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GS Paper: GS3

  • Himalayas’ hanging glacier threat

    Himalayas’ hanging glacier threat

    Why in the News

    A Nature study identified 219 hanging glaciers in the Alaknanda basin, highlighting rising Himalayan flood risks as glacier instability assessments remain limited despite repeated major incidents.

    What is a hanging glacier?

    1. A perched ice mass: It is ice sitting on a steep slope in a position from which it can detach as a mass rather than melt away in place.
    2. Instability is defined by velocity: An unstable glacier is one whose velocity may change by an order of magnitude or more over a comparatively short period.
    3. The instability redistributes the ice: That change redistributes ice across the glacier, accompanied by geometric, structural and tectonic shifts, and the redistribution is what produces a hanging glacier on a steep slope.
    4. Detachment starts a chain rather than an event: A break-off can trigger secondary hazards such as a glacial lake outburst flood, where a lake dammed by loose moraine debris is breached and releases its water downstream.

    What did the Alaknanda inventory actually measure?

    1. 219 hanging glaciers in one basin: The study identified that number across the Alaknanda basin of the Garhwal Himalaya.
    2. The unstable ice clusters upstream: Nearly a third of it is concentrated in the Upper Alaknanda basin.
    3. The inventory carries area and volume: The glaciers cover 71.7 ± 3.5 sq km with an estimated ice volume of 2.39 ± 0.42 cubic km, including 0.74 ± 0.14 cubic km of hanging ice mass.
    4. The named driver is warming and variability: Himalayan glaciers are increasingly exhibiting geometric and dynamic instability owing to rapid warming and climate variability.
    5. The method is new to this range: Hanging glaciers have been studied extensively in the Alps, and basin scale assessments in the Himalaya remain limited.
    6. The work is Indian institutional: It was carried out by researchers at the School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar and the Divecha Centre for Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.

    What would a break-off do in the Badrinath and Mana sector?

    1. Simulated avalanche flows exceed 50 metres in height: The study’s simulations place flows above that height in that sector of Uttarakhand.
    2. Settlements sit directly in the path: A severe event on that scale would swallow major settlements and infrastructure.
    3. The exposed population is seasonal as well as resident: Badrinath is one of the Char Dham shrines and Mana sits at the head of the same route, so footfall peaks in the months when the slopes are least stable.

    Why is exposure rising faster than the ice is failing?

    1. Built exposure more than doubles by 2030: Buildings and infrastructure land area at risk in the basin is projected to be 120 per cent higher in 2030 than in 2000.
    2. The exposed population rises by 17 per cent: The number of people living in those at-risk areas is projected to surge by that share.
    3. Identification and monitoring are the first response: Systematic identification and monitoring of high-risk glaciers is what the study calls for to reduce downstream hazard.
    4. Land-use planning is the second half of it: Risk-informed land-use planning has to run alongside monitoring in mountain regions.
    5. Monitoring is cheap against the loss it prevents: Much greater funding of monitoring programmes is required, and that funding is small compared with the cost of lost lives and livelihoods, per the Director of the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative.

    What separated Chamoli from Blatten?

    1. Chamoli killed over 200 people in 2021: A massive wall of ice and rock collapsed into the Rishiganga valley, destroying hydropower plants and sweeping away bridges.
    2. Blatten killed one person: A large ice-rock avalanche buried most of that Swiss village four years later.
    3. The difference was preparedness, not luck: A second study published in Nature in March attributes the survival to preparedness, monitoring and rapid response.
    4. Precursory signs were acted on: Authorities and residents in Blatten responded to signs of slope instability, which enabled a timely evacuation.
    5. The hazards are cascading rather than isolated: These events should be treated as cascading hazards rather than as separate landslides, avalanches or floods, per the head of planetary sciences at the University of Aberdeen’s School of Geosciences.
    6. Attribution should not be rushed during the emergency: Establishing which process caused an event should not be hurried during the immediate emergency response.

    Challenges to monitoring hanging glaciers in the Himalaya

    1. The instrument network is sparse and seasonal: High altitude weather and movement sensors are few and go offline through winter, so precursor slope movement is unobserved in the months it develops. Eg. Glacier mass balance in India is measured on a handful of benchmark glaciers such as Gangotri and Chhota Shigri rather than basin wide.
      The Fix: Fund a permanently telemetered high altitude sensor network, with satellite radar interferometry as the standing backup layer.
    2. A hazard map does not bind a builder: Slope and glacier instability assessments are advisory inputs, so they do not stop an approval for a road or a power project below an unstable face. Eg. Construction continued in the Rishiganga and Dhauliganga valleys after repeated warnings about instability in those catchments.
      The Fix: Make valley level hazard zonation a statutory input to environmental clearance for any project above a set altitude.
    3. Warning does not reach the valley floor: An identified hazard produces a scientific alert rather than a siren in the settlement that would be hit. Eg. Workers at downstream barrage sites in the 2021 Chamoli event had no alert before the flood wave arrived.
      The Fix: Install siren based valley warning tied to the sensor network, with a mandated evacuation drill calendar for every downstream settlement and project.
    4. Pilgrim traffic concentrates people in the exposed months: The season when the route is open is the season when avalanche and outburst risk is highest, so peak exposure and peak hazard coincide. Eg. Char Dham footfall peaks between May and October, which is also the melt and monsoon window.
      The Fix: Route daily pilgrim entry against a published hazard advisory rather than against a fixed carrying capacity number alone.

    Conclusion

    The hanging glacier threat shows that Himalayan disaster risk is becoming a race between environmental instability and expanding human exposure. Continuous monitoring, enforceable hazard zoning, real-time warnings and evacuation preparedness can turn scientific knowledge into lives saved and resilient mountain development.

    Back2Basics: Alaknanda River

    1. Source: It rises at the Satopanth and Bhagirath Kharak glaciers in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.
    2. Status in the Ganga system: It is one of the two headstreams of the Ganga, and it carries the larger discharge of the two at their meeting point.
    3. Panch Prayag: Its five confluences are Vishnuprayag, Nandprayag, Karnaprayag, Rudraprayag and Devprayag.
    4. Formation of the Ganga: It joins the Bhagirathi at Devprayag, and the river takes the name Ganga from that point onward.

    [2020, GS1, 10 marks] How will the melting of Himalayan glaciers have a far-reaching impact on the water resources of India?

  • What two districts can teach us about dealing with rural waste

    What two districts can teach us about dealing with rural waste

    Why in the News

    The Supreme Court has demanded functional waste regulators, exposing weak institutionalisation. While India generates 1.7 lakh tonnes daily, successful community systems in Majuli and Tawang show operational gaps, especially rurally.

    Why does India’s waste system not see the countryside?

    1. Rural waste data are not collected: Waste data for rural areas do not exist, according to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi based research and advocacy body.
    2. The duty sits with bodies that do not discharge it: Urban and rural local bodies are tasked with solid waste management and with recording volumes and expenses, and they rarely do the needful.
    3. The gap is global and overwhelmingly rural: Around 2.7 billion people worldwide have no waste collection, and 2 billion of them live in rural areas, per an analysis by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
    4. Uncollected waste goes to land, water or fire: Where people cannot manage waste, they dump it on land or in rivers, streams and seas, or they burn it, which is a major concern in India.

    Why has rural waste grown without collection following it?

    1. Rural spending has risen: Data show a rise in per capita spending in India’s rural areas, and more consumption produces more waste.
    2. Packaging reached the remotest markets: Food, beverages and personal care or hygiene products are almost all wrapped in plastics or multi layered packaging, and those goods have penetrated the remotest rural markets.
    3. Waste management did not follow the goods: Collection systems did not extend into those markets alongside the products that created the waste.
    4. Organic waste had a use and mixed waste does not: Organic waste fed livestock or served as manure for centuries, and plastics and other non-biodegradable materials have produced a mixed waste that is harder to decompose.

    What did Majuli change after its facilities went unused?

    1. The sheds were built years before the system was: The Swachh Bharat Mission and the Public Health Engineering Department built Central Material Collection Facilities (CMCFs), the village level sheds where sorted waste is received and stored, in 19 of 20 panchayats between 2017 and 2022, along with mini collection facilities in most of the 160 villages.
    2. Neither the sheds nor the workers were put to use: The tin sheds went unused and the workers were not mobilised until the departments teamed up with the waste management non-profit Sahaas in 2024.
    3. The missing components were operational rather than physical: Funding, staffing and training of sanitation workers, vehicles for transport, operation of the collection facilities and buyers for the sorted material all had to be arranged.
    4. Participation was organised before collection began: Village leaders, homestay and hotel owners, schools and self-help groups (SHGs) ran awareness programmes and handed out bags for storage and segregation.
    5. Collection now runs in 19 of 20 panchayats: Garbage is now collected across them, in a district that faces flooding and erosion every year.
    6. Staffing remains thin against the population: Majuli’s 1.67 lakh people are served by 37 sanitation workers and 19 sorting staff.
    7. The fleet was funded only recently: The district departments purchased 21 e-vehicles and 15 tricycles and approved funds for the collection crew.
    8. The first river crossing was in April 2025: A tonne of waste left Majuli by boat across the Brahmaputra, the first time the island’s waste crossed the river instead of being dumped into it.
    9. The tonnage is now measurable: Majuli has collected 82.4 tonnes of waste since 2024, and it transferred 16.78 tonnes and earned Rs 1.47 lakh between April 2025 and May 2026.

    How does Tawang collect waste without sanitation workers?

    1. Scattered settlements rule out door to door collection: Households in these land-locked mountain villages sit too far apart for a sanitation worker to cover on a route.
    2. The pilot began in one village in 2024: Local officials and village leaders piloted a community led model in Chullyu in Keyi Panyor district through the Himalayan Fringes Project of the Further and Beyond Foundation.
    3. It spread across three districts in two years: A third of Tawang district and parts of Keyi Panyor and Upper Siang districts have adopted the model.
    4. Households store their own waste: Every household segregates biodegradable from non-biodegradable waste and keeps it at home until the collection day.
    5. Collection is a monthly village event: Each village organises a Swachchata Divas, or Cleanliness Day, at a designated point where residents arrive with sacks and sort the waste into 22 categories.
    6. The volumes are recorded: 26 villages in the project have organised more than 150 Swachchata Divas and collected 30 tonnes of waste.
    7. Secondary sorting happens at recovery facilities: The waste moves to material recovery facilities (MRFs), the sites where it is received, sorted and processed, at Zemithang, Lumla and Daporijo, with smaller community run facilities at Chullyu and Gobuk.
    8. Sorting deepens to 35 categories there: 12 full time MRF operators and dozens of women from self-help groups perform that second sort.
    9. Sanitary waste is handled rather than dumped: Sanitary napkins and diapers are washed, dried and stored at the facilities, and more than 20 tonnes have been sold to recyclers for Rs 3.53 lakh.
    10. One residue stream found a local use: About two tonnes of multi layered plastics went to a processing plant at Lhou in Jang sub-division and were used to make paver blocks.
    11. The first consignment left on Independence Day 2024: Villagers from Zemithang Circle, settled between 6,900 and 8,000 feet, sent 4.4 tonnes of garbage on a 390 km lorry journey of over 12 hours to scrap dealers in Tezpur in Assam.

    Who pays for rural collection, and who is accountable for it?

    1. Collection is the most expensive step in the chain: Crew wages, vehicle fuel and maintenance, insurance and other indirect costs make it the costliest link, per UNEP.
    2. Indian cities show the same cost structure: Primary collection and transportation account for the bulk of costs, per a CSE report on plastic waste management.
    3. Manpower dominates the rural cost: Nearly 50 per cent of the primary collection cost in rural Dharamshala was attributed to manpower.
    4. The Tawang model removes that cost line: Eliminating sanitation workers and door to door collection took the largest single expense out of the system.
    5. Households pay a monthly fee: Each household pays Rs 50 a month and shops and cafes pay Rs 100.
    6. Authority is vested in a village committee: A gaon bura, or village head, and a treasurer lead committees that draft waste management policies and set the rules, responsibilities and fines.
    7. A regional committee sits above them: Each region has a central committee chaired by a Circle Officer with a Lama, an influential religious leader, as secretary, and the committees meet every quarter.
    8. Financing remains the binding constraint: Money is the biggest problem in running such a system, per the officer who led the Zemithang effort.

    Where does the chain still break?

    1. Distance sets the transport economics: Waste travels farther from rural areas to reach recyclers, which renders the task less attractive for scrap dealers.
    2. One truckload costs Rs 45,000: Sending a truckload from Arunachal Pradesh to Assam costs that much, and fuel and the driver still cost Rs 20,000 a trip after State officials donated a truck.
    3. Boat transfers proved too costly to repeat: Majuli made three transfers across the Brahmaputra and now sells to local scrap dealers as well.
    4. Two streams have no buyer at all: Black polythene and textile scrap have found no takers.
    5. Storage is filling faster than offtake: Many CMCFs are filling up quickly, and rural collection facilities are commonly found full of baled waste with few takers.
    6. Processing capacity sits idle: Majuli’s long defunct plastics management facility is undergoing repairs.
    7. Segregation compliance is not universal: About 30 households in every 100 still hand over mixed waste.

    Challenges to rural solid waste management

    1. Panchayats have no funded sanitation establishment: A rural local body carries the duty without a permanent staffing line or a recurring budget head for waste, so the work depends on scheme money and an outside partner. Eg. Solid and liquid waste management money for gram panchayats arrives through Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen allocations and tied Fifteenth Finance Commission grants rather than through an own-source revenue stream.
      The Fix: Make a collected user fee a mandatory own-source revenue head for the panchayat, and release the matching grant only against fee actually collected.
    2. Legacy rural dumps are not inventoried: Remediation and bio-mining targets are written for urban dumpsites, so village dumps sit outside any list anyone is accountable for clearing. Eg. Dumpsite remediation targets under the second phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission are set for urban local bodies.
      The Fix: Require every gram panchayat development plan to carry a mapped inventory of existing dump points with a dated clearance commitment.
    3. Producer responsibility is verified on paper: A packaging producer discharges its obligation by buying a recycling certificate, and the certificate is easier to obtain than the collection is to perform. Eg. The CPCB has cancelled extended producer responsibility certificates issued by recyclers whose claimed processing capacity could not be verified.
      The Fix: Tie certificate issue to plant level input and output data reported from the processor’s own weighbridge.
    4. Rural sanitation work carries no protection: Workers handle mixed waste, including sanitary and medical items, without the equipment, registration or insurance that municipal employment carries. Eg. Rural collection crews are engaged on scheme funds rather than on a municipal payroll, which leaves them outside standing occupational safety obligations.
      The Fix: Register every rural sanitation worker on a State database and make supply of protective equipment a condition of releasing collection funds.
    5. Reported waste figures have no verification layer: Where a local body does report a number, no independent audit checks it against what a facility actually received. Eg. Swachh Survekshan Grameen scoring rests substantially on self-declared and observation based inputs rather than on weighed tonnage.
      The Fix: Make weighbridge or facility receipt records the reporting unit, and publish district level tonnage every month.

    Conclusion

    Rural India’s waste challenge is fundamentally an operational gap, not an infrastructure gap. Majuli and Tawang show that community-led collection can work, but sustained funding, accountable institutions, worker protection and reliable recycling markets are essential for a truly circular rural waste system.

    Back2Basics: Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016

    1. Legal basis: Notified by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, replacing the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000.
    2. Coverage beyond municipalities: They extend to census towns, notified industrial townships, and areas under railways, airports, defence establishments, special economic zones and places of pilgrimage.
    3. Source segregation is mandatory: A waste generator must separate waste into wet, dry and domestic hazardous streams and hand it to an authorised collector.
    4. Producers carry a post-consumer duty: Brand owners and manufacturers of non-biodegradable packaging must arrange to collect that packaging back from the market.

    [2019] As per the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 in India, which one of the following statements is correct?

    (a) Waste generator has to segregate waste into five categories.

    (b) The Rules are applicable to riotified urban local bodies, notified towns and all industrial townships only.

    (c) The Rules provide for exact and elaborate criteria for the identification of sites for landfills and waste processing facilities.

    (d) It is mandatory on the part of waste generator that the waste generated in one district cannot be moved to another district.

  • Deadly span

    Deadly span

    Why in the News

    Electrocution on India’s expanding power infrastructure is emerging as a threat to vultures capable of overtaking the chemical poisoning that caused their collapse.

    How far did the chemical crash take India’s vultures?

    1. The loss was among the world’s worst recorded: Numbers fell by 99.5 per cent by 2007 from a high of around four crore in the 1980s.
    2. Three species were nearly wiped out: The white-rumped, Indian and slender-billed vultures were the worst affected.
    3. The cause was a veterinary painkiller: Diclofenac administered to cattle destroyed the kidneys of vultures that fed on the carcasses.
    4. The regulatory response came in stages: The government banned diclofenac first, then added bans in 2023 on aceclofenac and ketoprofen among other NSAIDs.
    5. The population has not returned: One official survey reported in 2025 that vultures were nesting at only 50 per cent of their historic nesting sites.

    What did the collapse cost beyond the birds?

    1. Carcasses stayed exposed for longer: The loss of scavengers left livestock carcasses in the open, which supported feral dog populations.
    2. Rabies outbreaks followed: The growth in feral dog numbers led to outbreaks of rabies.
    3. Human mortality rose 4 per cent: A 2024 study in the American Economic Review estimated that increase as a consequence of the vulture decline.
    4. The damages were valued at 69.4 billion dollars a year: The same study put the associated cost to India at that figure.

    Why does power infrastructure kill vultures specifically?

    1. A wingspan can bridge two conductors: A large individual can contact two conductors at once, which is what completes the circuit through the bird.
    2. The birds seek elevated perches: Vultures habitually perch on elevated structures and are drawn to open landscapes, which is what a transmission corridor provides.
    3. Predictable food concentrates them: Vultures congregate where food availability is predictable, and dumping of food waste around electrical installations creates exactly that draw.
    4. Medium-voltage lines are also lethal: An assessment prepared for the State Climate Resilient Power System Development Project recorded an Egyptian vulture and steppe eagles electrocuted on medium-voltage rather than high-voltage lines.

    Why is the evidence on electrocution weaker than the threat?

    1. The deaths are removed before they are recorded: Avian electrocution is likely under-documented in India, since a dead bird can be taken by people or eaten by scavengers.
    2. The comparison with drugs understates the risk: Electrocution has not become as deadly as NSAIDs were, and the population it now acts on is a fraction of the one the drugs acted on.
    3. A local population can be lost to it alone: Research has noted that persistent mortality from electrocution by itself could render a local population extinct.
    4. Waiting for the data repeats the first failure: The fragility of the surviving population and the proliferation of unsafe power infrastructure are together the case for acting before the mortality record matures.

    Which interventions has the evidence actually tested?

    1. Moving the food source worked: Relocating a livestock carcass dump 2.4 km away from high-tension power infrastructure near Dehradun in Uttarakhand may have saved these scavengers from electrocution, per a recent study in the Journal of Threatened Taxa.
    2. Separation is the cheapest measure available: Keeping vulture feeding sites away from power infrastructure is a siting decision rather than a capital works programme.
    3. Insulating conductors removes the contact risk: Covering energised components stops a bird bridging them.
    4. Increasing clearances answers the wingspan: Widening the gap between energised and grounded components has to be sized against vulture wingspans rather than against smaller birds.
    5. Safe perches redirect the birds: Installing perches that carry no current gives raptors an alternative to the energised structure.

    Challenges to vulture conservation in India

    1. Human formulations substitute for the banned veterinary drug: Multi-dose human vials of diclofenac remain on sale and are diverted to cattle, so the ban is defeated at the pharmacy counter. Eg. India capped the human diclofenac vial at 3 ml in 2015 because larger vials were being used on livestock.
      The Fix: Make sale of injectable diclofenac without a veterinary prescription an enforceable offence policed by drug inspectors rather than by forest staff.
    2. New painkillers enter the market faster than they are tested: A molecule is approved for cattle without a vulture safety trial, so each ban is followed by the next drug. Eg. Nimesulide has been shown to be toxic to Gyps vultures and remains in veterinary use.
      The Fix: Require safety testing on Gyps vultures as a condition of veterinary marketing approval for any NSAID, with meloxicam as the reference safe alternative.
    3. Captive breeding cannot outpace adult mortality: Vultures lay a single egg a year and mature slowly, so releases add birds far more slowly than a landscape threat removes them. Eg. The Jatayu Conservation Breeding Centre at Pinjore has released birds only in small annual batches.
      The Fix: Certify the release landscape as safe before any release, with drug residue sampling and line insulation audited as the precondition.
    4. The food base has been engineered away: Rendering and burial of livestock carcasses removes the open food supply that once sustained large scavenger populations. Eg. Vulture restaurants in Maharashtra and Punjab exist because the traditional open carcass dump has disappeared from many districts.
      The Fix: Fund supplementary feeding sites from State animal husbandry budgets and site them by rule away from transmission corridors.
    5. No agency is answerable for bird deaths on power lines: Transmission and distribution utilities carry no reporting duty for wildlife mortality, so the threat has no dataset behind it. Eg. Bird deaths on power lines in the Thar landscape became visible only after Great Indian Bustard litigation forced surveys.
      The Fix: Make wildlife mortality reporting a licence condition for transmission and distribution licensees, with the returns published by the State electricity regulator.
    6. Bird safe design is not written into line standards: Construction standards specify electrical clearances, not clearances sized for large raptors. Eg. Directions on undergrounding power lines in Great Indian Bustard habitat were later narrowed on feasibility and cost grounds.
      The Fix: Write raptor safe pole and cross-arm geometry into the national electricity standards for new lines in identified vulture landscapes.

    Conclusion

    The chemical crash was answerable on paper, because a single molecule could be identified and banned. Electrocution offers no such lever, since the killing agent is ordinary infrastructure doing what it was built to do. The unresolved tension is that conservation authority sits with forest departments while the hazard sits with the power sector, and no rule connects the two. Until that link is made, the threat will keep being measured only after the fact.

    Back2Basics: White-rumped Vulture

    1. Status: Listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and protected under Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
    2. Identification: It carries a white neck ruff and a white rump against black and brown plumage.
    3. Range and nesting: It is found near human settlements across northern and central India, nesting in tall trees and on cliffs.
    4. Ecological role: It is a social scavenger that feeds in flocks on carrion, garbage and slaughterhouse waste, which is how a small population clears waste across a wide landscape.

    [2012] Vultures which used to be very common in Indian countryside some years ago are rarely seen nowadays. This is attributed to:

    (a) the destruction of their nesting sites by new invasive species disease among them

    (b) a drug used by cattle owners for treating their diseased cattle persistent and fatal

    (c) scarcity of food available to them

    (d) a widespread, persistent and fatal disease among them

  • In India, a hard limit for X’s transparency pledge

    In India, a hard limit for X’s transparency pledge

    Why in the News

    X has pledged to publicly disclose government censorship and content-removal requests, while MeitY has warned that such disclosures may violate India’s Section 69A blocking framework.

    What is the Section 69A blocking framework?

    1. Statutory basis: Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 empowers the Union government to direct an intermediary to block public access to online content on specified grounds.
    2. The operative rules: The Information Technology (Blocking) Rules, 2009 are the framework under which a blocking direction is issued and acted on.
    3. Rule 16 mandates secrecy: It requires strict confidentiality over all blocking requests and the actions taken on them.
    4. Non-compliance is a criminal offence: An intermediary that fails to comply attracts imprisonment up to seven years.

    What exactly does the pledge collide with?

    1. The pledge names three disclosures: X proposes to publish that an order exists, which body issued it, and on what basis it was issued.
    2. Rule 16 forbids each of the three: The confidentiality mandate covers the existence of a request, its author and its stated grounds alike.
    3. Secrecy is what enables an unreasoned block: Confidentiality lets the executive block content without a reasoned public order and without notifying the person whose content is blocked.
    4. The liability lands on individuals: X’s Indian entity carries resident compliance and grievance officers, so criminal consequences attach to identifiable people inside the country.

    Does the announced mechanism do what was claimed?

    1. The release paired two separate things: X open-sourced its “Phoenix” recommendation code alongside a pilot feature called “Under the Hood”.
    2. Under the Hood shows platform labels, not state orders: It gives selected users visibility labels on their own accounts, such as spam flags and reach restrictions.
    3. A blocking order runs on a separate track: A Section 69A order operates outside that feature entirely.
    4. The user still sees only the old notice: The withheld content carries a “withheld in India” label naming neither the order nor the agency.

    Why does Section 69A no longer describe the whole takedown picture?

    1. Order volumes have roughly quadrupled: Section 69A orders rose from about 6,000 a year through 2023 to about 24,300 in 2025.
    2. A second route now carries a growing share: Since a 2023 MeitY memorandum, ministries, States and police issue orders under Section 79(3)(b) of the same Act.
    3. The Sahyog portal is the channel: Those orders are routed through the Ministry of Home Affairs portal, which X calls a censorship portal.
    4. An unreasoned order leaves nothing to publish: Where an order arrives without a stated basis, X has little to surface even if it intended to.

    What does X’s own compliance record show about the pledge?

    1. The stated identity is free speech absolutism: X brands itself in those terms.
    2. Actual compliance runs between 83 and 99 per cent: That is the share of demands the platform acts on.
    3. One order covered 2,355 accounts: In July 2025 X said the government ordered that many accounts blocked, including Reuters, within an hour.
    4. Objection was followed by compliance: X objected loudly and then complied, restoring the Reuters account only after a public outcry.

    Where does the litigation now stand?

    1. The Karnataka High Court dismissed the challenge: In September 2025 it rejected X’s petition against the Sahyog portal and called the portal “an instrument of public good”.
    2. Parallel proceedings ran in Bombay: X’s appeal and its Bombay petitions were consolidated.
    3. The Supreme Court stayed all four in July 2026: No court has ruled on the merits of the disclosure question.

    Challenges to the Section 69A blocking framework

    1. Blocking orders are never published: The framework produces no public record of what was blocked or why, so its use cannot be reviewed by anyone outside the executive. Eg. Directions issued during the farmers’ protest in 2021 covering over a thousand accounts were never published in any form.
      The Fix: Publish a redacted version of every blocking direction carrying the ground invoked, withholding only operational detail.
    2. The person whose content is blocked is rarely heard: The 2009 Rules provide for notice to the originator where identifiable, and in practice the intermediary alone appears before the committee. Eg. In Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015) the Supreme Court upheld Section 69A partly on the strength of that hearing, which originators seldom receive.
      The Fix: Make service of notice on an identifiable account holder a condition of validity of a blocking direction.
    3. Emergency powers bypass the review committee: An interim block can be ordered by the Secretary, Information Technology, before the committee that is meant to examine it has met. Eg. The 2020 ban on 59 Chinese applications was issued as an interim emergency measure under this framework.
      The Fix: Cap an emergency block at 48 hours unless the committee ratifies it within that period.
    4. Section 79(3)(b) carries none of the 69A safeguards: Safe harbour is lost on a government notification alone, with no committee, no periodic review and no defined issuing authority. Eg. Thousands of police units and State departments can issue takedown notices through a single portal.
      The Fix: Extend the 2009 Rules’ committee examination and periodic review to every order issued under Section 79(3)(b).
    5. Enforcement is aimed at individuals rather than the company: Criminal liability on a resident grievance officer converts a corporate regulatory dispute into personal jeopardy for an employee. Eg. The resident officer requirements of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 were challenged on exactly this ground.
      The Fix: Confine non-compliance penalties to corporate monetary fines, and reserve imprisonment for wilful obstruction established in court.

    Conclusion

    A platform cannot publish what a statute makes an offence to publish, whatever it announces. The pledge and the confidentiality mandate are not two competing policies. They are a company’s stated practice set against a criminal provision, and only a court can move one of them. What remains unresolved is whether transparency about a restriction on speech is itself part of the speech that is being restricted, since no Indian judgment has answered that question. The marker to watch is the disposal of the consolidated challenge now before the Supreme Court.

    Laws and Rules Governing Online Content Regulation in India

    1. Information Technology Act, 2000: The parent statute governing electronic records, cyber offences and the obligations of intermediaries.
    2. Section 69A grounds: Blocking is permitted on grounds of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, and preventing incitement to a cognisable offence relating to these.
    3. Section 79 safe harbour: An intermediary is not liable for third party content it hosts, provided it observes due diligence, and it loses that protection where it fails to act on a government notification.
    4. Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021: Impose due diligence on intermediaries, require significant platforms to appoint a resident grievance officer, and fix timelines to acknowledge and resolve complaints. Amended in 2023.
    5. Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023: Governs the processing of digital personal data and establishes the Data Protection Board of India to adjudicate breaches.
    6. Telecommunications Act, 2023: Provides for interception and for suspension of telecommunication services on grounds of public emergency and public safety.
    7. Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023: Criminalises circulation of false information likely to cause public disorder and speech promoting enmity between groups.
    8. Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995: Regulates television content through a Programme Code barring material that threatens communal harmony or national security.

    [2024, GS3, 10 marks] Describe the context and salient features of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

  • Subhash Chandra case: why are creditors set to recover only ₹6.5 cr. against ₹22,006 cr. claims?

    Why in the News

    The NCLT approved Subhash Chandra’s personal insolvency repayment plan, allowing creditors with ₹22,006.57 crore in admitted claims to recover just ₹6.25 crore, a 99.97% haircut.

    Core issue: The case highlights how personal insolvency under the IBC, 2016 works when a guarantor’s admitted liability is much larger than the assets available in their personal estate. Dissenting creditors, including HDFC Bank, are considering an appeal.

    How does personal guarantor insolvency work under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016?

    1. A personal guarantee is a promise to pay another’s debt: An individual undertakes to repay a borrower’s debt if the borrower defaults.
    2. The firm and the guarantor are separate legal persons: Proceedings against a company and against its personal guarantor are separate proceedings even when they arise from the same borrowing.
    3. The guarantor proposes, the creditors vote: In personal insolvency the first step is for the borrower to propose a repayment plan, which the creditors then vote on.
    4. Approval triggers a statutory discharge: Once the creditors and the NCLT approve the plan, Section 119 of the Code passes a discharge order giving the guarantor a fresh start.

    Why do the corporate and personal proceedings run in parallel?

    1. Section 60 sends the guarantor to the same tribunal: The IBC provides for insolvency of a personal guarantor of a corporate debtor to be dealt with by the NCLT where proceedings against the corporate debtor are pending.
    2. A guarantor’s liability is coextensive and independent: Contract law treats that liability as running alongside the principal borrower’s rather than only after it.
    3. A corporate process seeks a buyer, a personal process seeks a plan: Corporate insolvency resolves a firm’s debt by taking over its management and finding a buyer or revival plan, and failing that leads to liquidation.
    4. The personal order settles nothing for the firms: The founder’s personal insolvency does not extinguish the liabilities of the Essel linked firms that borrowed the money.

    Why does the 99.97 per cent haircut overstate what was lost?

    1. The comparison is against admitted claims, not realisable assets: The haircut measures the gap between claims admitted in the proceedings and the amount proposed for distribution.
    2. The disclosed estate was Rs 31.79 crore: The resolution professional assessed the guarantor’s disclosed personal assets at that figure.
    3. The tribunal applied a better off test: The NCLT considered whether creditors would recover more under the repayment plan than if the guarantor were pushed into bankruptcy.
    4. The guarantor disputes the claim base: His office has stated that he borrowed no money, and that the claim against him by the objectors to the plan is Rs 3,992 crore.

    How did the plan clear the creditors despite objections?

    1. The plan carried 80.814 per cent of voting share: The statutory threshold is more than three-fourths, so the requirement was met.
    2. No individual creditor holds a veto: A plan sanctioned by the tribunal binds every creditor covered by it, including those who voted against it.
    3. Five entities were alleged to be associates: Dissenting creditors argued those entities were connected to the founder and should not have been permitted to vote. The NCLT did not accept the objection.
    4. The Bench itself was divided: The original NCLT Bench differed over the plan, and a third judicial member decided the matter.

    What did the tribunal do with the net worth discrepancy?

    1. Earlier certificates showed a far larger figure: A 2017 net worth certificate furnished to RBL Bank put his net worth at about Rs 45,888 crore, and a 2018 certificate at about Rs 40,562 crore.
    2. Creditors sought a forensic audit: They asked for an examination of the gap between those certificates and the assets disclosed in the present proceedings.
    3. Suspicion was held not to be proof: The NCLT held that the creditors had not shown with evidence that specific assets were transferred, concealed or diverted to defraud them.
    4. A forensic audit is not a precondition: The tribunal held that such an audit is not mandatory before a repayment plan can be approved.

    What grounds remain if the creditors appeal?

    1. The appeal lies to the appellate tribunal: Creditors can challenge the order before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).
    2. The challenge must be legal or procedural: Available grounds include ineligible creditors being allowed to vote, the statutory majority being wrongly calculated, or the law being wrongly applied.
    3. A low recovery is not itself a ground: A creditor cannot overturn a plan merely because it considers the amount recovered too small.
    4. The associate votes are the strongest ground: If the appellate tribunal finds those votes were wrongly counted and the required majority was consequently not reached, it can interfere with the approval.
    5. The corporate borrowers stay exposed: Creditors can continue to pursue the principal borrowers through separate legal or insolvency proceedings.

    Is this outcome exceptional or the norm?

    1. 5,186 cases have produced 64 repayment plans: Since the personal guarantor provisions came into force, creditors have filed about that many cases and only 64 ended in a repayment plan.
    2. Recovery across those plans is about 1 per cent: Creditors recovered roughly that share of what they were owed in the cases that did reach a plan.
    3. The case is therefore representative: A near total haircut is the ordinary result of this regime rather than an outlier produced by one guarantor’s circumstances.

    Challenges to the personal guarantor insolvency regime

    1. Admitted claims bear no relation to the estate: A guarantor is admitted for the whole defaulted corporate debt, and the recovery pool is one individual’s property, so the ratio is guaranteed to look catastrophic. Eg. Guarantees securing multi-thousand crore project loans are routinely taken from promoters whose personal balance sheets are a fraction of that size.
      The Fix: Require lenders to record and periodically revalue the guarantor’s net worth against the guaranteed exposure, so the guarantee is priced as security rather than counted at face value.
    2. Voting power can sit with connected parties: The Code sets a voting threshold without a tested standard for excluding creditors related to the guarantor, so a majority can be assembled from within the group. Eg. Related party voting was the reason corporate insolvency law had to bar connected persons from the committee of creditors through Section 29A.
      The Fix: Extend a Section 29A style disqualification expressly to voting in personal guarantor repayment plans, with the burden of disclosure on the guarantor.
    3. Asset disclosure is self reported: The estate rests on what the individual declares to the resolution professional, who has limited power to trace assets held through family members or offshore structures. Eg. Benami holdings and trust structures sit outside the disclosure a resolution professional can compel.
      The Fix: Give the resolution professional statutory access to income tax, benami property and foreign asset reporting records for the guarantor and immediate family.
    4. The process is slow relative to the value at stake: A guarantor’s estate does not appreciate during the proceedings, and delay erodes the small recovery that exists. Eg. Corporate insolvency resolution has routinely overrun the 330 day outer limit the Code prescribes.
      The Fix: Set a hard outer timeline for personal guarantor cases with automatic escalation to the appellate tribunal on breach.
    5. Discharge closes the file without closing the debt: A discharge order releases the guarantor while the borrowing companies remain in default, so lenders keep the exposure and lose the security. Eg. Group structures allow the operating company, the borrower and the guarantor to fail in three separate forums on different timelines.
      The Fix: Require the corporate and personal proceedings arising from the same borrowing to be heard by a single Bench, so the two outcomes are decided against one record.

    Conclusion

    The regime was built to do two things at once. It gives an honest guarantor a fresh start, and it gives a lender a second claim on a defaulted loan. It cannot do both when the claim admitted is the whole debt and the estate is one person’s property. The marker to watch is whether the appellate tribunal treats disqualification of connected voters as a live standard, since that is the only part of this process a dissenting creditor can still reach.

    Back2Basics: Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India

    1. Establishment: Set up in 2016 as the regulator created by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.
    2. Regulated entities: It regulates insolvency professionals, insolvency professional agencies and information utilities.
    3. Powers: It carries legislative, executive and quasi-judicial functions, framing regulations under the Code and enforcing them.
    4. Data role: It publishes case level outcomes of the insolvency process through periodic newsletters.

    [2017] Which of the following statements best describes the- term ‘Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A)’, recently seen in the news?

    (a) It is a procedure for considering ecological costs of developmental schemes formulated by the Government.

    (b) It is a scheme of RBI for reworking the financial structure of big corporate entities facing genuine difficulties.

    (c) It is a disinvestment plan of the Government regarding Central Public Sector Undertakings.

    (d) It is an important provision in ‘The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code’ recently implemented by the Government.

  • Reasons why GDP growth overshot expectations, and what lies ahead

    Why in the News

    India’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 7.8 per cent in April to June, above the 7 per cent estimated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

    Which sectors produced the 7.8 per cent print?

    1. Manufacturing accelerated to 9.2 per cent: The sector grew from 8.3 per cent a year earlier.
    2. Services grew at 10 per cent: The sector expanded from 8 per cent in the same quarter last year.
    3. Agriculture slowed to 3.6 per cent: Growth fell from 4.4 per cent a year earlier.
    4. The farm number still beat its own forecast: The Chief Economic Adviser assessed that agriculture fared better than expected in June, when the monsoon shortfall was high.

    What is holding up demand?

    1. Household spending grew 7.1 per cent: Private Final Consumption Expenditure rose from a growth rate of 6.8 per cent last year.
    2. Urban and rural proxies both performed: Indicators tracking demand in both segments held up over the last three months.
    3. Three rural income measures supported the number: Income transfers under PM Kisan, higher minimum support prices and steps to keep fertiliser affordable aided rural demand.

    Why does the investment number matter more than the headline?

    1. Gross Fixed Capital Formation jumped 11.9 per cent in real terms: This measure of additions to the economy’s fixed assets grew at double last year’s 5.8 per cent.
    2. The nominal increase was 20.4 per cent: Without adjusting for inflation, investment rose by that much.
    3. Investment’s share of GDP reached 34.3 per cent: The share climbed from 31.4 per cent a year earlier.
    4. That share is the threshold for sustaining high growth: The Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister has held that investment must rise to 34 to 35 per cent of GDP to sustain growth above 7 per cent.

    What could reverse the outcome?

    1. Crude oil prices carry a supply risk: Disruption to crude supply from the war between the United States and Iran will likely prevent prices falling materially and sustainably below 80 dollars a barrel.
    2. Export demand is the second order effect: Indian households have been partially shielded from higher energy prices, and other countries facing a demand hit would dim the prospects for India’s exports.
    3. El Nino is expected to peak in late 2026: Its implications for rainfall, crop outcomes and food inflation warrant close monitoring, per the Ministry of Finance’s monthly economic review.
    4. All three sectors contributed this quarter: The message from the data is resilience, since agriculture, manufacturing and services each added to growth despite the West Asia war.

    Challenges to sustaining the growth rate

    1. Crude import dependence transmits every price shock: India imports the large majority of the crude oil it consumes, so a price rise lands on the trade balance and on fuel inflation at the same time. Eg. The price surge after the Ukraine war in 2022 pushed Indian retail inflation above the 6 per cent upper tolerance band for three consecutive quarters.
      The Fix: Expand strategic petroleum reserve capacity and spread long term supply contracts across more than one producing region.
    2. The investment cycle is still publicly led: Central government capital spending has carried the recovery, and private corporate capital expenditure has followed later and unevenly. Eg. Central capital expenditure was raised sharply in successive post-pandemic budgets while private project announcements lagged.
      The Fix: Clear land acquisition, contract enforcement and approval delays that raise the fixed cost of starting a private project.
    3. Farm output remains rain dependent: Under half of India’s net sown area is irrigated, so a rainfall shortfall passes directly into crop output and food prices. Eg. The 2015 El Nino year cut kharif sowing and pushed pulse prices to record levels.
      The Fix: Expand micro irrigation coverage and hold larger buffer stocks in the pulses and oilseeds where price spikes originate.
    4. Services exports face demand and technology risk together: Growth in services exports depends on client spending abroad and on how much of the work automation absorbs. Eg. Global capability centres employ a large share of India’s services export workforce, and their scope of work is the part most exposed to automation.
      The Fix: Shift the export base towards higher value engineering and design work rather than volume based delivery.

    Conclusion

    Growth beat the projection because investment and services carried the quarter and agriculture did not. That composition has to repeat for the rest of the year, and two of its supports sit outside the domestic economy. The marker to watch is the next monetary policy review, where the central bank must either revise its full year projection upward or hold it against the energy and monsoon risks the government’s own economists have flagged.

    Back2Basics: Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister

    1. Status: An independent advisory body that is neither constitutional nor statutory, reconstituted in its current form in 2017.
    2. Mandate: Advises the Prime Minister on economic and related issues, particularly from a neutral and non-departmental viewpoint.
    3. Composition: Headed by a Chairman, with full time and part time members drawn from academia and policy practice.
    4. Support: It is serviced administratively by NITI Aayog.

    [2020, GS3, 10 marks] Define potential GDP and explain its determinants. What are the factors that have been inhibiting India from realizing its potential GDP?”

  • Next employment challenge is better jobs

    Next employment challenge is better jobs

    Why in the News

    India’s employment has grown from 47.15 crore in 2014-15 to 64.33 crore in 2023-24, according to RBI’s KLEMS database, shifting the debate from job quantity to job quality and employability.

    Core issue: Aggregate employment data does not reveal formalisation, real wages, social security, or career stability. NITI Aayog’s skilling blueprint therefore emphasises industry-linked, demand-driven and outcome-oriented skilling for future employment.

    What has the employment base actually delivered?

    1. The foundations were widened through five channels: Infrastructure development, formalisation, financial inclusion, skilling and encouragement to entrepreneurship together expanded the base of paid work.
    2. The addition is 17.18 crore workers over nine years: The provisional KLEMS series records that increase through 2023-24, averaging about 1.9 crore workers a year.
    3. The 2 crore aspiration needs a definition: It cannot mean 2 crore salaried government posts created every year.
    4. An aggregate count cannot settle the debate: A number of workers added says nothing about whether the work is formal, better paid or capable of progression.

    Why do the labour data series not answer the same question?

    1. The monthly bulletin measures a seven day window: The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), the official household survey of employment, publishes a monthly bulletin whose Current Weekly Status classifies activity over the preceding seven days.
    2. The annual survey measures the year: Usual status captures the durable yearly pattern of a person’s activity.
    3. The two series answer different questions: Monthly and weekly status figures track short term movement, and annual usual status figures assess structural progress.
    4. Mixing them distorts the reading: The two are not interchangeable, so a monthly movement cannot stand as evidence of structural gain.
    5. A national employment dashboard is the proposed instrument: It would report formalisation, real wage growth, social security, hours worked, sectoral productivity and movement from low income work into stable careers.

    What does the 9 crore figure actually describe?

    1. 9 crore young Indians sit outside all three activities: They were neither in education, employment nor training, excluding those actively seeking jobs.
    2. Most of that group is in domestic duties: About 88 per cent were engaged in unpaid household work.
    3. The group is not the same as the unemployed: Describing all 9 crore as unemployed is inaccurate, since a person in domestic duties is not seeking paid work.
    4. Five constraints keep young women out of paid work: Unpaid care, safety, mobility, social norms and limited local opportunities restrict the choices available to them.

    Is educated unemployment the same as graduate unemployment?

    1. Educated unemployment among first time entrants is real: Graduates leaving education face a genuine gap between qualification and placement.
    2. The two claims are not equivalent: Graduates forming a large share of unemployed youth does not mean most graduates are unemployed.
    3. Training volume is already large: More than 1.64 crore candidates have been trained or oriented under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana.
    4. Apprenticeship has scaled since 2016: Over 56.08 lakh apprentices have been engaged in that period.

    What does the start-up record show about job creation beyond the state?

    1. Start-ups report more than 23 lakh direct jobs: Recognised start-ups had reported that figure by April 2026.
    2. The unicorn count moved from four to over 120: India had four firms valued above one billion dollars in 2014 and now has over 120, with a combined valuation exceeding 350 billion dollars.
    3. Half the ventures come from outside the metros: Around half of recognised start-ups emerge from Tier II and Tier III cities.
    4. Nearly half carry a woman in a leadership role: Over 45 per cent of recognised start-ups had at least one woman director or partner by December 2025.

    Where does public employment fit in the next decade?

    1. Public hiring must be transparent and timely: Sanctioned vacancies should be filled through transparent processes, with examination integrity and timely results treated as non-negotiable.
    2. The state cannot be the sole employer: A country adding millions of workers each year cannot place them all in government posts.
    3. Enterprise scale-up is the next step: Helping viable micro-enterprises grow, formalise and hire is the route to the volume public hiring cannot supply.

    Why are women the decisive measure of the next transformation?

    1. Participation rose by 18 percentage points in six years: Female labour force participation in usual status rose from 23.3 per cent in 2017-18 to 41.7 per cent in 2023-24.
    2. Women already hold the financial access base: Women hold 56 per cent of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana accounts and receive about two-thirds of Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) loans.
    3. Self-help group membership crosses 10 crore: More than 10 crore women are members of self-help groups.
    4. Basic services cut unpaid work time: Tap water, clean cooking fuel and sanitation reduce drudgery, and housing ownership strengthens household assets.
    5. The next set of supports is different in kind: Affordable childcare, safe transport, working women’s hostels, flexible formal work, digital access and quality jobs closer to home are what convert participation into stable employment.

    Challenges to raising job quality in India

    1. Informality caps wage and social security gains: Over 90 per cent of India’s workforce is informal, so an added job does not automatically carry provident fund cover, a written contract or paid leave. Eg. Food delivery and ride hailing platform workers are engaged as partners rather than employees, which keeps them outside provident fund and gratuity cover.
      The Fix: Make registration of workers on the e-Shram database a condition of enterprise credit and subsidy eligibility, so formal status follows the finance.
    2. Services led growth absorbs few workers: Services drive output growth but employ under 30 per cent of the workforce, so the fastest growing sector is the weakest job creator. Eg. India’s information technology and business services exports are among the largest in the world, and the sector employs a small fraction of the non-farm workforce.
      The Fix: Tie manufacturing incentives to verified employment created rather than to output or investment alone.
    3. Skill supply is not matched to demand: About half of Indian graduates are assessed as employable, so training volume does not convert into placement. Eg. The India Skills Report has repeatedly placed graduate employability near the 50 per cent mark.
      The Fix: Make industry co-certification and verified placement outcomes the release condition for skilling programme funds.
    4. Weak manufacturing limits absorption of semi-skilled labour: Manufacturing contributes about 16 to 18 per cent of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) against roughly 26 per cent in China. Eg. Textiles, leather and food processing remain fragmented across units too small to enter export supply chains.
      The Fix: Direct production incentives towards labour intensive sectors rather than towards capital intensive electronics assembly alone.
    5. Rural distress is measured too late to act on: High frequency labour surveys have historically been confined to urban areas, so rural conditions are captured only once a year. Eg. The quarterly PLFS bulletin covered urban areas alone for years after its launch.
      The Fix: Extend quarterly survey coverage to rural areas and integrate provident fund and National Career Service records into a single release.

    Conclusion

    The employment question India argues about is no longer the employment question it measures. Scale has been settled by the last decade. Quality has not, and no official series reports it as one trackable outcome. The unresolved tension is that a government judged on a headline count has little incentive to build the measure that would show whether the count is worth having.

    Unemployment in India

    1. Definition: The International Labour Organization (ILO) treats a person as unemployed when they are of working age, meaning 15 years and above, without work, currently available for work and actively seeking it in a reference period.
    2. Nodal measurement body: The National Sample Survey Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is the principal body estimating unemployment in India.
    3. Recognised types: Frictional, structural, cyclical, seasonal and disguised unemployment are the standard categories, with disguised unemployment concentrated in agriculture where marginal productivity is near zero.
    4. Administrative sources supplement surveys: Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, Employees’ State Insurance Corporation and National Pension System payrolls are used to estimate formal job creation.

    Government Initiatives for Employment Generation

    1. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005: Guarantees 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer for unskilled manual work.
    2. e-Shram portal: A national database that issues unorganised workers a Universal Account Number and gives them single point access to welfare schemes.
    3. PM SVANidhi: Provides collateral free working capital loans to street vendors to restart and expand their businesses.
    4. PM Vishwakarma: Offers collateral free credit, skilling and toolkits across 18 traditional artisan and craft trades.
    5. Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana: An employment linked incentive approved in July 2025 with a Rs 99,446 crore outlay, targeting 3.5 crore jobs over two years.
    6. PM Internship Scheme: Launched in 2024 to place 1 crore young people in internships with large companies over five years.
    7. National Career Service portal: Matches job seekers with employers, adding 17.23 lakh employers and 1.38 crore new job seekers in 2024.

    [2023, GS3, 15 marks] Most of the unemployment in India is structural in nature. Examine the methodology adopted to compute unemployment in the country and suggest improvements.

  • ‘To find the rare & unusual’: NASA launches new space telescope

    ‘To find the rare & unusual’: NASA launches new space telescope

    Why in the News

    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center. The telescope cost 4.3 billion dollars and is named after NASA’s first chief astronomer. It is bound for an observation point 1.6 million kilometres from Earth, the same location that already hosts the James Webb Space Telescope, and takes more than three months to reach it. A wide survey instrument is therefore being added to a fleet built around narrow and deep observation.

    What does the Roman Space Telescope add to the existing fleet?

    1. The field of view: Roman’s field of view is more than 100 times wider than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, which has been in orbit for 36 years.
    2. The survey speed: A month of Milky Way observations by Roman would take Hubble a century to complete.
    3. The division of work with Webb: Webb observes a narrower field and can reach objects almost as old as the Big Bang. Roman spots new worlds first, and Webb then targets them to fill in the detail.
    4. The wider observing network: Roman joins Hubble and Webb alongside the European Space Agency’s Euclid spacecraft and the National Science Foundation’s Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile.

    What is the mission set up to observe?

    1. The expected catalogue: The telescope is expected to record thousands of supernovae, tens of thousands of planets, billions of galaxies and tens of billions of stars.
    2. The unseen components: It is expected to shed light on the dark matter and dark energy that make up most of the universe and remain concealed.
    3. The rate of expansion: Its catalogue of galaxies will let scientists establish how quickly the universe is expanding under those forces.
    4. The centre of the galaxy: It will scan the galactic bulge at the dead centre of the Milky Way, giving the deepest view yet of the heart of the galaxy.

    Conclusion

    The telescope is in transit and its survey work begins only on reaching its observation point. The next marker is the first release from its galaxy catalogue, since the expansion rate measurement rests on that catalogue rather than any single observation.

    Back2Basics: Dark Matter and Dark Energy

    1. Dark matter: Matter that emits no light and is detected only through its gravitational effect. It is inferred from the rotation speeds of galaxies and from the bending of light by galaxy clusters.
    2. Dark energy: The name for whatever drives the accelerating expansion of the universe. It was inferred in 1998 from observations of distant Type Ia supernovae.
    3. Their share of the universe: Ordinary matter accounts for about 5 per cent of the universe’s content, dark matter for about 27 per cent and dark energy for about 68 per cent.
    4. Why supernovae carry the measurement: A Type Ia supernova has a known intrinsic brightness, so its observed brightness gives its distance. That property makes it the standard yardstick for measuring expansion.

    “[2022, GS3, 15 marks] Launched on 25th December, 2021, James Webb Space Telescope has been much in the news since then. What are its unique features which make it superior to its predecessor Space Telescopes? What are the key goals of this mission? What potential benefits does it hold for the human race?”

    [2016] With reference to ‘Astrosat’,’ the astronomical observatory launched by India, which of the following statements is/are correct?
    1. Other than USA and Russia, India is the only country to have launched a similar observatory into space.
    2. Astrosat is a 2000 kg satellite placed in an orbit at 1650 km above the surface of the Earth.
    Select the correct answer using the code given below.

    [A] 1 only

    [B] 2 only

    [C] Both 1 and 2

    [D] Neither 1 nor 2

  • The mountains have sounded a warning, we ignore it at our peril

    The mountains have sounded a warning, we ignore it at our peril

    Why in the News

    Flash floods have swept down from the mountains on the Nepal Tibet border into Nepal’s Rasuwa district. A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) sent a massive avalanche of water and mud down the Lhende River about 20 km east of the Rasuwagadhi border crossing, sweeping away villages, settlements and a large number of people downstream. The avalanche may have been triggered by a 4.4 magnitude earthquake recorded in the area minutes earlier. At least six hydropower projects downstream were destroyed, costing Nepal 405 MW of capacity, which is 12 per cent of its national total. The tension is that the Himalaya has produced this exact sequence repeatedly, and hydropower schemes and hill tourism have expanded on the same valleys after each event. A second front has opened across the border, where China is building the Medog dam at the great bend of the Brahmaputra and hydrological information sharing with India has never been regular.

    What is a glacial lake outburst flood?

    1. How the lake forms: A mountain river upstream is blocked by a portion of a glacier breaking away or by an avalanche. The blockage impounds a lake behind it.
    2. How the lake bursts: The loose banks of that lake give way under water pressure, and a huge volume of water and debris then hurtles downstream through narrow valleys.

    What did the flood take out beyond the power projects?

    1. The path of the surge: The floods spread south from Rasuwa into the Dhading, Gorkha and Nuwakot districts of Nepal, and the impact carries across the border into India. Chinese media reported similar loss of life and property on the Tibetan side, in Gyirong county.
    2. Indian pilgrims caught in it: Over 160 Indian pilgrims are reported missing. The hotels and guest houses they were staying in were washed away in the flood.
    3. A trade and pilgrimage artery closed: Rasuwagadhi is the most important border crossing between Nepal and Tibet for trade and for tourism, including pilgrim tours to Kailash Mansarovar. Cross border trade and traffic are likely to remain suspended for the foreseeable future.
    4. The recovery horizon: Rebuilding the lost generating capacity may take several years, and it is a loss Nepal can ill afford.
    5. India’s immediate response: India sent urgent medical and food supplies to Nepal. It also despatched specialised rescue teams.

    How large is the hazard the Himalaya now carries?

    1. Glacier area: There are 48,000 sq km of glaciers spread over the Himalaya, and another 18,000 sq km sit in the Karakoram.
    2. Mapped lakes: Researchers have mapped over 5,000 glacial lakes in the Himalaya. About 500 of them are classified as hazardous or significantly hazardous.
    3. Recorded events: There have been at least 388 recorded GLOF instances in the Himalaya Karakoram mountains, and their frequency has been increasing in recent years.
    4. What these glaciers support: Himalayan glaciers are the source of the rivers that sustain the entire Indo-Gangetic plain, which is populated by over 500 million people.

    Why has the record of past disasters not changed construction in the valleys?

    1. Dharali, August 2025: A GLOF event at Dharali in Uttarakhand, on the route to Gangotri, caused large scale loss of life and property.
    2. Kedarnath, 2013: The Kedarnath flash flood was caused by a combination of torrential rains and a GLOF at Chorabari lake to the north. The surge of flood waters and debris washed away towns and settlements along the highway to Gangotri.
    3. The rules that followed it: There was talk of assessing and strictly observing the human carrying capacity of these remote pilgrimage places. No construction within 500 metres of the river banks was to be permitted thereafter.
    4. What actually happened: Hotels and guest houses have mushroomed once again on the river banks. No lessons have been learnt from the earlier event.
    5. The load on the shrine towns: During the pilgrimage season Kedarnath may see a daily turnover of 15,000 to 20,000 pilgrims.
    6. Construction at extreme altitude: Prefabricated guest houses, restaurants and dhabas operate even at 18,000 feet, with gas cylinders transported back and forth for heating and cooking. There are no proper arrangements for waste management.
    7. The direction policy is moving in: The Uttarakhand government is reportedly considering opening Badrinath and Kedarnath for pilgrimage the whole year round.

    What has hydropower already lost to these events?

    1. Teesta-III, October 2023: A GLOF from South Lhonak lake in Sikkim completely washed away the 1200 MW Teesta-III hydropower dam and power station.
    2. Rishiganga, 2021: A sudden flash flood triggered by a glacial collapse in Chamoli in Uttarakhand wiped out the Rishiganga hydropower project. It also blocked the associated Chamoli tunnel.
    3. The seismic overlay: Hydropower development continues apace in the Himalaya, which is a known active seismic zone, so the outburst risk and the earthquake risk compound each other.
    4. The response to the evidence: Major hydropower projects continue to be pursued across the mountain zone, creating mounting risks to life and property, and those risks are being cynically ignored.

    Why is the Medog dam a transboundary risk for India?

    1. Scale of the project: China has begun constructing the gigantic Medog dam at the great bend of the Brahmaputra river just across the border. It is slated to deliver 300 billion kWh of power annually.
    2. How large that is: The largest hydro project in existence anywhere in the world, the Gezhouba on the Yangzi River, is rated at 15.6 billion kWh of power annually.
    3. The fault line under it: Chinese scientists have warned that the project sits very close to the Paizhen Fault, a major fracture in the Earth’s crust, which makes it vulnerable to seismic events. A major earthquake in the project vicinity could send a massive discharge of flood waters and debris into India’s Northeast.
    4. The information gap: The sharing of information and early warning between India and China has never been regular. It has been subject to the state of their political relations.
    5. The wider river geography: Several rivers rise on the Tibetan plateau and flow through Nepal and India. Flash floods on some of these cross border rivers have already caused large scale damage on the Indian side.

    Challenges to GLOF risk management in the Himalaya

    1. Warning systems are built for the wrong signal: A system designed to track the gradual movement of glacial water cannot register a sudden wall of debris. Eg. The Bhote Koshi warning system did not detect the surge that hit Rasuwa. Fix. Pair water level gauges with seismic and acoustic sensors that read mass movement rather than a change in river stage.
    2. A hazard rating triggers no building restriction: Classifying a lake as hazardous carries no automatic consequence for what may be built below it. Eg. A 2021 study by scientists from IIT Roorkee, IISc Bengaluru and the universities of Dayton, Graz, Zurich and Geneva flagged instability around South Lhonak lake, and the lake burst two years later killing at least 50 people. Fix. Attach a mandatory downstream no build corridor to every lake a national risk index rates as high.
    3. Clearance is granted one project at a time: A chain of dams on the same river is appraised as separate schemes, so the cumulative surge risk down the valley is never assessed. Eg. The Alaknanda and Bhagirathi basins in Uttarakhand carry dozens of projects on hydrologically connected rivers. Fix. Require a basin level cumulative impact assessment before any new project is cleared in an outburst exposed valley.
    4. Monitoring authority is split across agencies: Glacier survey, weather forecasting and dam safety sit with different bodies, so no single office can order action on a lake that is filling. Eg. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has itself proposed an integrated glacier monitoring authority coordinating the Geological Survey of India, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Indian Space Research Organisation. Fix. Create that authority and give it the power to direct downstream evacuation.
    5. Nothing tests a dam that is already built: Outburst assessments became mandatory for new dams only after the Sikkim event, and existing designs are under review rather than under obligation. Eg. The requirement followed the loss of a 1200 MW station rather than preceding it. Fix. Set a dated deadline for retrofitting or de-rating existing Himalayan dams that fail a surge simulation.

    Conclusion

    The hazard sits in one country and the damage arrives in another. No amount of engineering on the Indian side changes that. What India can change is its access to upstream data, which at present moves when relations are warm and stops when they are not. The marker to watch is whether the Medog construction timetable comes with a year round data sharing commitment, because that data is the only warning the Northeast would get.

    Disaster Risk Reduction in India

    1. What it covers: Disaster risk reduction cuts exposure and vulnerability through prevention, mitigation and preparedness, rather than through relief paid after an event.
    2. Who runs it: The Ministry of Home Affairs coordinates disaster management through its Disaster Management Division. Response is primarily a State government responsibility.
    3. The four fund pillars: The National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) finance relief. The National and State Disaster Mitigation Funds (NDMF and SDMF) finance risk reduction projects alone.
    4. Scale of the commitment: The Fifteenth Finance Commission allocated Rs 2.28 lakh crore for 2021 to 2026 across preparedness, mitigation, response and reconstruction.

    Laws and Rules Governing Disaster Risk Reduction

    1. Disaster Management Act, 2005: Establishes structures and processes at the national, State, district and local levels.
    2. Authorities created: The NDMA chaired by the Prime Minister, State Disaster Management Authorities chaired by the Chief Minister, and District Disaster Management Authorities headed by the District Collector.
    3. Disaster Management (Amendment) Act, 2025: Modernises the 2005 framework for urban risk, climate extremes and data driven response.
    4. Urban Disaster Management Authorities: States may set up city specific authorities in State capitals and municipal corporation cities.
    5. Statutory databases: National and State disaster databases covering risk assessments, mitigation plans and real time data are now mandated.
    6. Plan ownership shifts: The NDMA and State authorities now prepare the disaster plans, earlier a task of the National and State Executive Committees.

    Government Initiatives for Disaster Risk Reduction

    1. National GLOF Risk Mitigation Project: A Rs 150 crore project covering Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Uttarakhand.
    2. Central Water Commission lake monitoring: The Commission monitors 902 glacial lakes and has a Risk Indexing Framework to prioritise high risk ones.
    3. Common Alerting Protocol based Integrated Alert System: A Rs 354.83 crore project delivering geo-targeted warnings through SMS, television, radio, sirens and satellites.
    4. Mission Mausam (2024 to 2026): Strengthens weather forecasting and multi-hazard early warning, including for outburst related risks.

    Key Facts about Disaster Risk Reduction

    1. Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015 to 2030): The global blueprint adopted at Sendai in Japan, carrying four priorities and seven global targets.
    2. The United Nations custodian: The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction anchors the agenda and runs the Sendai Framework Monitor.

    Challenges in Disaster Risk Reduction

    1. Mitigation stays funded far below response: The roughly 80:20 tilt in the fund architecture privileges relief spending over prevention. Eg. Under the mitigation fund in 2025-26 the High Level Committee approved Rs 507.37 crore for panchayat led community risk reduction, a fraction of what response draws. Fix. Set a floor share of the disaster corpus spendable only on early warning, retrofitting and nature based solutions.
    2. India’s deadliest hazards are not notified disasters: Heatwaves and lightning sit outside the notified list, so States cannot draw relief for deaths from them. Eg. The Centre has not accepted the Sixteenth Finance Commission recommendation to notify them. Fix. Notify both with an IMD linked declaration trigger and a stated compensation protocol.
    3. The urban authority created in 2025 barely exists: City specific authorities are a State mandate, and only one State has set one up. Eg. Karnataka constituted an urban authority for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike. Fix. Fund the rollout centrally and fix a clear interface with the municipal corporation.
    4. The local tier remains under-empowered: Panchayats and urban local bodies are the first responders yet hold neither trained staff nor untied funds. Eg. The Aapda Mitra volunteer scheme trains community responders but reaches a small share of vulnerable districts. Fix. Route a fixed share of the mitigation fund to the local body with a training and equipment condition.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2024, GS3, 15 marks] What is disaster resilience? How is it determined? Describe various elements of a resilience framework. Also mention the global targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030).”

  • ‘Despite US tariffs, our fish export has increased… now exporting to the UK, Japan, China, Thailand and EU’

    ‘Despite US tariffs, our fish export has increased… now exporting to the UK, Japan, China, Thailand and EU’

    Why in the News

    India’s fish exports reached Rs 73,890 crore in 2025-26, an increase of about Rs 11,000 crore over the previous year. The United States imposed a tariff of more than 58 per cent on Indian goods in 2025, and shipments to that market fell by around 19 to 20 per cent. Growth of more than 20 per cent in the European Union and in countries with which India has signed free trade agreements covered the shortfall. The Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying set out this record alongside the production and infrastructure results claimed for the Blue Revolution, the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana and the Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund. The tension is that the exports absorbing the tariff are marine products, and the production growth being cited is led by inland fisheries, which contribute only about 2 per cent of export earnings.

    How has fish production moved since 2013-14?

    1. Output has more than doubled: Total fish production rose from 95.79 lakh tonnes in 2013-14 to 197.75 lakh tonnes in 2024-25, a growth of 115 per cent.
    2. Inland fisheries led it: Inland production grew by 147 per cent over the same period.
    3. What paid for it: More than Rs 39,000 crore was invested through the Blue Revolution launched in 2015, the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana and the Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund.
    4. The livelihood base: Three crore people work directly as fishers or fish farmers, and about six crore livelihoods depend on the wider value chain.
    5. An administrative separation: The fisheries department was carved out of the agriculture ministry in 2019 and given a ministry of its own.

    What does Bihar’s shift show about inland fisheries?

    1. A dependence reversed: Around 90 to 95 per cent of the fish sold in Bihar earlier came from Andhra Pradesh, and that share is now about 5 per cent.
    2. The production jump: Bihar’s output has grown eleven times since 2005 to approximately 10.89 lakh tonnes.
    3. From buyer to seller: Bihar now sends freshwater fish to Nepal, West Bengal and Jharkhand.

    How were export markets rebuilt after the tariff?

    1. The base being defended: Fish exports had risen from Rs 30,213 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 62,408 crore in 2024-25 before the tariff was imposed.
    2. Exporters were redirected: The ministry pushed exporters toward new destinations in coordination with the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), the statutory body under the commerce ministry that promotes marine product exports.
    3. The outreach: Round table conferences were held with ambassadors and high commissioners of 49 countries.
    4. Where the fish now goes: The new markets are the United Kingdom, Japan, China, Thailand and several European Union countries.
    5. What is actually shipped: Inland and freshwater fish make up only about 2 per cent of exports, so the earnings growth is in marine products.

    What did India change to meet importing countries’ requirements?

    1. Antibiotics were banned: European countries and the United Kingdom refuse fish produced using harmful antibiotics, and India prohibited their use in response.
    2. Origin travels with the fish: A traceability framework requires the origin of the fish to be established through a QR code.
    3. A domestic quality problem runs alongside: Farmed mangur is being confiscated in Bihar over its effect on native species and on local livelihoods, and injections used to accelerate its growth carry a health risk.

    Why is deep sea fishing being opened around Lakshadweep and the Andamans?

    1. The loss being addressed: Almost one lakh tonnes of tuna were believed to die naturally in those waters for want of fishing infrastructure.
    2. The gap in effort: Indian vessels were not fishing in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the belt extending 200 nautical miles from the baseline within which a coastal state holds rights over living and non living resources, or on the high seas beyond it.
    3. What has been put in place: Fishing infrastructure for the islands was announced in the 2024 Budget, guidelines for the Exclusive Economic Zone and the high seas were formulated, and investor meetings were held in both island groups.
    4. The security condition: Only vessels carrying the national flag will be permitted to fish on the high seas, on the ground that the sea is a national security concern.
    5. The target species: Tuna is the intended catch, among the most expensive fish in the world and in high global demand.

    How are fishing communities being protected against climate risk?

    1. Transponders on vessels: Fishing vessels are being fitted with transponders connected to satellites.
    2. Contact and early warning: A fisher at sea for 15 to 20 days can stay in touch with family through an Android phone linked to the transponder, and alerts warn of approaching storms and direct vessels away from danger.
    3. A fuel saving by product: The same system indicates where fish are likely to be found, which cuts searching time and fuel use.
    4. The stated limit of the mandate: Rising sea temperatures and changing rainfall are treated as sitting with the environment ministry rather than with the fisheries ministry.

    Why does India’s livestock scale not convert into exports?

    1. The scale: India ranks first in the world in milk production and second in egg production.
    2. The barrier: Foot and mouth disease and brucellosis in the animal population restrict how much India can export.
    3. The response: Vaccination campaigns aimed at eradicating foot and mouth disease have brought outbreaks down from 132 in 2019 to 40.
    4. A domestic standards question: Four States have banned analogue paneer, an artificial product that is not made from milk and that carries a health risk.

    How is the stray cattle problem being addressed at source?

    1. It is a State subject: Management of stray animals sits with State governments rather than with the Centre.
    2. Sex sorted semen changes the calf ratio: Artificial insemination using sex sorted semen produces around 90 per cent female calves.
    3. Why the abandoned animals are male: Most animals left on roads are male, since tractors have replaced oxen in farm work.
    4. The incentive being created: More female calves mean more milk and more income, giving an owner a reason to rear the animal rather than abandon it.

    What is the Centre’s role in panchayat finance?

    1. The constitutional position: Under the 73rd Constitutional Amendment the panchayat is a distinct tier of government, and the laws governing its functioning are State laws.
    2. On the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996: The Act completes three decades this year and its implementation is delayed in several States. The stated central position is that States hold the power to legislate here, so the Centre does not intervene.
    3. What the Centre transfers: The Centre releases the grants recommended by the Finance Commission to States in a 90:10 ratio determined by population and geographical conditions.
    4. The release condition: States must pass the money on to panchayats within 10 days, failing which the second instalment is withheld.
    5. Performance linked grants: The Sixteenth Finance Commission has recommended that 20 per cent of the grant be performance based, which forces panchayats to develop their own revenue sources.
    6. Capacity building: Training of elected representatives, including women representatives, is run with trainers drawn from institutions such as the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.
    7. Bihar’s reservation record: Bihar reserved 50 per cent of seats for women in Panchayati Raj institutions in 2006 and in local bodies in 2007, and women were 53 per cent of those elected in the last panchayat election.

    Conclusion

    Production was never the constraint here. Exports held up because the ministry found new buyers and met the residue and traceability conditions those buyers impose, which is a compliance achievement rather than a fishing one. The marker to watch is whether the island investor meetings convert into Indian flagged vessels actually working the Exclusive Economic Zone.

    Back2Basics

    1. Administering department: Implemented by the Department of Fisheries under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying.
    2. Launch and outlay: Launched in 2020 with an investment of Rs 20,050 crore, the largest ever committed to the fisheries sector in India.
    3. Objectives: Raise fish production and productivity, modernise the value chain from harvest to market, and double the incomes of fishers and fish farmers.
    4. Targeted beneficiaries: Fishers, fish farmers, fish workers and vendors, fisheries cooperatives and fish farmer producer organisations.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2015, GS3, 12 marks] Livestock rearing has a big potential for providing non-farm employment and income in rural areas. Discuss suggesting suitable measures to promote this sector in India.”