural distress also carry the highest ratio of committed expenditure to revenue. Fix. Apply a differentiated matching ratio linked to a State’s own revenue capacity rather than a uniform national split.
    4. Asset quality is weakly monitored: Works are selected for their ability to absorb labour rather than for durable value, so the assets created decay within seasons. Eg. Earthen works taken up before the monsoon are frequently washed out before they are measured. Fix. Require every work above a threshold cost to carry a technical sanction and a geotagged completion audit.
    5. Social audit is the design safeguard and the weakest link: The Gram Sabha audit is meant to catch fake muster rolls, but audit units are staffed and funded by the same administration they examine. Eg. Social audit units in several States operate with a fraction of their sanctioned staff. Fix. Fund social audit units directly from the central share and place their reporting line under the State Accountant General.
    6. Women’s participation depends on facilities that are rarely provided: Creche facilities and worksite shade are statutory entitlements that are treated as optional. Eg. Worksites routinely operate without the creche required where more than five children under six are present. Fix. Make release of the next tranche of administrative expenditure conditional on verified worksite facility compliance.

    Conclusion

    The Court’s endorsement of the repealed Act is a comment on record and nothing more, and the Bench made clear that the live questions must now be argued against the successor statute rather than the one it replaced. The petition was accordingly disposed of with liberty to file afresh, so both questions it raised remain undecided. The next milestone is the filing of that fresh petition. That petition will test the constitutional status of the work guarantee and the legality of a wage below a State determined minimum against the VB-G RAM G Act for the first time.

    “[2011] Among the following who are eligible to benefit from the “Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act”?

    (a) Adult members of only the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe households

    (b) Adult members of below poverty line (BPL) households

    (c) Adult members of households of all backward communities

    (d) Adult members of any household

  • Centre set to expand mechanised sanitation scheme to rural India

    Why in the News

    The Social Justice Ministry has moved a proposal to extend the National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem scheme from towns and cities to rural parts of the country. The scheme profiles sewer and septic tank workers as the route to its benefits, and coverage is being widened ahead of a delivery channel that approves capital subsidy for a small fraction of those profiled.

    Components of NAMASTE

    1. Profiling and identification: Sanitation workers are enumerated at camps run by urban local bodies, and that profile is the entry point to every other component of the scheme.
    2. Occupational safety: Profiled workers are given safety training and personal protective equipment for the work they already perform.
    3. Capital subsidy for self employment: A profiled worker or a Private Sanitation Service Organisation may apply for a capital subsidy to buy mechanised equipment and set up a sanitation enterprise.
    4. Emergency Response Sanitation Units: Urban local bodies are supported to set up standing units equipped with suction and jetting machines, so that a sewer or septic tank is cleaned by machine instead of by human entry.

    What is manual scavenging?

    1. Manual scavenging: Manual scavenging is the manual handling, carrying or disposing of human excreta from an insanitary latrine, an open drain, a pit or a railway track. The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 prohibits both the practice and the employment of any person for it.

    Who is a sewer and septic tank worker (SSW)?

    1. Sewer and septic tank worker: A sewer and septic tank worker (SSW) is a person engaged in cleaning sewer lines, manholes and septic tanks, whether employed directly or engaged through a contractor. The category is distinct from manual scavenging in law, since the work is lawful when performed with mechanised equipment and prescribed safety gear.

    What is a Private Sanitation Service Organisation (PSSO)?

    1. Private Sanitation Service Organisation: A Private Sanitation Service Organisation (PSSO) is a private entity providing mechanised sanitation services that can propose projects for capital subsidy under the scheme. It is one of two proposal routes, the other being an application by an individual worker.

    What is the Safai Udyami Yojana?

    1. Safai Udyami Yojana: The Safai Udyami Yojana is the self employment component under which sewer and septic tank workers receive capital subsidy to set up their own sanitation enterprise. It is one of the two self employment routes in which the National Commission for Scheduled Castes has flagged rejections.

    What does the proposed expansion change?

    1. Geographic extension: The proposal takes the scheme’s scope from towns and cities to rural parts of the country for the first time.
    2. New worker categories: Coverage will be widened to include drain cleaners, and workers in sewage treatment plants and faecal sludge treatment plants.
    3. Outlay and horizon: The Ministry has proposed around ₹498.73 crore for the expanded scheme, to be spent from this fiscal year to 2030-31.
    4. Second widening of scope: The scheme initially covered only sewer and septic tank workers and was first expanded to include waste pickers, so the rural extension is the second enlargement.
    5. Original aim retained: The scheme was started in 2023-24 with the aim of eradicating sewer and septic tank deaths, and the expansion does not alter that objective.

    Why has the scheme’s delivery record become the central concern?

    1. Profiling against approval: 90,915 sewer and septic tank workers have been profiled across the country, and only 810 have been approved for capital subsidies.
    2. Approval against disbursal: Of the 810 approved, 147 had actually received their funds as on 31 March 2026.
    3. Subsidy covers only part of the cost: The capital subsidy meets up to 50 per cent of total project cost, so an approved worker still has to raise the balance before the enterprise can start.
    4. Manual scavengers identified: Only 2,652 projects have been approved against the 58,000 manual scavengers identified under the scheme.
    5. Both routes inside the count: The 2,652 approvals include projects proposed by Private Sanitation Service Organisations as well as by individuals, so the figure is not a count of individual entrepreneurs alone.
    6. Waste picker coverage: 1.3 lakh waste pickers have been profiled alongside the sewer and septic tank workers, per the Ministry’s annual report for 2025-26.

    What has the National Commission for Scheduled Castes flagged?

    1. Repeated correspondence: The Commission has written repeatedly to the Social Justice Ministry since last year on the continued rejection of applications under the self employment and capital subsidy components.
    2. Rejections identified as the cause: It has held that one reason for the low number of approved projects is the high rate of rejections.
    3. Rejections across every part: It has noted rejections under each part of the capital subsidy component, and asked that these be examined.
    4. The August 2025 letter: That letter flagged rejections in the self employment components, both in the Safai Udyami Yojana and in the component for Private Sanitation Service Organisations.
    5. Source of the mandate: The Commission acts under Article 338, which empowers it to investigate and monitor safeguards for the Scheduled Castes and to inquire into specific complaints.

    Why do sewer and septic tank deaths persist under a statutory prohibition?

    1. Deaths on record: 498 people died across the country while engaged in the hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks from 2019 to June 2026, per the Social Justice Ministry’s reply to Parliament in August 2026.
    2. Enforcement rests with the employer: The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 bars hazardous cleaning without protective gear, and the duty to enforce falls on local authorities who are frequently the employers themselves.
    3. Contracting layer: Sewer cleaning is routinely outsourced, which separates the municipal principal from the worker who enters the tank.
    4. Rehabilitation lag: A worker whose capital subsidy application is rejected returns to the same work, so profiling without disbursal leaves the occupational risk untouched.
    5. Rural gap unmeasured: Rural areas have been outside the scheme until this proposal, so deaths in village septic tanks have had no dedicated scheme response.

    Challenges to NAMASTE

    1. Rejection concentrated in the subsidy pipeline: The bottleneck sits between profiling and approval rather than between approval and identification. Eg. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has recorded rejections under every part of the capital subsidy component and has asked the Ministry to explain them.
    2. Balance financing after subsidy: The worker must raise the uncovered share of project cost as a loan against negligible collateral. Eg. National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation term loans routed through State channelising agencies have carried low utilisation and weak recovery.
    3. Urban local body capacity: Emergency Response Sanitation Units need trained crews and maintained machines, which small municipalities cannot sustain. Eg. The Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge launched in 2020 enrolled 246 cities to become sewer death free, and participation was concentrated in large municipal corporations rather than small towns.
    4. Contractor liability gap: Outsourcing lets the principal employer distance itself from a death inside a manhole. Eg. In Delhi Jal Board v National Campaign for Dignity and Rights of Sewerage and Allied Workers (2011), the Supreme Court held that the principal employer cannot escape liability by engaging contractors for sewer cleaning.
    5. No rural delivery cadre: Rural sanitation is administered by gram panchayats, which have no wing equivalent to an urban local body’s sanitation department. Eg. Faecal sludge emptying in villages is done by informal private operators outside any municipal register, which leaves no employer to profile a worker against.
    6. Monitoring by profiling count: Progress is reported as workers profiled rather than as workers rehabilitated, so the headline number rises without entitlement delivery following it. Eg. The Ministry’s annual report for 2025-26 leads with profiling totals for sewer and septic tank workers and waste pickers, and not with the count of workers placed in an alternative livelihood.

    Conclusion

    The Social Justice Ministry has proposed extending the National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem scheme to rural India, to drain cleaners and to treatment plant workers. The proposal is at the stage of a Ministry submission and has not yet been notified, and the next milestone is approval of the expanded scheme and its outlay. The delivery record it inherits is a profiling count far ahead of the number of capital subsidy cases funded, alongside 498 sewer and septic tank deaths between 2019 and June 2026.

    “[2016] ‘Rashtriya Garima Abhiyaan’ is a national campaign to

    (a) rehabilitate the homeless and destitute persons and provide them with suitable sources of livelihood

    (b) release the sex workers from their practice and provide them with alternative sources of livelihood

    (c) eradicate the practice of manual scavenging and rehabilitate the manual scavengers

    (d) release the bonded labourers from their bondage and rehabilitate them

  • EOI for data centre project on islands withdrawn

    Why in the News

    The Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration has withdrawn an Expression of Interest seeking feasibility proposals for a private sector-led green artificial intelligence data centre on the islands, days after publishing it. The withdrawal follows reports that the Nicobarese population on Great Nicobar Island had not been informed of any plan to set up a data centre in the sea areas around the island.

    What is an Expression of Interest in a public project?

    1. About: An Expression of Interest is a pre-tender notice through which a government body invites interested parties to indicate willingness and capability to undertake a project, before a formal tender is issued.
    2. Purpose: It is used to test market interest and technical feasibility for a project whose scope, cost or technology is not yet fixed, so the responses shape the later tender document.
    3. Legal effect: It creates no contractual obligation and can be withdrawn or modified by the issuing authority at any stage before award.

    What is a green artificial intelligence data centre?

    1. About: A data centre is a facility housing servers and networking equipment, and an artificial intelligence data centre is optimised for the high power and cooling demands of large model training and inference.
    2. Why green: The green label refers to powering the facility with renewable energy and using low-water or seawater-based cooling, since artificial intelligence workloads consume far more electricity and cooling water than conventional server hosting.

    Who are the Nicobarese?

    1. About: The Nicobarese are the largest indigenous community of the Nicobar group of islands, a Scheduled Tribe living in village-based settlements across the Nicobar archipelago including Great Nicobar.
    2. Why they matter here: Their traditional lands and coastal commons fall within the footprint of island infrastructure projects, so their prior information and consent is the legal and administrative test for any such proposal.

    Why has the withdrawal drawn attention to consultation?

    1. The sequence: The Expression of Interest was published on 10 August, and a notice issued days later withdrew it with immediate effect due to administrative reasons.
    2. Location of the proposal: The data centre was proposed for the sea areas around Great Nicobar Island, which places it directly in the coastal zone the resident community depends on.
    3. The information gap: The local Nicobarese population on Great Nicobar Island had not been informed of any plan to set up a data centre in those waters.
    4. The wider protest: Local people are already protesting against the government’s proposed Rs 91,000-crore mega-infrastructure project on the same island.
    5. What the reason given does not settle: The notice cites administrative reasons without specifying whether the withdrawal responds to the consultation failure, the technical feasibility or the wider protest.

    What is at stake in the Great Nicobar mega project?

    1. Scale: The proposed mega-infrastructure project on Great Nicobar Island carries an estimated cost of Rs 91,000 crore.
    2. Components: The Great Nicobar Island Project comprises a transhipment port at Galathea Bay, an international airport, a power plant and a greenfield township.
    3. Strategic rationale: The transhipment port is intended to rival Colombo and Singapore for container transhipment, capturing traffic that currently bypasses Indian ports.
    4. Ecological setting: Great Nicobar hosts the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve, along with the Galathea Bay leatherback turtle nesting site and the Campbell Bay and Galathea National Parks.
    5. Community setting: The island is home to the Nicobarese and to the Shompen, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group living in the interior forests.
    6. The consultation question: The data centre withdrawal repeats the question already raised about the mega project, which is whether affected communities are informed before proposals enter the public domain.

    Challenges to Island Infrastructure Development

    1. Prior informed consent: Project proposals reach the public domain before the resident community is told, which converts consultation into a post-facto formality. Eg. The Nicobarese on Great Nicobar were not informed of the data centre proposal in the waters around their island.
    2. Ecological irreversibility: Island ecosystems are small, endemic and cannot absorb clearance at the scale mainland projects assume. Eg. The Great Nicobar project involves diversion of a large tract of tropical forest and construction at the Galathea Bay leatherback turtle nesting beach.
    3. Seismic and tsunami exposure: The islands sit on an active subduction zone, so heavy coastal infrastructure carries a hazard the mainland does not face. Eg. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami devastated the Nicobar group and permanently submerged parts of the coastline near Indira Point.
    4. Water and power for data infrastructure: Artificial intelligence data centres demand continuous power and cooling that island grids cannot supply without new generation. Eg. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands depend substantially on diesel generation and an undersea optical fibre link commissioned in 2020.
    5. Rehabilitation of tribal populations: Displacement from customary land cannot be compensated in cash terms for communities whose livelihood is tied to a specific coastal ecology. Eg. Nicobarese families displaced by the 2004 tsunami were resettled in intermediate shelters, and return to original villages remained incomplete for years.
    6. Regulatory clearance layering: Island projects require forest, coastal zone, wildlife and tribal clearances from separate authorities, which invites piecemeal appraisal of a single project. Eg. The Great Nicobar project’s clearances have been challenged before the National Green Tribunal and reviewed by a high-powered committee.
    7. Strategic and civilian conflict: The islands host India’s only tri-service command, so security requirements limit civilian access and complicate transparent public consultation. Eg. Access to several Nicobar islands remains restricted under tribal reserve and defence notifications.

    “[2019] Consider the following statements about Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in India:

    1. PVTGs reside in 18 States and one Union Territory.

    2. A stagnant or declining population is one of the criteria for determining PVTG status.

    3. There are 95 PVTGs officially notified in the country so far.

    4. Irular and Konda Reddi tribes are included in the list of PVTGs.

    Which of the statements given above are correct?

    (a) 1, 2 and 3

    (b) 2, 3 and 4

    (c) 1, 2 and 4

    (d) 1, 3 and 4

  • The ‘Vimal Elaichi’ promotion question

    Why in the News

    The Maharashtra Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has issued notices to actors Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn and Tiger Shroff over their endorsement of Vimal Elaichi, alleging that the advertisements could amount to surrogate promotion of Vimal Pan Masala, a prohibited tobacco-related product in the State. The action moves enforcement from the manufacturer to the celebrity endorser, using food safety, consumer protection and tobacco-control law together.

    What is surrogate advertising?

    1. About: Surrogate advertising promotes a prohibited or restricted product indirectly, by advertising a legally permitted product that carries the same brand name, packaging identity and visual grammar.
    2. How it works: The permitted product acts as a carrier for brand recall, so consumer attraction built around the prohibited product is maintained without the prohibited product ever appearing in the advertisement.
    3. Why it exists: Direct advertising of tobacco products is prohibited by law, so a manufacturer extends the brand to a permitted category such as cardamom, mineral water or music to keep the name in circulation.
    4. The legal test applied: The question is whether the communication is an advertisement for an independent product or whether it is intended to maintain, reinforce or enhance the brand identity associated with the prohibited product.

    What is the Central Consumer Protection Authority?

    1. About: The Central Consumer Protection Authority is the regulator created under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 to protect and enforce the rights of consumers as a class, with powers over false or misleading advertisements and unfair trade practices.

    Why does the FDA treat this advertisement as surrogate promotion?

    1. The eight elements weighed: The notice assesses the nature of the advertisement, the identity of the brand, its presentation, its visual elements, the dialogue, the product name, the market identity of the brand and the context in which the advertisement is presented.
    2. The brand identity test: The notice asks whether the use of the Vimal brand under the name of Elaichi or a similar product is intended to maintain, reinforce or enhance the brand identity and consumer attraction associated with pan masala and tobacco-related products.
    3. The consequence if the test is met: Such communication would not merely constitute an advertisement for an independent product, but would amount to indirect or surrogate promotion of a prohibited or restricted product.
    4. Status of the underlying product: Vimal Pan Masala is a prohibited tobacco-related product in the State, which is what makes the brand extension legally significant.
    5. Interim direction issued: The FDA has directed the removal of all content associated with the advertisement, alongside the notices to the endorsers.

    Where does the tension lie between a brand extension and a prohibited promotion?

    1. The manufacturer’s position in law: Cardamom is a lawful food product, and advertising a lawful product under a lawful trademark is ordinarily protected commercial activity.
    2. The regulator’s position: Legality of the advertised product does not settle the question, since the advertisement’s function may be to sustain recall for a different product that cannot be advertised at all.
    3. The shift in the enforcement target: The notices proceed against the endorsers rather than the manufacturer, which places liability on the person lending recognition to the brand.
    4. Pan masala’s regulatory position: Pan masala is a regulated food product under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India framework, so compliance with all provisions relating to its manufacture, marketing, sale and advertisement is mandatory.
    5. What remains unsettled: The notice frames the surrogate question as a serious question that arises rather than as a finding, so the determination follows the actors’ response.

    Which laws does the notice say the advertisement violates?

    1. Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006: The notice invokes various sections of the Act and the rules and regulations framed thereafter, including Section 24, which restricts advertisements and prohibits unfair trade practices relating to food, including misleading advertisements.
    2. Food Safety and Standards (Advertising and Claims) Regulations, 2018: Food Business Operators and marketers must ensure that their advertisements are truthful, unambiguous and not misleading, and are prohibited from making claims that encourage excessive consumption of a particular food.
    3. Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Regulations, 2011: These pertain to substances that may be injurious to health, and are the route through which States prohibit tobacco-bearing pan masala.
    4. Central Consumer Protection Authority guidelines, 2022: The advertisement is said to violate the 2022 guidelines on the prevention of misleading advertisements and endorsements for misleading advertisements.
    5. Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003: The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 is invoked for its provisions prohibiting tobacco advertisements.

    What penalty can follow a misleading endorsement?

    1. Statutory basis: Section 21 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 governs action against false or misleading advertisements and against the endorsers of such advertisements.
    2. Direction power: The Central Consumer Protection Authority can direct the discontinuation or modification of a false or misleading advertisement.
    3. First penalty: It can impose a penalty of up to Rs 10 lakh on the endorser.
    4. Repeat penalty: For subsequent contraventions, the penalty may extend to Rs 50 lakh.
    5. Endorsement ban: The authority can prohibit the endorser from endorsing any product for up to one year, and for subsequent contraventions the ban may extend to three years.

    What procedure must the endorsers now follow?

    1. Response window: The notices ask the actors to respond within 15 days.
    2. Mode of response: They need not appear in person and may submit a written explanation either in person or through a duly authorised representative, along with documentary evidence.
    3. Personal hearing: If they wish to be heard in person they may indicate it in the written explanation, and an opportunity of personal hearing, in person or through a duly authorised representative, is to be afforded in accordance with the principles of natural justice.
    4. Consequence of silence: Failure to respond within the stipulated period, or an unsatisfactory response, may attract action under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 without any further reference or notice.
    5. The presumption: In the absence of a satisfactory explanation, it shall be presumed that the endorser has nothing to state in the matter.

    Challenges to Enforcement Against Surrogate Advertising

    1. Proving intent: Regulators must show that a lawful product’s advertisement was intended to promote a prohibited one, which turns on inference from brand identity rather than on a direct statement. Eg. Notices in this case rest on presentation, dialogue and market identity rather than on any reference to pan masala in the advertisement itself.
    2. Split jurisdiction: Food safety, tobacco control, consumer protection and broadcasting law sit with different regulators, so a single advertisement attracts overlapping and slow proceedings. Eg. The present notices invoke the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 simultaneously.
    3. State variation in prohibition: A product prohibited in one State is lawfully sold in another, so a national advertisement cannot be uniformly assessed. Eg. Gutkha and tobacco-bearing pan masala have been banned by successive State notifications under the 2011 sales regulations, with renewal cycles differing across States.
    4. Penalty scale against advertising budgets: A ceiling of Rs 10 lakh on the endorser is small relative to the value of a national campaign, which weakens deterrence. Eg. Pan masala brands are among the largest advertisers during high-viewership sporting events.
    5. Digital and influencer channels: Enforcement designed for television and print struggles with content distributed through social platforms and regional influencers. Eg. The Central Consumer Protection Authority had to issue separate endorsement disclosure guidelines for social media influencers in 2023.
    6. Cross-border and streaming content: Advertisements and product placement travel through streaming services and platforms hosted outside the regulator’s reach. Eg. Anti-tobacco warning requirements had to be extended to over-the-top streaming content through separate rules notified in 2023.
    7. Health burden after prohibition: Prohibition of sale has not removed consumption, since smokeless tobacco moves through informal retail. Eg. Smokeless tobacco use remains widespread in States where gutkha has been banned for more than a decade.

    Conclusion

    The notices turn on a single legal question: whether an advertisement for a lawful cardamom product functions as indirect promotion of a prohibited tobacco-related product carrying the same brand identity. The FDA has invoked food safety, consumer protection and tobacco-control law together and directed the removal of the associated content. The actors have 15 days to file a written explanation with documentary evidence, and may seek a personal hearing.

    “[2018] Consider the following statements:

    1. The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 replaced the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954.

    2. The Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) is under the charge of Director General of Health Services in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

  • Census 2027 questionnaire notified with 40 questions and India’s first caste enumeration since Independence

    Why in the News

    The Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India notified a schedule of 40 questions for the population enumeration phase of Census 2027 on 14 August, and the schedule went live on 17 August in Ladakh and the snow bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh through a self enumeration portal. The design of a single field decides the value of the whole exercise, since Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe respondents select from a fixed drop down while every other respondent types a caste name into an open field, the same method that produced over 46 lakh caste names in the 2011 Socio-Economic and Caste Census.

    What is the population enumeration phase of Census 2027?

    1. The second of two phases: The Census runs in two stages, a houselisting and housing phase followed by the population enumeration phase that records individual level characteristics.
    2. Scope of the notified schedule: The Registrar General notified 40 questions to be asked during this phase, against 29 questions in the Census 2011 questionnaire.
    3. Thirteen new data fields: The schedule adds 13 new questions or data fields that were not part of the 2011 questionnaire.
    4. Self enumeration route: The schedule was made available through a self enumeration portal, allowing a household to fill its own record rather than wait for an enumerator.
    5. Fields marked mandatory: The data fields in the caste section are marked mandatory, with declining to declare recorded as an option rather than left blank.
    6. Wider than the gazette text: The schedule made available to respondents further expands the data fields notified in the Gazette of India.

    What was the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) of 2011?

    1. A separate survey, not the Census: The Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) of 2011 was a household survey of deprivation indicators conducted alongside but separately from the decennial Census.
    2. The caste data outcome: Its open field method of recording caste returned over 46 lakh different caste names, and the government has maintained over the last decade that the data were unreliable because of errors in data collection.

    What is the National Population Register (NPR)?

    1. A register of usual residents: The National Population Register (NPR) is a register of persons usually resident in a locality, distinct from a citizens’ register.
    2. Status of the update: The NPR was initially proposed to be updated along with the first phase of the Census, and has been put on the back burner amid opposition over concerns that the data could be used to build a country wide National Register of Citizens (NRC).

    What are the new data fields added to the 2027 schedule?

    1. Parents’ religion, date and place of birth: Under the head Family Particulars, the schedule seeks the religion, date of birth and place of birth up to the village level of both the father and the mother.
    2. Birth outside India recorded: A separate option records the place of birth of the father and mother if either was born outside India.
    3. Religion categories fixed with an escape field: Six religious categories are listed, Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Muslim and Jain, with other religion recordable in a separate column.
    4. Identity document details: The schedule seeks Aadhaar, mobile, voter identity card and driving licence details.
    5. Place of COVID-19 vaccination: A question on the place of COVID-19 vaccination offers two options, within India or outside India.
    6. Overlap with the NPR rehearsal form: The additional questions on parents’ particulars, Aadhaar, mobile, voter identity card and driving licence mirror those asked in the 2019 rehearsal form for the National Population Register.

    How will caste be recorded, and why does the method matter?

    1. A drop down for SC and ST respondents: Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe respondents select their caste from a predetermined drop down menu, which fixes the universe of permissible answers.
    2. An open field for everyone else: Question 10(C) reads, if not SC or ST in this State or Union Territory, enter caste name, leaving the entry entirely to the respondent.
    3. Two additional recorded choices: Besides the caste field, the schedule carries Does not want to declare Caste and No Caste as recordable options.
    4. The first count since Independence: This is independent India’s first caste enumeration, since the last full caste count was conducted in 1931.
    5. Why the asymmetry matters: A closed list produces categories that can be aggregated and compared, while free text produces spelling variants, sub caste names, surnames and gotra entries that cannot.
    6. The objection raised: The principal Opposition party has questioned the open field methodology and alleged that the government has abandoned the caste census it announced on 30 April 2025.

    Why does the open field method invite the 2011 failure?

    1. The precedent is documented: The same open field method in the 2011 SECC returned over 46 lakh caste names for a country whose recognised caste categories number in the thousands.
    2. The government’s own verdict on that data: The administration has maintained consistently over the last decade that the SECC caste data were unreliable because of errors in data collection.
    3. Asymmetric quality by design: SC and ST returns will be clean because they are drawn from a list, while Other Backward Classes and general category returns will carry the full noise of free text.
    4. Post enumeration classification burden: Reconciling millions of free text strings into usable categories becomes a discretionary exercise conducted after the count, not during it.
    5. Policy consequence: The categories that most need reliable numbers for reservation and welfare targeting are precisely the ones the open field leaves unstructured.
    6. Trust consequence: Recording caste as mandatory while leaving its classification unstructured invites the charge that the exercise is being conducted without an intention to use the result.

    Challenges to Census 2027

    1. Migrant and homeless undercount: Circular migrants and street dwelling populations are systematically missed, e.g. the absence of updated migration data after 2011 left ration portability planning during the 2020 lockdown without a reliable base.
    2. Digital self enumeration excludes the least connected: A portal based first phase presumes smartphone access and digital literacy, e.g. only 57 percent of women in India have independent internet access against 72 percent of men.
    3. Enumerator capacity and training: The count relies on schoolteachers deputed for the task with short training, e.g. Booth Level Officers in the Telangana Special Intensive Revision of 2026 were found skipping door to door verification under workload pressure.
    4. Data privacy exposure: Collecting Aadhaar, mobile, voter identity and driving licence details in one record creates a linkable profile, e.g. the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 carries wide exemptions for State instrumentalities processing such data.
    5. Political contestation over the instrument: State level demands can stall the exercise itself, e.g. a 48 hour shutdown in Imphal in August 2026 demanded a National Register of Citizens before the Census in Manipur.
    6. Delimitation and reservation stakes raise the incentive to misreport: Census figures feed seat readjustment and reservation shares, e.g. Article 82 makes the census the basis for readjusting Lok Sabha seat allocation.
    7. Snow bound and conflict affected areas run on a different clock: A staggered reference date fragments comparability, e.g. Ladakh and the snow bound belts began enumeration in August 2026 while the rest of the country follows later.

    Conclusion

    The value of India’s first post Independence caste count now rests on a design choice rather than on the count itself, since a drop down for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and free text for everyone else guarantees two grades of data from a single schedule. The stage reached is definite, the 40 question schedule was notified by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India on 14 August 2026, and self enumeration went live on 17 August 2026 in Ladakh and the snow bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, with the self enumeration window running to 31 August. The next milestone is the extension of population enumeration to the rest of the country, for which the source names no separate date. Unless the free text entries are reconciled against a recognised list, the exercise will reproduce the 46 lakh name problem the government itself called unreliable.

  • Registrar General notifies 40-question Census schedule with caste enumerated beyond SC and ST

    Why in the News

    The Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India has notified the 40 question schedule for the population enumeration phase of Census 2027, with caste recorded as an open declaration for the first time in independent India outside the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The notification exposes two tensions. An open caste column stands against the State wise lists prepared in advance for recent State caste surveys, and eight identity fields drawn from the 2020 National Population Register schedule now sit inside an exercise conducted under the Census Act, 1948.

    What is the population enumeration schedule of Census 2027?

    1. About: The schedule is the questionnaire that census officers are legally authorised to put to every person residing in their assigned area.
    2. Issuing authority: It was notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs under the Census Act, 1948, on the authority of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
    3. Instrument of collection: Information is gathered through the household schedule, which records the particulars of every person residing in a household.
    4. Size: Census 2027 carries 40 questions against the 29 questions of the Census 2011 questionnaire.
    5. Placement in the exercise: The Census runs in two phases, Housing and House Listing Operations followed by Population Enumeration, and this schedule governs the second phase.
    6. The caste field: Question number 10 reads Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Caste, and the enumerator records the caste as declared by the respondent.

    What is the National Population Register (NPR)?

    1. About: The NPR is the register of usual residents of the country, which is distinct from a register of citizens.
    2. Legal basis: It is prepared under the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, framed under the Citizenship Act, 1955.

    What is the National Register of Indian Citizens?

    1. About: It is a register of citizens prepared by verifying the entries already recorded in the Population Register.
    2. Local tier: The Local Register of Indian Citizens holds the verified particulars of persons within the jurisdiction of a Local Registrar.

    What is the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011?

    1. About: The SECC was a household survey of socio economic status and caste conducted alongside Census 2011.
    2. Statutory position: It was run as a survey outside the purview of the Census Act, 1948, carried no statutory backing, and its caste data were never released by the government.

    What are Housing and House Listing Operations?

    1. About: This is the first phase of the Census, which lists every building and household and records housing conditions and household assets.
    2. Current status: The phase is due to end on 30 September and has been completed in most States except West Bengal, Assam and Manipur.

    What is a reference date in a Census?

    1. About: The reference date is the fixed instant to which every entry relates, so a person is counted by their situation at that moment rather than on the day the enumerator visits.
    2. Dates notified: It is 12 a.m. on 1 October for the areas enumerated early and 12 a.m. on 1 March 2027 for the rest of the country.

    What is self enumeration in the Census?

    1. About: Self enumeration allows a household to fill its own schedule through a digital application before any enumerator visit.
    2. Window notified: The option is available from 17 to 31 August, before house to house population enumeration begins.

    Who is the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RG&CCI)?

    1. About: The RG&CCI is the authority under the Ministry of Home Affairs that conducts the Census and notifies the questions census officers are authorised to ask.
    2. Other charge: The same office runs the Civil Registration System and the Sample Registration System.

    What are the new or modified questions in the Census 2027 schedule?

    1. Spouse name: The name of the respondent’s spouse is recorded for the first time.
    2. Nationality as declared: Nationality is recorded as stated by the respondent.
    3. Father’s particulars: Details of the respondent’s father are recorded.
    4. Mother’s particulars: Details of the respondent’s mother are recorded.
    5. Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Caste: The existing SC and ST question is modified to add an open caste field.
    6. Literacy and digital literacy: Digital literacy is added to the existing literacy question.
    7. Highest educational level attained and stream or discipline: The stream or discipline of study is recorded along with the level attained.
    8. Place of COVID 19 vaccination: The place where the person received a COVID 19 vaccine is recorded.
    9. Total number of bank accounts: The count of bank accounts held is recorded.
    10. Mobile number: The mobile telephone number is recorded where available.
    11. Aadhaar number: The Aadhaar number is recorded where available.
    12. Voter ID number: The voter identity card number is recorded where available.
    13. Passport number: The passport number is recorded for Indian passport holders.
    14. Availability of driving licence: Whether the person holds a driving licence is recorded.
    15. Permanent residential address: The permanent residential address is also listed among the fields added for the first time.
    16. Scale of the change: Thirteen questions or data fields are entirely new against the 29 question Census 2011 schedule, and 14 questions are new or modified when the caste field is counted as a modification.

    Which of these questions were also part of the 2020 NPR schedule?

    1. Nationality as declared: Declared nationality was sought in the NPR schedule notified in 2020.
    2. Father’s particulars: Particulars of the father were part of the same NPR schedule.
    3. Mother’s particulars: Particulars of the mother were part of the same NPR schedule.
    4. Mobile number: The mobile number was collected under the NPR schedule.
    5. Aadhaar number: The Aadhaar number was collected under the NPR schedule.
    6. Voter ID number: The voter identity card number was collected under the NPR schedule.
    7. Passport number: The passport number was collected under the NPR schedule.
    8. Driving licence: Availability of a driving licence was collected under the NPR schedule.

    Why does an open caste column divide opinion against a list prepared in advance?

    1. The method notified: The enumerator records the caste as declared by the respondent, because the field is an open column with no fixed set of options.
    2. Evidence from the pre test: The pre test for population enumeration ran from 1 to 20 July in 16 States and Union Territories, where respondents outside the reserved categories recorded caste in an open column.
    3. The alternative sought: The Congress general secretary stated that the caste question was widely expected to carry a State wise list prepared in advance, as in the Bihar and Telangana caste surveys, with the response merely ticked.
    4. Charge on intent: The absence of such a list has been described as raising serious doubts on intent.
    5. Record of the open column: The same method in the 2011 SECC returned over 46 lakh different caste names, largely owing to differences in what people understand by caste.
    6. Historical benchmark: The 1931 Census, the last to enumerate caste, recorded 4,147 castes.
    7. Government position: The 2011 SECC caste data have been held over the last decade to be unreliable because of errors in data collection.

    How does the overlap with the NPR schedule reopen the citizenship question?

    1. Statutory link: The Citizenship Rules, 2003 provide for preparation of a Population Register and envisage its verification for preparation of the National Register of Indian Citizens.
    2. Doubtful entries: Rule 4 provides for marking the particulars of individuals whose citizenship is considered doubtful during verification, for further inquiry.
    3. Parental birth details: The 2020 NPR schedule sought the date and place of birth of a person’s father and mother, including district and State, and the country of birth where they were born outside India.
    4. The earlier controversy: Opposition parties and civil society groups argued in 2019 and 2020 that the NPR was a precursor to a nationwide NRC and that parental birth details could later be used to determine citizenship.
    5. State resistance: Several Opposition ruled States passed resolutions opposing the NPR exercise.
    6. Political amplification: The Union Home Minister had repeatedly spoken of a nationwide NRC and sought to link it with the Citizenship Amendment Act through a stated chronology.
    7. Assurance on record: The Prime Minister said in December 2019 that the government had not taken any decision to conduct the NRC, and the Home Ministry reiterated that position on several occasions.
    8. Present position: The Census questions return without any notification for an NPR and without any announced decision to undertake a nationwide NRC.

    What is the current status of the NPR exercise?

    1. First collection: NPR data were first collected in 2010, along with the houselisting phase of the 2011 Census.
    2. Update: The register was updated through a door to door exercise in 2015.
    3. Revival: The Registrar General revived the NPR through a notification in August 2019, to be carried out with the houselisting phase of the 2021 Census.
    4. Postponement: That exercise was postponed because of the COVID 19 pandemic.
    5. Budget provision: The Union Budget 2026 to 2027 allocated Rs 6,000 crore under the head Census, Survey and Statistics and Registrar General of India, for Census 2027 and the NPR.
    6. No fresh notification: The houselisting phase was notified for 1 April to 30 September and made no mention of the NPR, and no fresh NPR exercise has been notified.
    7. Official explanation: A Home Ministry official stated that the allocation followed provisions made in previous budgets since 2020, to keep funds available if and when the government decides to conduct the NPR.

    How is Census 2027 being sequenced across the country?

    1. Early start: Population enumeration begins on Monday in Ladakh and the snow bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
    2. Rest of the country: Enumeration in the remaining States and Union Territories will take place in February 2027.
    3. Self enumeration window: The self enumeration option runs from 17 to 31 August, before house to house enumeration starts.
    4. Reference dates: The count relates to 12 a.m. on 1 October for the early areas and to 12 a.m. on 1 March 2027 for the rest of the country.
    5. First phase status: Housing and House Listing Operations end on 30 September and are complete in most States except West Bengal, Assam and Manipur.
    6. Historical marker: This is the first Census since 1931 to enumerate caste and the first in independent India to record caste beyond the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

    Challenges to caste enumeration in Census 2027

    1. Uncontrolled caste nomenclature: An open column accepts whatever name a respondent offers, so sub castes, gotras, sect names and surnames enter the record as separate castes. e.g. the 2011 SECC returned over 46 lakh caste names against the 4,147 castes recorded in the 1931 Census.
    2. No mapping to State lists: Names collected without a State list cannot be matched to State Other Backward Classes schedules that decide reservation benefits. e.g. Bihar’s 2023 caste survey worked from a fixed list of 214 castes, which allowed direct tabulation of shares.
    3. Enumerator discretion in the field: Recording is left to a field enumerator, usually a school teacher, with limited training in caste classification. e.g. the 2011 SECC required years of post survey classification by an Expert Group and still yielded data the government declined to release.
    4. Privacy exposure of identity numbers: Aadhaar, voter identity, passport and mobile numbers create a single linked identity record collected by a field officer. e.g. the Supreme Court in K.S. Puttaswamy versus Union of India (2017) required legality, legitimate aim and proportionality for any state collection of personal data.
    5. Association with citizenship verification: Eight fields repeat the NPR schedule that triggered protests in 2019 and 2020, which raises the risk of non response in minority and migrant households. e.g. several Opposition ruled State assemblies passed resolutions against the NPR in 2020.
    6. Operational strain of a longer schedule: Forty questions against 29 lengthens every household visit and raises enumerator fatigue and transcription error. e.g. the first phase is still incomplete in West Bengal, Assam and Manipur with six weeks left on the notified deadline.
    7. Contestation of the published count: Caste totals feed directly into claims on reservation, so each figure becomes a subject of political dispute. e.g. Bihar’s survey finding that Extremely Backward and Backward Classes form about 63 percent of the State’s population immediately produced demands to breach the 50 percent ceiling.

    Conclusion

    The notification settles the method of the caste count and leaves its reliability open. An open column repeats the design that produced 46 lakh caste names in 2011, and eight identity fields carry the NPR schedule into a statutory Census that no NPR notification accompanies. Population enumeration begins on Monday in the snow bound areas, with the rest of the country following in February 2027.

    Population Data Systems in India

    1. About: India measures its population through one complete decennial count, one continuous registration system, and a set of large sample surveys that fill the years between counts.
    2. Census: The Census is a complete headcount conducted since 1872 and synchronously since 1881, and it has run every ten years without interruption until the 2021 round was postponed.
    3. Civil Registration System: The system continuously records births and deaths under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, through State registrars.
    4. Sample Registration System: This large scale sample survey supplies annual estimates of birth rate, death rate and infant mortality rate between two Censuses.
    5. National Population Register: The NPR is a register of usual residents maintained under the Citizenship Rules, 2003, and is not a statistical product.
    6. Sample surveys: The National Sample Survey and the National Family Health Survey supply consumption, employment and health estimates that draw their sampling frames from the Census.
    7. Digital shift: Census 2027 is the first Census to be conducted digitally, using a mobile application for enumerators and a self enumeration portal for households.

    Statutory and Constitutional Framework Governing the Census and Population Registers

    1. Article 246: Distributes legislative power between the Union and the States through the three lists of the Seventh Schedule.
    2. Entry 69 of the Union List: Places Census exclusively within the legislative competence of Parliament.
    3. Census Act, 1948: Provides the legal basis for conducting the Census and for the appointment, powers and duties of census officers.
    4. Section 3 of the Census Act, 1948: Empowers the Central Government to take a census whenever it considers necessary and to notify its intention.
    5. Section 8 of the Census Act, 1948: Obliges every occupier and every person to answer the questions put by a census officer.
    6. Section 15 of the Census Act, 1948: Makes census records confidential, keeps them out of public inspection and bars their use as evidence.
    7. Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955: Empowers the Centre to compulsorily register every citizen, issue national identity cards and maintain a National Register of Indian Citizens.
    8. Rule 3(4) of the Citizenship Rules, 2003: Allows the Centre to fix a date by which the Population Register is to be prepared, by collecting information on all persons usually residing within a Local Registrar’s jurisdiction.
    9. Rule 3(5) of the Citizenship Rules, 2003: Provides that the Local Register of Indian Citizens will contain the details of persons after verification from the Population Register.
    10. Rule 4 of the Citizenship Rules, 2003: Provides for marking the particulars of individuals whose citizenship is considered doubtful during verification, for further inquiry.

    Laws and Rules Governing Census and Population Data

    1. Census Act, 1948: Governs the conduct of the Census, the powers of census officers and the confidentiality of individual returns.
    2. Census Rules, 1990: Provide the operational detail for appointment of census officers, forms, schedules and the handling of census records.
    3. Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969: Makes registration of births and deaths compulsory and establishes the Civil Registration System.
    4. Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023: Makes the birth certificate a single document for admission, employment and voter registration, and provides for national databases of registered births and deaths.
    5. Citizenship Act, 1955: Governs acquisition and determination of citizenship, and carries the registration mandate in Section 14A.
    6. Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003: Provide for the Population Register, the Local, Sub District, District, State and National Registers of Indian Citizens, and the marking of doubtful citizenship.
    7. Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016: Governs the collection and use of Aadhaar numbers and restricts their use to notified purposes.
    8. Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023: Governs the processing of digital personal data and allows the Centre to exempt State instrumentalities from specified obligations.
    9. Collection of Statistics Act, 2008: Governs the collection of statistics on economic, demographic and social matters by the Centre, States and local bodies.

    Back2Basics: Census of India

    1. First census: The first census was taken in 1872 in a non synchronous manner during the tenure of Viceroy Lord Mayo.
    2. First synchronous census: The first synchronous census was held in 1881 under Viceroy Lord Ripon.
    3. Frequency: The Census has been conducted every ten years without a break since 1881, and Census 2011 was the fifteenth national census and the seventh since Independence.
    4. Administering office: The Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India was created in 1949 and functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
    5. Legal basis: The exercise is conducted under the Census Act, 1948, and Census is Entry 69 of the Union List.
    6. Last caste count: The 1931 Census was the last to enumerate caste in full, recording 4,147 castes.
    7. Census 2011 headline figures: Population stood at 121.09 crore, decadal growth at 17.7 percent, density at 382 persons per square kilometre, sex ratio at 943 and literacy at 74.04 percent.
    8. Census 2027 markers: It is the first digital Census, the first to enumerate caste since 1931, and it carries two reference dates, 1 October 2026 for snow bound areas and 1 March 2027 for the rest of the country.

    Government Initiatives Related to Population Data

    1. Census 2027 digital application: Enumerators record household and personal particulars on a mobile application instead of paper schedules.
    2. Self enumeration portal: Households can complete their own schedule online ahead of the enumerator’s visit.
    3. Civil Registration System portal: Births and deaths are registered online through a centralised portal, with certificates issued digitally.
    4. Sample Registration System: Provides annual vital rate estimates for States and districts between Censuses.
    5. National Population Register: Maintains a register of usual residents under the Citizenship Rules, 2003.
    6. Aadhaar: Provides a unique identity number used to authenticate beneficiaries of subsidies and services.
    7. National Data and Analytics Platform: A NITI Aayog platform that puts government datasets in a standardised, machine readable form for public use.

    Key Facts about the Census of India

    1. First post Independence census: The first census of independent India was conducted in 1951.
    2. Phases of Census 2011: House Listing Operations ran from April to September 2010 and Population Enumeration from 9 to 28 February 2011.
    3. Population recorded in 2011: The count stood at 121,08,54,977 persons.
    4. State extremes in 2011: Uttar Pradesh was the most populous State, Sikkim the least populous, Kerala recorded the highest literacy and Bihar the lowest.
    5. Density extremes in 2011: Bihar recorded the highest density among States at 1,106 persons per square kilometre and Arunachal Pradesh the lowest at 17.
    6. Frozen delimitation: Lok Sabha seat allocation remains fixed on the 1971 Census until the first census taken after 2026.
    7. Observance: World Population Day is observed on 11 July every year.

    Challenges in India’s Population Data System

    1. Delay in the decennial count: A postponed Census leaves the country without a fresh headcount for far longer than the ten year cycle allows. e.g. the 2021 Census was deferred and the next reference date is 1 March 2027, a gap of sixteen years.
    2. Outdated policy denominators: Welfare entitlements are calculated on population shares that are more than a decade old. e.g. National Food Security Act, 2013 coverage still rests on 2011 population, and estimates placed before the Supreme Court in 2021 put the excluded number at about 10 crore people.
    3. Under registration of births and deaths: Incomplete civil registration prevents the Census from being cross checked against a continuous record. e.g. excess mortality during the COVID 19 pandemic could not be settled because registration completeness varied sharply across States.
    4. Weak measurement of migration: The Census captures migration by last residence and misses seasonal and circular movement. e.g. the 2011 Census counted about 45.6 crore internal migrants, yet in 2020 no State held a usable register of returning migrant workers.
    5. Caste data gap: The absence of a modern caste count forces policy to rely on pre Independence figures. e.g. the Mandal Commission derived its estimate of Other Backward Classes at about 52 percent from the 1931 Census.
    6. Data privacy architecture: Collection of identity numbers by a field officer proceeds without an independent oversight body in place. e.g. the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 permits the Centre to exempt State instrumentalities from key obligations by notification.
    7. Delayed release and access: Long gaps between collection and release reduce the value of the data for planning. e.g. SECC 2011 caste data were never released at all.

    Way Forward

    1. Publish a State wise caste directory: Prepare and release a standardised caste list for each State before tabulation, so open column returns can be mapped consistently.
    2. Legislate a fixed census calendar: Amend the Census Act, 1948 to bind the Centre to a stated reference date and a stated release schedule for each decennial round.
    3. Separate the statistical count from citizenship registers: Notify expressly that data collected under the Census Act, 1948 will not be used to prepare or verify any register under the Citizenship Rules, 2003.
    4. Strengthen the Civil Registration System: Raise registration completeness to near universal levels so annual vital statistics reduce dependence on a ten year count.
    5. Constitute an independent data audit: Route quality assurance of the caste and identity fields through the National Statistical Commission before publication.
    6. Release anonymised unit level data: Publish anonymised microdata on a fixed timetable so researchers can test tabulations rather than accept them.
    7. Train enumerators on caste recording: Run a dedicated module for enumerators on recording caste responses and on handling refusals, before the February 2027 round.

    “[2009] Consider the following statements :

    1. Between Census 1951 and Census 2001, the density of the population of India has increased more than three times.

    2. Between Census 1951 and Census 2001, the annual growth rate (exponential) of the population of India has doubled.

    Which of the statements given abova is/are correct ?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

  • Congress slams new rural jobs law amid fall in employment generation

    Why in the News

    Person-days under the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) fell 49.94% year-on-year in July 2026, its first month of implementation, compared with Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The decline has raised concerns about moving from a demand-driven legal guarantee to a more centralised, technology-dependent model.

    What is the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin)?

    1. About: VB-G RAM G is the central rural employment and livelihood scheme that replaced MGNREGA. It is administered by the Union Rural Development Ministry.
    2. Design shift: Access is made increasingly dependent on technology and biometric authentication, and the scheme is centralised rather than run through gram panchayats.
    3. Key change: Critics state it removes the legal guarantee of employment that defined MGNREGA, converting an entitlement into a discretionary programme.

    What is a person-day and why is the July figure significant?

    1. Person-day: A person-day is a unit that measures the amount of work done by one person in a working day, the standard metric for employment generated under rural works schemes.
    2. The fall: Person-days generated in July 2026 were 49.94% lower than those generated under MGNREGA in July of the previous year, roughly halving recorded rural work in the first implementing month.

    Why has the Opposition attacked the new scheme?

    1. Loss of guaranteed work: The scrapping of MGNREGA stripped millions of families of their “right to work”, replaced by a scheme that wiped out around 50% of labourer employment in the first month.
    2. Centralisation: The scheme centralises delivery and imposes a heavy financial burden on State governments, weakening the earlier panchayat-led model.
    3. Technology gating: Making access dependent on technology and biometric authentication makes it harder for workers to claim their rights.
    4. Loss of local autonomy: MGNREGA had empowered gram panchayats and freed workers from dependence on the political whims of the government of the day.
    5. Pending dues: Rs 17,144 crore in pending MGNREGA funds to the States was flagged as unpaid.

    What wider distress does the data point to?

    1. Kharif shortfall: There is a 26.50% shortfall in sowing for the kharif crop, raising the demand for rural wage work at the very moment the scheme has contracted.
    2. Drought assistance gap: The Opposition questioned whether any assistance had been provided to drought-affected States.
    3. Funding pattern dispute: Even BJP-ruled States had demanded a review of the funding pattern of VB-G RAM G, indicating cross-party concern over State fiscal burden.

    Conclusion

    The near-halving of person-days in the first month captures the core risk of replacing a demand-driven legal guarantee with a centralised, technology-gated scheme, that the guarantee itself, not the branding, was what protected rural workers in distress. The data release coincides with a kharif sowing shortfall and State demands to review the funding pattern. The next test is whether the government revises the funding model and restores enrolment before the lean agricultural season deepens rural unemployment.

    What is a demand-driven employment guarantee?

    1. About: It is a legal framework under which the state must provide wage employment on demand to any eligible household, making work an enforceable entitlement rather than a target-based programme.
    2. Rationale: It exists to provide a rural safety net during agricultural distress and to set a wage floor, with the guarantee acting as automatic stabiliser when other work dries up.
    3. Distinguishing feature: Provision is triggered by the worker’s demand, not by a fixed budget or administrative ceiling, so contraction in person-days signals suppressed or unmet demand.

    Key Concerns Regarding Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes

    1. Wage payment delays: Chronic delays in wage disbursal erode the entitlement’s value and deter workers.
    2. Fund devolution to States: Centralised control and delayed release strain State finances and stall works.
    3. Technology exclusion: Biometric and app-based attendance systems exclude workers with poor connectivity or authentication failures.
    4. Suppressed demand: Administrative rationing and closed muster rolls understate genuine demand for work.

    Back2Basics: MGNREGA

    1. Full name: Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, a UPA-era law.
    2. Ministry: Union Ministry of Rural Development.
    3. Aim: Guaranteed at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
    4. Beneficiaries: Adult members of any rural household, without a poverty-line or caste restriction.
    5. Design features: Legal right to work, demand-driven provision, works planned and executed through gram panchayats, and an unemployment allowance if work is not provided in time.

    Government Initiatives / Schemes for Rural Livelihoods

    1. VB-G RAM G: The current central rural employment and livelihood mission that replaced MGNREGA.
    2. Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM): Promotes self-help groups and self-employment for rural poor women.
    3. Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin: Provides pucca housing to rural households.
    4. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana: Skill training and placement for rural youth.

    Challenges in Rural Employment Delivery

    1. Payment delays: Wage and material payment delays discourage participation and stall projects.
    2. State fiscal burden: A shift of cost-sharing to States constrains scheme rollout in weaker States.
    3. Technology-driven exclusion: Biometric attendance and app-based systems drop workers who cannot authenticate.
    4. Weak asset quality: Poor planning produces low-value, non-durable assets from works undertaken.
    5. Corruption and leakage: Ghost workers and inflated muster rolls divert funds from genuine beneficiaries.
    6. Suppressed demand recording: Under-registration of work demand hides the true extent of rural distress.

    Way Forward

    1. Restore the legal guarantee: Retain an enforceable right to work as the anchor of the scheme rather than a discretionary target.
    2. Timely fund release: Clear pending dues to States and set statutory timelines for wage payment.
    3. Inclusive technology: Provide offline fallbacks and grievance redress for biometric and connectivity failures.
    4. Countercyclical scaling: Expand allocation automatically in drought and low-sowing years to match rural distress.
    5. Panchayat empowerment: Keep planning and execution with gram panchayats to preserve local accountability.

    [2011] Among the following who are eligible to benefit from the “Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act”?

    (a) Adult members of only the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe households

    (b) Adult members of below poverty line (BPL) households

    (c) Adult members of households of all backward communities

    (d) Adult members of any household

  • [10th August 2026] The Hindu OpED: The fiscal cost of unconditional cash transfers to women

    PYQ Relevance
    [UPSC 2022]     Reforming the government delivery system through the Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme is a progressive step, but it has its limitations too. Comment.
    Linkage: The PYQ Examines DBT-based welfare delivery, fiscal sustainability, and the trade-off between welfare transfers and human-capital expenditure. The article highlights the trade-off between cash transfers and spending on education, health and development.

    Mentor’s Comment

    Delhi rolled out the Lakshmi Yojana on August 1, an unconditional cash transfer (UCT) of ₹2,500 a month for eligible women, joining a rapidly growing list of States running similar schemes since 2023. Fresh State-wise expenditure data show that in several States this spending already exceeds the entire education or health budget, reopening the question of what these transfers displace. The concern is set against the 16th Finance Commission’s award period.

    What is an unconditional cash transfer?

    • Definition: A UCT is a direct income payment to a beneficiary with no work, attendance, or behaviour condition attached, unlike a conditional transfer or an in-kind subsidy.
    • This wave: The current schemes target women with a fixed monthly sum, framed as income support rather than a service.

    Why are states rushing to launch women’s UCT schemes?

    • Electoral promise: Most schemes were pledged at assembly elections and rolled out immediately, drawing the label of a pre-poll dole.
    • Near-universal spread: From 2023 onward almost every major state added a scheme, making it politically hard for any state to abstain.
    • Compensation framing: Some argue the transfers compensate women for the state’s failure to create broad opportunity and services.

    Are these transfers a benefit to women or a burden on states?

    • Used productively: Evaluations show women mostly spend the money on food, health and education, so the transfer reaches real welfare needs.
    • Fiscal pressure: The same spending expands a recurring liability that presses on existing health and education budgets.
    • Genuine trade-off: The tension is real, the cash is used well by recipients yet competes with the public services those recipients depend on.

    How much fiscal space do states actually have?

    • Committed spending: The 16th Finance Commission notes almost 44% of state expenditure is locked in interest payments, pensions and salaries.
    • Shrinking social share: Social sector revenue expenditure has stayed stable as a share of total spending since 2011-12 but has declined as a share of GDP since 2020-21.
    • Little room: With most of the budget pre-committed, new UCT outlays crowd against fresh investment in services and infrastructure.

    How large are these schemes across states?

    • Share of total spending: UCT outlays range from 10.03% of total expenditure in Jharkhand and 7.84% in West Bengal down to 0.97% in Goa and 0.26% in Himachal Pradesh.
    • Share of education spending: In the largest-scheme states the UCT bill exceeds half the entire education budget, near 74% in Jharkhand and Karnataka and 54% in West Bengal.
    • Named schemes and amounts: Karnataka Gruha Lakshmi (Rs 2,000), Madhya Pradesh Ladli Behna (Rs 1,500), Tamil Nadu Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai (Rs 1,000), Maharashtra Majhi Ladki Bahin (Rs 1,500), Jharkhand Maiya Samman (Rs 2,500), Odisha Subhadra (Rs 10,000 a year), Assam Orunodoi (Rs 1,250), and Delhi Lakshmi Yojana (Rs 2,500).

    Do the transfers reach the poorest, or do barriers exclude them?

    • Rationalisation cuts: Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have reduced beneficiary numbers in the name of rationalisation.
    • Gatekeeping criteria: Delhi’s scheme requires a recommendation from the local MLA or MP, plausibly to cap numbers before rollout.
    • Access barriers: Lack of documents, weak bank access and errors in digital records still exclude eligible women.

    Conclusion:

    The transfers are used well by the women who receive them, but states have little fiscal room, since most spending is pre-committed and the social sector share of GDP is already falling. Without new resource mobilisation, the schemes are financed by squeezing the very education and health services their beneficiaries rely on. The unresolved question is whether states raise revenue to fund them or let public services erode.

    Back2Basics: 16th Finance Commission

    • Award period: The 16th Finance Commission’s recommendations cover the five years beginning 2026-27.
    • What it is: A constitutional body under Article 280, constituted every five years.
    • Mandate: Recommends the sharing of central taxes between the Centre and states (vertical devolution) and among states (horizontal devolution), plus grants-in-aid.

    [2022, GS2, 10 marks] Reforming the government delivery system through the Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme is a progressive step, but it has its limitations too. Comment.