[UPSC 2023] Explain why suicide among young women is increasing in Indian Society.
Linkage: Mental distress is deeply intertwined with societal issues like increasing suicide rates among young women, poverty, marginalization, and the impact of modernization and urbanization.
Introduction:
The National Crime Records Bureau’s Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) 2023 report recorded 1,71,418 suicides, a marginal 0.3% rise from 2022. While the suicide rate per lakh population declined slightly, absolute numbers remain high, underscoring a deep social, economic, and psychological crisis.
National Data and Trends as per ADSI, 2023:
Demographics: Men constituted 72.8% of suicides in 2023.
Leading Causes: Family problems: 31.9%; Illness: 19%; Substance abuse: 7%; Relationship and marriage-related issues: around 10% combined.
Regional Variation: The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Sikkim, and Kerala had the highest suicide rates, while Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and West Bengal together accounted for over 40% of all cases.
Urban vs Rural: Cities reported consistently higher suicide rates than rural areas, reflecting the psychological stress of urbanisation and competition.
Farmer Suicides and Rural Distress:
Farmer deaths: 10,786 suicides (6.3% of total) in 2023, concentrated mainly in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Long-term pattern: Over 1,00,000 farmers have taken their lives since 2014. Between 1995 and 2015, nearly 2,96,000 deaths were linked to debt, market volatility, and institutional neglect.
Underlying causes: Debt, crop failure, inadequate price support, and the absence of reliable social safety nets.
Invisible victims: Homemakers and caregivers, particularly women, face rising rates of depression and domestic stress but remain underrepresented in official data.
Student Suicides in India:
Rising Trend: Students account for 6–8.1% of all suicides (NCRB data). In 2023, there were 13,892 student suicides, a 65% rise over the decade, outpacing the national average increase.
Major Causes: Academic pressure, parental expectations, toxic competition, and poor mental health infrastructure are leading contributors.
Psychological Impact: Surveys show high levels of anxiety, depression, and distress, with notable gender disparities in emotional well-being.
Magnitude of Mental Illness in India:
Estimated burden: Nearly 230 million Indians live with mental disorders ranging from depression and anxiety to bipolar disorder and substance use.
Treatment gap: 70–92% of individuals with severe illness receive no formal care.
Lifetime prevalence: 10.6%, according to national health data.
Global comparison: WHO estimates India’s suicide rate at 16.3 per 1,00,000, significantly higher than the global average.
Value Addition:
India’s Mental Health Governance and Legal Framework:
Mental Healthcare Act, 2017:
Guarantees the right to affordable, quality mental health care.
Decriminalises suicide and mandates insurance coverage for psychiatric illnesses.
Upholds patient dignity and autonomy under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Judicial reinforcement: In Sukdeb Saha vs State of Andhra Pradesh (2025), the Supreme Court reaffirmed mental health as a fundamental right, compelling state accountability.
District Mental Health Programme (DMHP): Covers 767 districts, expanding access to outpatient services, suicide prevention, and counselling.
Tele MANAS Helpline: A 24×7 service offering over 20 lakh tele-counselling sessions, particularly beneficial in underserved regions.
Supreme Court Intervention: Sukdeb Saha vs. State of Andhra Pradesh (2025):
Overview: The Supreme Court invoked Articles 32 and 141 to issue 15 binding “Saha Guidelines” addressing student suicides and mental health governance in educational institutions.
Key Judgment: It upheld mental health as an integral component of the right to life.
Key Guidelines include:
Policy Mandate: All institutions must adopt a mental health policy consistent with UMMEED, MANODARPAN, and the National Suicide Prevention Strategy.
Counseling Requirement: Appointment of one certified mental health counselor in every institution with 100+ students.
Academic Practices: Ban on batch segregation, public shaming, and unrealistic academic targets.
Helpline Visibility: Mandatory display of Tele-MANAS and other helpline numbers in classrooms, hostels, and websites.
Staff Training: Biannual mental health sensitization for teachers and administrators on crisis response.
Inclusivity Measures: Institutions must ensure non-discriminatory support for SC/ST/OBC/EWS, LGBTQ+, and disabled students.
Crisis Management: Establish confidential reporting systems for ragging, discrimination, and assault, with immediate counseling access.
Preventive Steps: Control access to common means of suicide (e.g., rooftops, ceiling fans) and promote interest-based career counseling.
Systemic Gaps and Institutional Failures:
Workforce shortage: Only 0.75 psychiatrists and 0.12 psychologists per 1,00,000 population, below WHO’s minimum of 1.7 psychiatrists and far from the ideal of 3.
Underfunding: Mental health receives only 1.05% of India’s health budget, compared to 8–10% in countries like Australia, Canada, and the UK.
Policy–practice gap:
The Mental Healthcare Act (2017) decriminalised suicide and guaranteed the right to care.
The National Suicide Prevention Strategy (2022) targeted a 10% reduction in suicides.
However, implementation remains weak, and suicides continue to rise.
Non-functional initiatives:
The Manodarpan school-based support scheme remains largely inactive.
₹270 crore allocated for mental health is largely unspent.
Persistent Challenges:
Treatment Gaps: 70–92% of individuals with common disorders like depression and anxiety remain untreated.
Infrastructure Deficits: Inadequate availability of psychotropic medicines and rehabilitation services, which meet less than 15% of actual demand.
Stigma and Awareness: Over 50% of Indians still attribute mental illness to personal weakness or shame, limiting early intervention.
Workforce Urban Bias: Mental health professionals remain concentrated in cities, leaving rural areas, where 70% of India’s population lives, largely unserved.
Steps to Strengthen India’s Mental Health System: Way Forward
Budget Expansion: Raise mental health allocation to at least 5% of total health spending, ensuring resources for workforce, infrastructure, and medicine.
Workforce Development: Train and deploy mid-level mental health providers to fill rural gaps and meet WHO’s minimum density.
Integration: Embed mental health into primary health care and universal insurance coverage.
Monitoring: Create a cascade-based national monitoring system to track outcomes, ensure accountability, and guide funding.
Anti-Stigma Campaigns: Institutionalise mental health education in schools and workplaces, aiming for 60% literacy coverage by 2027.
Cross-Ministerial Coordination: Establish a unified framework linking health, education, social justice, and labour for cohesive policy execution.
Ahead of the 2025 Bihar elections, parties are intensifying women-focused welfare schemes involving cash transfers. Similar strategies in Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and West Bengal mark a national trend of targeting women voters through direct benefits.
Also the gender gap in voter turnout has narrowed significantly, with female participation matching or surpassing male turnout in several states, prompting political recognition of women as a distinct electoral constituency.
Women as a Political Category:
Shift in Political Focus: Women have emerged as a distinct political category, prompting parties to design targeted welfare schemes like Ladli Behna Yojana, Urimai Thogai, and Lakshmir Bhandar aimed exclusively at female voters.
Economic Empowerment through Welfare: Direct cash transfers have provided limited but visible economic agency, allowing women some control over finances within households traditionally dominated by men.
Beneficiary Framing: The portrayal of women primarily as labharthis (beneficiaries) reinforces dependency on state-led welfare rather than promoting them as independent political actors.
Symbolic Inclusion vs. Structural Change: Women’s growing electoral visibility has not necessarily translated into greater representation or leadership, keeping them largely outside decision-making hierarchies.
How have Political Parties harnessed the Gender Gap in Voter Turnout?
Rise in Female Turnout: Over the last two decades, the gender gap in voter participation has steadily narrowed, with female turnout surpassing male turnout in several states, notably in Bihar and Odisha.
Targeted Welfare Mobilisation: Political parties have strategically used welfare schemes and direct benefit transfers to consolidate women as a reliable voter base, focusing on cash assistance, LPG subsidies, and maternal benefits.
Micro-Targeting: Manifestos and election campaigns increasingly feature women-focused promises, indicating recognition of their collective electoral strength.
Narrative of Care Politics: Political rhetoric frames women as symbols of social welfare and household well-being, enabling parties to blend economic populism with gender outreach.
Significance of Women’s Voting Behaviour:
Indicator of Political Maturity: The steady rise in women’s participation marks a structural shift in India’s democratic engagement, highlighting growing awareness of rights and entitlements.
Independent Electoral Agency: Increasing evidence shows that women are voting independently of male family influence, prioritising welfare delivery, safety, education, and dignity.
Policy Feedback Mechanism: Women’s responses to welfare schemes serve as a direct feedback loop influencing governance priorities and re-election strategies.
Catalyst for Inclusive Politics: The evolving behaviour of women voters has encouraged parties to incorporate gender equity into mainstream political discourse, beyond token representation.
Issues of Gendered Voter Turnout:
Documentation Barriers: Women face systemic exclusion from electoral rolls due to inadequate documentation, name changes after marriage, and migration-related bureaucratic lapses.
Procedural Exclusion: Administrative exercises like Special Intensive Revision (SIR) have disproportionately omitted women, reflecting institutional insensitivity to gendered realities.
Intersectional Marginalisation: Women’s political inclusion remains fragmented by caste, class, and religion, preventing the emergence of a cohesive gender-based voting bloc.
Symbolic Empowerment: While parties celebrate women as voters and beneficiaries, practical empowerment remains limited, with persistent underrepresentation in legislatures and party leaderships.
Way Forward:
Institutional Strengthening: Ensure gender-sensitive voter registration and simplify documentation norms to eliminate procedural exclusions.
Beyond Welfare Politics: Transition from cash-based welfare populism to policies promoting education, employment, and political representation.
Data-Driven Governance: Use disaggregated gender data to assess welfare effectiveness and refine electoral outreach grounded in socio-economic realities.
Leadership and Representation: Expand women’s participation in party structures, local governance, and Parliament, ensuring parity in decision-making roles.
Civic and Political Literacy: Invest in sustained grassroots voter education, enabling women to act as autonomous political citizens rather than electoral dependents.
India’s pharmaceutical industry, long known as the “pharmacy of the world,” is again under scrutiny after toxic cough syrups were linked to child deaths in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Laboratory tests revealed dangerously high levels of diethylene glycol (DEG), an industrial chemical used in antifreeze, in syrups. The incident has triggered state bans, factory inspections, and renewed debate over the safety and accountability of India’s drug manufacturing system.
This follows earlier international tragedies in The Gambia, Uzbekistan, and Iraq, all involving India-made syrups.
Pattern of Recurring Cough Syrup Tragedies:
India has repeatedly faced incidents of DEG contamination in pharmaceuticals over the past century, reflecting systemic failure rather than isolated error.
Historical incidents: Major poisoning events were reported in Chennai (1973), Bihar (1986), Gurugram (2020), Jammu (2019), and internationally in The Gambia (2022) and Uzbekistan (2022), leading to hundreds of deaths, most of them children.
Common pattern: In each case, toxic solvents were substituted for pharmaceutical-grade compounds to cut costs, exposing the absence of strict supplier verification and testing.
Regulatory aftermath: Investigations typically result in temporary bans and arrests but rarely in structural reform, allowing recurrence.
Root cause: Weak coordination between central and state regulators, underfunded laboratories, and an enforcement system that reacts after fatalities rather than preventing them.
Toxic Component: Diethylene Glycol (DEG)
Nature: A clear, sweet-tasting industrial solvent used in brake fluids, antifreeze, and plastics manufacturing.
Why it appears in medicines: It is sometimes misused as a low-cost substitute for propylene glycol or glycerine in pharmaceutical syrups.
Toxicity: Even small doses can cause severe abdominal pain, vomiting, metabolic acidosis, kidney failure, and death.
Permissible limit: Only 0.1% is allowed in drugs; recent tests found over 46%, indicating gross manufacturing negligence.
Historical precedent: Global awareness of DEG poisoning dates back to the 1937 U.S. “Elixir Sulfanilamide” disaster, which killed over 100 people and led to the creation of the U.S. FDA’s modern drug laws.
How are Medicines regulated in India?
Legal framework: Governed primarily by the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945.
Authority structure:
The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) under the Ministry of Health regulates imports, new drugs, and quality standards.
State Drug Control Authorities license manufacturing units and monitor local sales.
Implementation challenge:
Fragmented responsibilities lead to uneven enforcement and duplication of work.
While CDSCO issues guidelines, states often lack testing infrastructure or manpower to ensure compliance.
Public health being a state subject further complicates central supervision.
Testing requirements: Manufacturers must verify both raw materials and finished formulations, but this is rarely enforced or independently audited.
Regulatory and Structural Gaps:
Weak coordination: No integrated digital system links state and central regulators to track licenses, test results, or violations.
Inspection failures: Many small and medium-sized drug firms operate without periodic inspection or third-party audits.
Resource deficit: State drug labs often face staff shortages, outdated testing equipment, and minimal budgets.
Penalties too lenient: Adulteration and misbranding attract limited imprisonment or fines, offering little deterrence.
Lack of global alignment: India’s domestic quality standards often diverge from those used by WHO or international regulators, creating dual regimes for export and domestic markets.
How such incidences impact India’s global credibility?
International scrutiny: Following deaths in The Gambia and Uzbekistan, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued global alerts on India-manufactured syrups.
Export restrictions: Several importing countries now demand independent quality certificates before allowing entry of Indian pharmaceuticals.
Erosion of trust: India’s image as a low-cost, high-quality medicine supplier is undermined by repeated safety lapses.
Diplomatic and economic cost: Quality scandals threaten a $25 billion export industry that supplies over 50% of global vaccine demand and a major share of generic drugs to Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
Way Forward:
Centralised surveillance: Create a national digital platform integrating manufacturing, testing, and licensing data across states.
Independent quality audits: Mandate third-party verification of raw materials, excipients, and solvents used in formulations.
Stronger penalties: Introduce criminal liability for executives in cases of fatal contamination.
Laboratory strengthening: Upgrade all state drug testing labs with modern equipment and accredited quality management systems.
Export accountability: Require WHO-GMP certification for all export-bound and domestic drug batches alike.
PYQ Relevance:
[UPSC 2024] The case study focuses on a senior scientist, Dr. Srinivasan, working on a new drug, facing pressure to expedite trials and resort to unethical shortcuts, such as manipulating data to exclude negative outcomes and selectively reporting positive results.
The questions posed specifically asked the aspirant to:
• Examine options and consequences in light of the ethical questions involved.
• Discuss how data ethics and drug ethics can save humanity at large in such a scenario.
Linkage: The core issue involves the provision of quality healthcare and social services. The crisis highlights the vulnerability of populations, both domestically and internationally, to unsafe drug manufacturing practices. Questions can focus on the mechanisms, laws, and institutions designed for the protection and betterment of vulnerable sections (like consumers of essential medicines).
SC Judgements | Polity | Mains Paper 2: Indian Constitution - historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure
Why in the News?
The Supreme Court has ruled that age limits prescribed under the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 do not apply retrospectively to couples who had frozen their embryos and initiated the surrogacy process before January 25, 2022, the date when the law came into effect.
Case Background:
Petitions: Filed by three couples who had undergone IVF and frozen embryos before Jan 25, 2022, when the Surrogacy Act came into effect.
Issue: They became ineligible under Section 4(iii)(c)(I) (age limits: women 23–50, men 26–55).
Argument: Since embryos were created pre-2022, the process was already initiated and could not be retrospectively invalidated.
Court’s View: Recognised embryo freezing as a lawful start to surrogacy; held that new age restrictions cannot retroactively disqualify such couples.
Supreme Court’s Observations and Constitutional Findings:
No Retrospective Disqualification: The age restrictions introduced by the 2021 law cannot apply retrospectively to cases where medical procedures had already begun.
Equality in Conception Modes: Justice Nagarathna emphasised that couples conceiving through assisted reproductive technologies (ART) must enjoy the same constitutional protection as those conceiving naturally.
Article 21 & Reproductive Autonomy: The Court reaffirmed that the right to reproductive choice including IVF, ART, or surrogacy, forms part of personal liberty and privacy under Article 21.
Article 14 & Equality Before Law: Retrospective age-based exclusion was termed arbitrary and unreasonable, amounting to a violation of equality.
Parenting Competence Argument Rejected: The Court rejected the notion that older parents are inherently less capable, stating that state authorities cannot retrospectively judge parenting ability once medical procedures have been initiated lawfully.
Non-Retroactivity Principle: Reinforced the rule that unless a statute explicitly states otherwise, it operates prospectively.
Precedent Applied: Relied on Suchita Srivastava v. Chandigarh Administration (2009), where the Court recognised reproductive autonomy and bodily integrity as constitutionally protected rights.
Back2Basics: Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021
Objective: To regulate surrogacy, prevent commercial exploitation, and ensure ethical, altruistic surrogacy based solely on medical necessity.
Legislative Intent: To promote ethical medical practices, protect the rights of surrogate mothers and children, and curb commercialisation while respecting constitutional morality and reproductive dignity.
Applicability: Extends to all surrogacy cases involving Indian citizens and permanent residents, and works alongside the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021.
Key Provisions:
Type Permitted: Only altruistic surrogacy (no payment except medical expenses).
Eligibility for Couples: Married for at least five years; woman 23–50 yrs, man 26–55 yrs; no living biological, adopted, or surrogate child.
Single Women: Only widows or divorcees (35–45 yrs) are eligible; unmarried women excluded (under legal challenge).
Surrogate Requirements: Must be a close relative, married, with at least one biological child; age 25–35 years.
Certification: Requires Certificate of Essentiality, infertility proof, parentage order, and insurance for the surrogate.
Penalties: Commercial surrogacy banned; violation punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment and ₹10 lakh fine.
Regulatory Bodies: Establishment of National and State Surrogacy Boards for implementation and oversight.
Issues Highlighted by the Supreme Court:
Absence of Transitional Provisions: The 2021 Act lacks a “grandfather clause” protecting couples already in process before its commencement.
Inconsistent Standards: The Court questioned why adoption laws have no upper age limit, while surrogacy does, creating unequal treatment among parents.
Gender Discrimination: Restricting surrogacy access to only married couples and excluding unmarried women was flagged as a potential Article 14 violation.
Fundamental Rights Impact: Retrospective restrictions infringe upon the right to equality and reproductive freedom under Articles 14 and 21.
State Overreach: The Court cautioned that the state’s intent to protect child welfare cannot override individual liberty or invalidate rights exercised under prior legal norms.
Significance of the Judgment:
Reinforcement of Reproductive Rights: Confirms that assisted reproduction and surrogacy fall within the ambit of reproductive autonomy and personal liberty.
Protection Against Legal Injustice: Shields couples who initiated lawful medical procedures from retrospective disqualification.
Constitutional Precedent: Establishes that statutory changes cannot nullify pre-existing lawful rights, strengthening India’s jurisprudence on non-retroactivity.
Judicial Balance: Maintains a balance between ethical regulation of surrogacy and protection of individual autonomy.
Wider Applicability: Permits similarly placed couples to seek relief before respective High Courts, widening the ruling’s scope.
Affirmation of Constitutional Morality: The Court underscored that justice, equity, and good conscience must guide interpretation where legislation creates unintended inequities.
[UPSC 2024] Under which of the following Articles of the Constitution of India, has the Supreme Court of India placed the Right to Privacy?
The Indian Army has initiated procurement of ‘Saksham’, an indigenously developed Counter-Unmanned Aerial System (CUAS) Grid, to enhance airspace security and counter emerging aerial threats.
Visual Representation
About Saksham Counter-Unmanned Aerial System (CUAS) Grid:
Overview: Indigenous counter-drone system developed by the Indian Army with BEL, Ghaziabad, to detect, track, identify, and neutralise unmanned aerial threats.
Purpose: Secures the Tactical Battlefield Space (TBS) or Air Littoral—airspace up to 3,000 m (10,000 ft) against low-altitude drones.
Origin: Conceived after Operation Sindoor, which revealed gaps in air defence.
Acronym: SAKSHAM – Situational Awareness for Kinetic Soft & Hard Kill Assets Management; a Command-and-Control (C2) platform integrating sensors, weapons, and AI analytics to create a Recognised UAS Picture (RUASP).
Procurement: Approved under Fast Track Procurement (FTP); aligns with Atmanirbhar Bharat and the Army’s Decade of Transformation (2023–2032).
Key Features:
Detection & Tracking: Continuous surveillance via radar, radio-frequency, and electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors.
AI-Enabled Prediction: Uses AI to forecast hostile activity and suggest counter-responses.
Sensor–Weapon Fusion: Integrates jammers, directed-energy systems, and kinetic interceptors for unified action.
Automated Command Support: Provides real-time decision aids for threat prioritisation.
3-D Airspace Visualisation: Displays dynamic views of friendly and hostile assets.
Network Integration: Runs on the Army Data Network (ADN) and links with Akashteer Air Defence Control for unified airspace management.
Mobility & Modularity: Compact, scalable, and rapidly deployable across terrains.
Indigenous Focus: Fully designed and produced in India, demonstrating advanced self-reliant defence capability.
[UPSC 2025] With reference to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), consider the following statements:
I. All types of UAVs can do vertical landing. II. All types of UAVs can do automated hovering. III. All types of UAVs can use battery only as a source of power supply.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) Only one (b) Only two (c) All the three (d) None*
India unveiled its National Red List Roadmap and Vision 2025–2030 at the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025 in Abu Dhabi.
Global Context:
IUCN Red List: Globally, 1,69,420 species have been assessed; about 28% are classified as threatened.
Biodiversity Decline: The Living Planet Report 2024 documented a 73% decline in vertebrate populations (1970–2020), with freshwater species down by 85%.
Extinction Rate: Current extinction rates are 1,000–10,000 times higher than natural background levels due to human pressures such as habitat loss, overexploitation, and climate change.
Global Need: Strengthening regional red lists like India’s provides granular, science-based data to guide conservation financing and global biodiversity monitoring.
About National Red List Roadmap and Vision (2025–2030):
Purpose: Marks India’s first coordinated national effort to scientifically assess the extinction risk of ~11,000 species of plants and animals by 2030 using IUCN Red List methodology, the global benchmark for species assessment.
Aim: To establish a science-based, nationally coordinated red-listing system that strengthens biodiversity planning, conservation policy, and threat mitigation.
Strategic Alignment: Supports India’s commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF), reaffirming India’s leadership in global biodiversity governance.
Outcome Goal: To publish National Red Data Books on flora and fauna by 2030, serving as authoritative reference guides for ecological protection and management.
Key Features of the Initiative:
Scientific Alignment: Adopts IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria, ensuring uniformity and comparability with international conservation assessments.
Scope and Coverage: Envisions evaluation of 11,000 terrestrial and marine species, encompassing major ecological regions across India.
Core Outputs:
Peer-reviewed species assessments with global visibility.
Publication of National Red Data Books and creation of a digital public database for species data and risk analysis.
Institutional Framework:
Implemented jointly by the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) and Zoological Survey of India (ZSI).
Partner agencies include IUCN India, Centre for Species Survival: India – Wildlife Trust of India (CSS: India–WTI), and the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC).
Funding and Resources: Total outlay of ₹95 crore, comprising ₹80 crore from BSI and ZSI budgets and ₹15 crore mobilised for training and international collaboration.
Capacity Building: Creation of a cadre of 300 trained species assessors and development of national training modules on biodiversity evaluation.
Policy Integration: The data generated will inform India’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, legislative updates, and species recovery prioritisation through 2030.
Need for such a profile:
India’s Biodiversity Profile: Recognised as one of the 17 megadiverse nations, India hosts four biodiversity hotspots, the Himalayas, Western Ghats, Indo-Burma, and Sundaland (Nicobar Islands).
Ecological Richness: Despite covering only 2.4% of global land area, India shelters 8% of global flora and 7.5% of fauna, with 28% of plants and 30% of animals being endemic.
[UPSC 2011] The “Red Data Books’’ published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) contain lists of:
(a) Endemic plant and animal species present in the biodiversity hotspots.
(b) Threatened plant and animal species. *
(c) Protected sites for conservation of nature and natural resources in various countries.
The UN will cut peacekeeping personnel by 25% across nine missions after U.S. funding dropped from $1 billion to $680 million under President Trump’s “America First” policy.
US and Peacekeeping Funding Dynamics:
The US and China together contribute nearly 50% of the UN’s peacekeeping budget.
The U.S. outlined its new commitment of $680 million, marking a 32% decrease from last year’s payment.
A senior UN official confirmed that China has pledged to pay its full contribution by the end of 2025, offsetting some of the financial shortfall.
Implications of Funding Cut:
The withdrawal of peacekeepers will leave several fragile regions exposed to renewed instability, especially in Africa and the Middle East.
The cuts signal a shift toward selective, donor-driven peacekeeping, prioritising geopolitical interests over collective international responsibility.
For the UN, the challenge lies in maintaining operational credibility and protecting civilian populations amid reduced resources.
Aboutthe United Nations Peacekeeping Mission:
Overview: UN Peacekeeping is a collective international mechanism established to maintain peace and security in conflict-affected regions under the leadership of the United Nations.
Personnel: Peacekeepers, known as Blue Berets or Blue Helmets, include military, police, and civilian members from contributing nations.
Origin: The idea arose after World War II with the formation of the UN in 1945, marking a new era in global conflict resolution.
First Mission (1948): The United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO) was deployed after the Arab–Israeli War to monitor ceasefires, setting the template for future operations.
Evolution: Over time, missions expanded to cover civil wars, humanitarian crises, and post-conflict reconstruction across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Core Principles:
Consent of the Parties
Impartiality
Non-use of Force (except in self-defence or mandate defence)
Deployment: Missions require the consent of key conflict parties and are authorised by the UN Security Council.
Functions: Include monitoring ceasefires, disarmament, protection of civilians, humanitarian assistance, promotion of human rights, and support for democratic governance.
Finance: United States (26.95%)> China (18.69%)> Japan (8.03%) > Germany (6.11%) > United Kingdom (5.36%) > France (5.29%).
India’s Contribution:
Major Contributor: India ranks among the largest troop contributors since the inception of UN peacekeeping.
Participation Record: Contributed over 1.95 lakh troops, served in 49 missions, and made 168 supreme sacrifices in service.
[UPSC 2024] Consider the following pairs:
Country Reason for being in the news
1. Argentina: Worst economic crisis
2. Sudan: War between the country’s regular army and
paramilitary forces
3. Turkey: Rescinded its membership of NATO
How many of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
(a) Only one pair (b) Only two pairs* (c) All three pairs (d) None of the pairs
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to Laszlo Krasznahorkai, a Hungarian novelist known for his dense, philosophical narratives and apocalyptic vision of modern existence.
Back2Basics: Nobel Prize in Literature
First awarded in 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been conferred 117 times to 121 laureates.
Prize Details (2025): Each laureate receives 11 million Swedish kronor (~1.2 million USD), an 18-karat gold medal, and a diploma.
Ceremony: Held annually on December 10, marking the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel (1896), Swedish inventor and founder of the prize.
The 2024 laureate was Han Kang of South Korea, recognized for fiction confronting historical trauma and the fragility of life.
About Laszlo Krasznahorkai:
Overview: Hungarian novelist celebrated for his dense, philosophical, and apocalyptic prose that examines the fragility of modern civilization.
Background: Regarded as one of Europe’s leading postmodern writers, noted for long, flowing sentences and hypnotic rhythm.
Themes & Style: His works probe moral collapse, spiritual decay, existential isolation, and the search for meaning amid disorder.
Literary Voice: Combines dark humor with metaphysical reflection; often set in bleak, decaying landscapes where characters struggle between despair and artistic endurance.
Recognition: Known as a “writer’s writer”, his art embodies a belief in the redemptive endurance of literature.
Major Works & Adaptations:
Satantango (1985): Debut novel portraying a collapsing rural community; adapted by Béla Tarr into a seven-hour film, acclaimed for its realism and existential tone.
The Melancholy of Resistance (1989): Allegory of hysteria and conformity in a small town; adapted as Werckmeister Harmonies (2000).
War and War (1999): Follows a Hungarian archivist obsessed with preserving a manuscript symbolising human history; explores madness and transcendence.
Seiobo There Below (2008): Interlinked stories on art and divinity across cultures; won the 2015 Man Booker International Prize.
Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming (2016): Tragicomic portrait of post-communist moral decay; won the 2019 National Book Award (Translated Literature).
